Kinia's blog

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Pour 5 millions en fausses factures

2011-11-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

© Agence QMI

Les entreprises choisies par le maire de Laval Gilles Vaillancourt pour gérer une carrière municipale auraient utilisé pour 5 M$ de fausses factures – dont 1 M$ obtenu auprès d’un trafiquant de drogue maintenant sous les verrous – afin de frauder le fisc, selon des allégations de Revenu Québec. Lire l'enquête d'Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk sur canoe.ca:

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Pour 5 millions en fausses factures

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Dépenses: on mange bien à Terrebonne

2011-10-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Agence QMI
Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk
03/10/2011 04h30

MONTRÉAL - Quatorze gestionnaires de la Ville de Terrebonne ont dîné près de 1900 fois aux frais des contribuables depuis 2008, ce qui a entraîné une facture de près de 123 000 $ pour les contribuables de cette municipalité de la couronne nord.

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Dépenses: on mange bien à Terrebonne

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Fausses factures : un pari parfois risqué

2011-09-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Même si le système de justice québécois n'est souvent pas assez sévère, la décision de recourir à la fraude au moyen de fausses factures peut s'avérer lourde de conséquences personnelles pour certains entrepreneurs... Lire l'histoire sur canoe.

Aussi: Comment contrer ce type de fraude?

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Crime organisé et fausses factures: des millions perdus

2011-09-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

Canoe – Infos – Enquêtes: Crime organisé et fausses factures: des millions perdus

Une enquête de Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk, Agence QMI.

La Sûreté du Québec a dépensé 3,6 M$ pour enquêter sus des sociétés-écrans contrôlées par le crime organisé, qui auraient produit des fuasses factures pour le compte d'entreprises de construction totalisant 60 M$. Continuer à lire sur canoe

Some airport screeners have sticky fingers, documents show

2011-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

MONTREAL - The way Denis Bouffard remembers it, all he did was slip his hand into passengers' plastic bins at the airport security checkpoint where he worked and swipe a little spare change.

A uniformed airport security screening officer, Bouffard's job was to protect Canadian airline passengers from terrorists trying to sneak onto jets after the 9/11 attacks. Instead, Bouffard was robbing travellers.
A loonie here. A toonie there. Just enough, he later claimed, to buy a coffee during his breaks at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport.

But his uniformed colleagues told a different story, one Canadian authorities have never told the unsuspecting travelling public about.

Read Andrew McIntosh's and Kinia Adamczyk's full investigation at the Toronto Sun

Denis Bouffard a été embauché comme agent de sécurité à l'aéroport Montréal-Trudeau pour prévenir d'autres attentats terroristes après le 11 septembre. Mais, pendant des mois, il en a plutôt profiter pour faire les poches des passagers qu'il devait pourtant protéger.
Et il serait loin d'être le seul agent à s'être enrichi aux dépens des voyageurs dans les aéroports du pays, révèle une enquête exclusive de l'Agence QMI.

Quant à lui, M. Bouffard a avoué qu'il glissait parfois sa main dans les bacs où les passagers déposent leurs effets avant de passer le contrôle de sécurité pour y piquer de la monnaie. Seulement, selon lui, pour acheter un café pendant ses pauses.

Or, ses collègues ont conté une autre histoire, selon des documents obtenus par QMI. Sur une période de huit mois, des agents disent l'avoir observé -avec incrédulité et stupéfaction -diriger les gens vers le portique chargé de détecter le métal, puis se précipiter pour s'emparer de monnaie ou fouiller dans les portefeuilles.


Rares sont les passagers qui se doutent que leurs effets peuvent disparaître en franchissant les contrôles de sécurité. © AFP

Lisez l'enquête de Kinia Adamczyk et Andrew McIntosh sur canoe.ca

Airport theft complaint process is convoluted - CNEWS - Canoe.ca

2011-09-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority officials acknowledge that the claims process for passengers who've been robbed at airport screening stations can seem "convoluted," government documents show.
That's because screening officers and their bosses - who work for private security firms, but wear CATSA uniforms - are not supposed to take public complaints, but sometimes do, confusing passengers, who actually must complain in writing to CATSA officials to guarantee a review and response.
So, here's what you should do if you believe an item was stolen during a security screening in Canada:
Airport theft complaint process is convoluted - CNEWS - Canoe.ca

Photo: Passengers walk into one of the Security Screening Points at the Calgary International Airport Wednesday August 25, 2010. (Jim Wells/ QMI Agency file photo)

Enquête municipale: dépenses douteuses du parti au pouvoir à Laval scrutées

2011-07-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

LAVAL - Au cours des quatre dernières années, le parti PRO des Lavallois du maire Gilles Vaillancourt a facturé aux contribuables de Laval l’utilisation de deux entreprises de déchiquetage, chargées de détruire plus de six douzaines de boîtes de dossiers et de documents de son parti politique, a appris l’Agence QMI.

Lire le dossier d'enquête d'Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk sur canoe.ca

25 M $ de contrats à Dunton Rainville

2011-06-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

Une enquête de Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk - juin 2011

Depuis 1999, le cabinet d’avocats Dunton Rainville a remporté cinq contrats de plus de 25 M$ pour la gestion des ressources humaines et pour des services juridiques lors de ce qui semble être – à première vue – un processus public d’appel d’offres... Plus dans le Journal de Montréal

L'opposition réclame plus de transparence de l'administration ...‎

Deux employés de Dunton Rainville proches du maire Vaillancourt ...

Une étudiante perd sa cause contre le Barreau du Québec

2011-04-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Kinia Adamczyk, Agence QMI. 27/04/2011
Une étudiante en droit, qui a intenté une poursuite contre le Barreau du Québec afin d’obtenir les copies de ses examens corrigés dans le but de comprendre son échec, a perdu sa bataille en Cour d’appel du Québec.

La Montréalaise Meena Khan a néanmoins gagné une victoire morale importante cette semaine, lorsque la Cour d’appel a statué qu’elle aurait dû, à tout le moins, être en mesure de prendre des notes lorsqu’elle a révisé ses examens corrigés. Plus sur CANOE

Le fisc saisit 728 338 $ en argent et une Rolls Royce

2011-04-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk/Agence QMI

MONTRÉAL – Un homme d’affaires qui a érigé devant son domicile de Lorraine cinq drapeaux canadiens en berne et à l’envers afin de dénoncer le « terrorisme gouvernemental » dont il se dit victime devrait 1,5 million $ au fisc québécois, selon des affidavits à la cour. Cette dette s’ajoute aux 1,8 million $ que Michael Chamas doit au gouvernement fédéral, selon ce qu’affirment des vérificateurs et des enquêteurs de l’impôt dans des affidavits déposés en Cour fédérale. Plus sur CANOE

La municipalité de Sainte-Monique critiquée par Québec

2011-03-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

(Agence QMI)
Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk

MONTRÉAL - Le ministère des Affaires municipales du Québec a vivement critiqué la municipalité de Sainte-Monique et ses dirigeants à la suite d’une série d'irrégularités. Le secrétaire général du ministère, Jean Dionne, a fait parvenir à la petite municipalité un rapport de deux pages critiquant ses gestionnaires dans l'attribution d'un contrat.

M. Dionne a également conclu qu'une conseillère municipale de Sainte-Monique s’est probablement placée en situation de conflit d’intérêts, selon une copie du rapport obtenue par l'Agence QMI.Le ministère a lancé son enquête à la suite de plaintes de plusieurs personnes non identifiées, selon la porte-parole Émilie Lord.

Le rapport souligne que les préoccupations concernant les conflits d’intérêts et les contrats ne sont pas seulement un problème propre aux grandes villes du Québec.

La municipalité Sainte-Monique est située entre Drummondville et Trois-Rivières dans le Centre du Québec. Sa population est de 560 personnes. Un plaignant a allégué que la municipalité a violé le Code municipal relativement à l’ouverture des soumissions publiques lors d’un concours pour un contrat en 2010.

Ce code exige que l’ouverture des offres publiques se déroule le jour et l’heure indiqués dans les documents d’appel d’offres «en présence de deux témoins». Le ministère a découvert que ce n’est pas ce qui s’était passé dans un cas.

«Dans les faits, l’ouverture des soumissions s’est réalisée en présence de l’inspecteur municipal comme seul témoin le 8 mars 2010 à 15 h plutôt qu’à 20 h, tel que prévu aux documents d’appel d’offres. Cet agissement pourrait donc contrevenir à la disposition législative.»

Autre plainte

La deuxième plainte alléguait que la conseillère municipale Hélène Bussard-Doutaz s’est possiblement placée en conflit d’intérêts après son élection en 2005, en ayant un intérêt financier dans un contrat municipal octroyé avant le scrutin, contrairement à une loi provinciale qui interdit aux élus d’avoir des intérêts directs ou indirects. Le conjoint de Mme Bussard-Doutaz, Jean-Jacques Doutaz, avait un petit contrat d’enlèvement de la neige avec la municipalité, indique le rapport.

Le ministère a constaté que les chèques de la municipalité étaient payables à M. Doutaz, mais que le numéro de la taxe de vente du Québec utilisé dans sa soumission appartenait à la ferme Jolicar, une entreprise agricole dans laquelle Mme Bussard-Doutaz a déclaré des intérêts.

«Or, il subsiste dans notre esprit un doute quant à la personne qui a contracté avec la Municipalité, indique le rapport. Malgré ce doute, nous croyons néanmoins que, pour se conformer à la loi, madame Bussard-Doutaz aurait pu résilier le contrat qui la liait indirectement à la municipalité».

Le contrat n’a pas été résilié est a expiré depuis, mais les responsables du ministère ont néanmoins été surpris par cette découverte.

«Il est étonnant de constater que la municipalité payait les factures qui lui étaient transmises par la Ferme Jolicar, alors qu’elle se savait plutôt liée avec Jean-Jacques Doutaz», dit le rapport. Mme Bussard-Doutaz a refusé de commenter. Le ministère et la municipalité ont dit qu’ils considèrent le dossier clos.

Le secrétaire général du ministère, Jean Dionne, a dépêché deux hauts fonctionnaires municipaux à Sainte-Monique avant Noël pour enseigner aux responsables locaux comment améliorer leur pratique de gestion municipale « notamment en matière d’octroi des contrats».

Le directeur régional du ministère, Gaétan Désilets, a dirigé un atelier sur les règles contractuelles à l’intention des gestionnaires et des conseillers municipaux, a indiqué la directrice générale de la municipalité de Sainte-Monique, Line Camiré.

La porte-parole du ministère, Émilie Lord, a qualifié la rencontre de «séance de formation et d’information», ajoutant que l’objectif était de s’assurer que les responsables de Sainte-Monique comprennent les règles dans l’attribution des contrats et leurs responsabilités légales.

Un trésor de guerre électoral de 1,3 million $

2011-02-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

(Agence QMI) - Version originale sur canoe

Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk

Le maire de Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt.
© Agence QMI

LAVAL – Le maire de Laval Gilles Vaillancourt et son Parti PRO des Lavallois, sont assis sur un trésor de guerre électoral de 1,3 million $, grâce notamment à l'appui financier de généreux patrons de l’industrie locale de la construction, montre une étude de l’Agence QMI.

Le surplus de 1,3 million $ est révélé dans les états financiers détaillés que le Parti PRO des Lavallois a déposés auprès du gouvernement du Québec.

Comme dans d'autres villes et villages de partout au Québec, les partisans du maire de Laval comptent plusieurs donateurs dont les entreprises ont des contrats lucratifs avec la ville.

Le maire Vaillancourt, qui est au pouvoir depuis 1989, a dirigé Laval alors que la ville a connu un intense développement au cours des 22 dernières années, devenant l'une des villes les plus importantes du Québec.

Sa population atteint maintenant 395,000 personnes.

Des millions en contrats

L'examen par l’Agence QMI de la provenance des fonds de campagne du parti PRO des Lavallois montre que l’argent provient en partie de plusieurs dirigeants d’entreprises de construction de Laval et de cabinets d’architectes (ainsi que de leurs conjoints, parents et employés), qui ont obtenu des millions $ en contrats de la ville. Tous les dons ont respecté les limites légales. VOIR AUSSI : Dons, contrats et rezonages à Laval

Certains donateurs comme l'architecte Guillermo Farregut et Mike Mergl de Constructions Mergad disent qu’ils veulent ainsi appuyer le processus démocratique et les politiciens dans leur ville.

Robert Lapointe de Construction Arctic Beluga, précise de son côté que ses entreprises répondent à des appels d’offres publiques dans plusieurs villes. Il a refusé de discuter les dons de sa famille.

Aucun favoritisme

L'administration Vaillancourt affirme ne faire preuve d’aucun favoritisme auprès des donateurs, disant que tous les contrats sont attribués à la suite de soumissions publiques, soumissions sur invitations, ou en conformité avec la réglementation de la ville.

«Il y a aucun lien entre dons et contrats,» dit le porte-parole du maire, Jean-Maurice Duddin. Il ajoute que de nombreuses sociétés qui ne font pas de contribution politique obtiennent des contrats à Laval.

Me Jean Bertrand, un Lavallois et avocat-conseil chez Dunton Rainville depuis 2006, est le responsable de la collecte de fonds du PRO Lavallois. Il est aussi trésorier et le conseiller juridique du parti.

« Il y a juste moi qui fait de la sollicitation, pas le maire ni les autres élus. Je ne fais aucune promesse, ni aucune pression », assure Me Bertrand, qui dit être agent officiel depuis 1984.

« Mais si eux (les donateurs), ils pensent que ça peut leur donner quelque chose de plus, tant mieux. Moi, je ne leur dirai pas le contraire. Je ne veux pas vendre moins de billets » ajoute Me Bertrand, en riant.

Même s'il affirme que le maire ne fait aucune sollicitation, c’est la signature électronique de Gilles Vaillancourt lui-même qui apparait sur les lettres de sollicitation expédiées par Me Bertrand aux donateurs potentiels. Le maire, toutefois, ne connait pas ni le nombre de récipiendaires, ni leurs noms, dit M Duddin.

Me Bertrand a aussi dit respecter toutes les lois et les règles du financement politique. Il déplore le cynisme croissant du public à l’endroit des élus et concernant le financement politique. Me Bertrand ajoute que lui et le parti ont fait l’objet d’une vérification du Directeur général des élections au moins quatre fois au cours des dernières années sans être accusés de quelque infraction que ce soit.

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Cocktail-bénéfice

Un cocktail-bénéfice pour le PRO des Lavallois qui a été tenu à l’Hôtel Sheraton de Laval en juin 2009 a rapporté $145,000 pour le parti du maire Gilles Vaillancourt, selon des documents du parti.

Me Jean Bertrand, le responsable du financement du PRO Lavallois, a vendu 919 billets à 250 $ l’unité, pour un total de 229,750 $.

Après avoir payé la nourriture et les boissons pour le cocktail, le parti de Me Bertrand a inscrit un profit net de 145,000 $ pour une future campagne électorale du maire Vaillancourt et les membres de son équipe.

Une dépense de 55 000$ pour une partie de sucre
Il y a tellement d'argent dans les coffres qu’en mars 2009, le Parti PRO des Lavallois (Équipe Vaillancourt) a dépensé 55,800 $ pour une partie de sucre pour les membres et les sympathisants de son parti politique.

Le parti a payé pour toutes les dépenses, selon les documents financiers.

Le parti politique a dépensé 36,351 $ en nourriture et boissons à la cabane à sucre Constantin à Saint-Eustache. Il a dépensé un autre 19,452 $ pour le transport, indiquent les documents.

Organisée par l'avocat Jean Bertrand, avocat-conseil de la firme Dunton Rainville de Laval (qui est aussi l’agent officiel du parti et trésorier), la partie de sucre s’est déroulée le 13 mars 2009.

Le Parti PRO des Lavallois a facturé 16 $ pour participer à la partie de sucres en 2008, ce qui a permis de recueillir 28,288 $ sans émettre de reçus, en raison de la vente de 1,768 billets, montrent les rapports financiers.
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Enveloppes

Au mois de novembre dernier, le maire Gilles Vaillancourt a été accusé d’avoir offert des enveloppes pleines d’argent au candidat du Parti québécois Serge Ménard en 1993 et au député libéral Vincent Auclair en 2002, pour aider au financement de leurs élections.

Même si M. Vaillancourt a nié avec véhémence, le premier ministre Jean Charest a demandé à la Sûreté du Québec de faire enquête.

En entrevue avec l’Agence QMI, Me Jean Bertrand a dit croire que M. Vaillancourt disait la vérité.

Union leader was convicted drug producer

2011-02-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

February 10, 2011

By Andrew McIntosh and Kinia Adamczyk, QMI Agency
MONTREAL — A plumber hired to lead a Quebec construction union local in 2006 was convicted in 2003 of running a clandestine marijuana grow operation that was shuttered after a Montreal Urban Community Police raid, a QMI Agency investigation has found.

Union leader Dominique Bérube’s April 2003 drug conviction came after officers raided a warehouse in Montreal’s north end in 2002 and discovered 530 marijuana plants inside.
Berubé pleaded guilty to one count of marijuana production — not drug trafficking. That move later allowed him to lead any union local in Quebec, despite the facts of his case.

Despite widespread concerns among Quebecers about convicted criminals infiltrating the construction industry, only convicted drug traffickers — not large scale grow–op producers — are barred from holding union office for five years after their sentences under what is called R-20, the law governing work in Quebec’s construction sector.

Bérubé declined to discuss his drug conviction.

‘’I have nothing to say about that,’’ he told a QMI Agency reporter by telephone.

Arnold Guérin, interim president of the FTQ Construction union, which has 70,000 members spread across 18 locals, said he did not know about Bérubé’s past troubles with the law.

Other FTQ Construction union leaders knew nothing about it, spokesman Eric Demers said.

Bérubé was hired in late 2005 and named director of local 618 of the FTQ construction union by the union’s former leader, Jocelyn Dupuis. His local 618 represents more than 300 pipefitters.

The same Dupuis is now facing charges of fraud and false invoicing after allegedly submitting $125,000 in forged and false expenses to the union, a scandal that forced him to resign. Dupuis also had reported links to convicted drug traffickers and biker gang members.
The union announcement of Bérubé’s appointment in January 2006 made no mention that four years earlier, the beefy Quebec strong man, whose feats are featured on YouTube, was arrested by Montreal police on a marijuana production charge.

Bérubé was charged on Feb. 15, 2002, after Montreal police officers secured a general warrant to break the locks on the doors and search an industrial warehouse on Armand Chaput in the Rivière des Praires on Feb. 6, Quebec Court records show.

Bérubé pleaded guilty on April 17, 2003. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, but the sentence was suspended. He was also orderd to pay $1,000 to a crime victims group and perform 150 hours of community service.

Because of his drug conviction, he was slapped with a mandatory court order not to carry a firearm for 10 years. Judge Claude Vaillancourt ordered the drugs destroyed.

Bérubé’s criminal defense lawyer, was Benoit Cliche, who once accompanied Maurice "Mom" Boucher (leader of the outlawed Hells Angels biker gang in Quebec) to a court hearing, court records show. Cliche has also represented and defended other biker gang members.

Cliche was himself arrested on charges of gangsterism and obstruction of justice later in November 2003 amid links to gangsters and drug traffickers. A jury was left split following a 2007 trial and Cliché was not convicted. The Crown has since decided not to have a new trial.

Bérubé no stranger to controversies

This is not the first time Dominique Bérubé’s name has made headlines since Quebec’s FTQ Construction union has become embroiled in several crime and corruption controversies.

Bérubé’s name surfaced in 2009 after reports that he abruptly withdrew as a third candidate for a FTQ Construction union leadership election in 2008.

Bérubé quit the election following a restaurant meeting with Hells Angels member Jacques Israel Émond , who persuaded him to quit the race and vote for Dupuis’ favoured candidate, Richard Goyette. Was Bérubé threatened or offered anything by Emond?

"I have nothing to say," Berubé said when questioned by Radio-Canada.

Goyette was elected leader of the FTQ Construction union by a two-vote majority, defeating Bernard Girard. Goyette later said he was unaware of possible vote manipulation, and he has since left has job amid more union financial scandals.

McIntosh is the Investigations Editor for QMI Agency. He can be reached at andrew.mcintosh@agenceqmi.ca or 514-290-0922.

Zambie: adrénaline au cœur de la «vraie» Afrique

2011-02-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

Kinia Adamczyk – Agence QMI

Les rapides du Zambèze semblent imposants, mais
un travail d'équipe permet de les affronter avec succès!

La Zambie, avec ses 12 millions d’habitants et l’anglais comme langue principale, est un arrêt de prédilection de l’Afrique «pour les débutants». C’est un des pays les plus stables et les plus sécuritaires du continent, offrant une panoplie d’activités en plein air pour des tempéraments autant calmes qu’aventureux

Pour amorcer une journée de vacances en Zambie avec une bonne dose d’adrénaline, une descente en rafting sur le Zambèze fait parfaitement l’affaire. Sur une douzaine de rapides portant des noms aussi évocateurs que «Terminator» et «la machine à laver», les voyageurs vivent une aventure authentique au cœur d’un pays que ses habitants se plaisent justement à nommer «The Real Africa», la vraie Afrique.
Cette activité pour les amateurs d’émotions fortes constitue un prélude de choix à une croisière plus paisible, au coucher du soleil, sur le même cours d’eau. Girafes, crocodiles, hippopotames et peut-être même quelques éléphants seront au rendez-vous lors de cette expédition paisible. À bord, un bar ouvert accompagné de plats typiques rend les convives bavards et détend après une journée à pagayer dans les flots de la rivière agitée à certains endroits, et qui constitue la frontière australe de la Zambie avec le Zimbabwe.

SUITE

Un grand entrepreneur poursuit Hydro-Québec

2011-02-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk

Agence QMI
canoe.ca

Un grand entrepreneur en construction de Chicoutimi dit qu’Hydro-Québec refuse de payer la somme de 16,6 millions $ pour du travail effectué à la centrale de Péribonka entre 2005 et 2007. Il entreprend maintenant un recours judiciaire pour se faire payer.

Hydro-Québec n’aurait pas évalué correctement les conditions de roc avant les travaux effectués à la centrale de Pérobonka, ce qui aurait engendré des coûts supplémentaires. (Photo: Reuters)Dans des documents déposés en Cour supérieure du Québec, Inter-Cité Construction ltée (ICCL) reconnaît avoir subi des délais et des coûts supplémentaires sur ce projet d’envergure, mais l’entreprise blâme les fonctionnaires d’Hydro-Québec responsables du contrat et les ingénieurs pour avoir donné des informations inexactes sur le type de roche sur le site du barrage.

La vice-première ministre Nathalie Normandeau a déjà salué l’entreprise Inter-Cité à l'Assemblée nationale, affirmant qu'elle était parmi les « grands entrepreneurs qui ont développé une expertise qui fait l’envie de bien des régions au pays ».
Cependant, Inter-Cité allègue aujourd’hui que le refus obstiné d'Hydro-Québec de payer ses factures, de même que les coûts supplémentaires engendrés par les erreurs de la société d’État, ont injustement imposé « des pressions financières importantes » sur son exploitation.
Ni Hydro-Québec ni l’entreprise de construction du Saguenay qui est reconnue depuis plus de 50 ans comme une spécialiste dans les grands projets de génie civil, n’ont voulu parler du différend qui est devant les tribunaux.
Le directeur général d’Inter-Cité, Nicolas Riverin, n'a pas nié qu'il était très inhabituel pour une entreprise de construction d'envergure comme la sienne de poursuivre Hydro-Québec dans le but de se faire payer.
Hydro-Québec n'a pas encore déposé une défense et selon un document de cour, la société d’État peut attendre jusqu’au 15 octobre 2011 avant de donner sa version des faits. Chaque partie devra prouver ses allégations lors d’un éventuel procès, qui n’est pas attendu avant 2012.

Inter-Cité a remporté en février 2005 un contrat sur appel d’offres d’une valeur de 41,4 millions $ pour travailler sur le projet hydroélectrique de la Péribonka. Le projet s'est terminé en 2008.

L’entreprise a été confrontée à des difficultés sur le terrain dès le début des travaux, indiquent les documents judiciaires déposés par les avocats d’Inter-Cité.

« Dès le début des travaux, ICCL rencontre des conditions de roc considérablement différentes de celles annoncées dans les documents d’appels de soumissions, lesquelles auront des répercussions tout au long des travaux », écrivent les avocats de la compagnie.

La compagnie a dû consacrer au moins 22 jours de travail supplémentaires pour terminer le projet et affirme que cela lui a coûté une somme supplémentaire de 14,5 millions $, plus les intérêts qui s’élèvent à 3,1 millions $. Hydro-Québec a approuvé un seul ordre de modification de contrat (un avenant) pour la somme de 1 million $ et n’a pas répondu aux autres demandes de paiements supplémentaires, avance l’entreprise.

Inter-Cité a déclaré que ses coûts supplémentaires comprennent une somme de 3 086 722 $ en salaires et 404 191 $ en béton additionnel. Inter-Cité dit avoir dû travailler de façon inattendue au cours de l'hiver en raison des retards, ce qui a ajouté une somme de 607 278 $ aux coûts.

Tout cela parce qu'Hydro-Québec n'a pas évalué correctement les conditions de roc, « avec le résultat que sa conception de l’ouvrage, les méthodes d’exécution prescrites au devis et son échéancier ne concordaient pas avec les conditions réelles du roc », écrivent les avocats de la compagnie.

Hydro-Québec a même menacé d'annuler le contrat « de façon surprenante, inattendue et abusive » au cours d'une réunion en 2005 afin de discuter des retards, malgré ce que Inter-Cite qualifie « d’efforts considérables » pour respecter les délais et assurer la qualité.

Un tueur de bébé silencieux: l'herpès néonatal

2010-12-29T07:04:00.000-08:00

(Agence QMI)
Kinia Adamczyk

La petite Léa faisait de la fièvre et avait peu d’appétit. Malgré ces symptômes inquiétants, les médecins n’ont pas réussi à identifier le virus qui l’a tuée neuf jours après sa naissance.
Le coupable: l’herpès (VHS), un virus à première vue bénin et traitable dont 60 % des Canadiens sont porteurs. Il est aussi connu sous le nom de «feu sauvage» quand il apparaît sur la bouche, et d’herpès génital quand les symptômes se manifestent «en bas de la ceinture».

Quand il s’attaque à des nouveaux nés comme Léa, on parle alors d’herpès néonatal.

Le cas de Léa, documenté par le Center for Disease Control aux États-Unis, est tristement représentatif de la majorité des décès provoqués par l’herpès néonatal.

Au Canada, on compte 5,9 cas d’herpès néonatal pour 100 000 naissances au pays, selon l’Agence de la santé publique.

La première étude canadienne connue a été publiée par pediatrics.org en 2006. Elle compile 58 cas d’herpès néonatal, dont neuf décès, entre 2000 et 2003.

Dans 40 % des cas, les mères n’avaient aucun symptôme d’herpès génital avant l’accouchement.
La mère de Léa n’avait jamais eu de symptômes d’herpès génital et aurait infecté sa fille lors de l’accouchement.

On parle donc d’une infection primaire lors de la grossesse, c’est-à-dire d’une infection des organes génitaux par l’herpès de type 1 ou 2 pour la première fois lorsque la mère est déjà enceinte.

Encore aujourd’hui, un nombre trop important de mères infectées lors de la grossesse ignorent que leur bébé est à risque, car elles n’ont jamais eu de symptômes d’herpès génital.

Certaines ne sont même pas porteuses – mais leur bébé a quand même été infecté. Un simple baiser par une personne ayant un «feu sauvage» peut transmettre le virus.

Montréal très touchée par les ITS

2010-12-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Kinia Adamczyk
Agence QMI

Montréal est «très touchée» par les infections transmises sexuellement, selon l’Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal.

La population générale, quant à elle, a des connaissances insuffisantes sur l’herpès génital, selon l’INSPQ.

Faits saillants:
- L’herpès génital est causé par deux types de virus: herpes simplex 1 (20 à 40 % des cas) et herpes simplex 2 (60 à 80 % des cas)
- Le type 1, dont environ 60 % des Canadiens seraient porteurs, se manifeste habituellement autour de la bouche et est aussi connu sous le nom de «feu sauvage».
- Même si le type 2 est la principale cause de l’herpès génital, plusieurs pays, dont le Canada, connaissent une augmentation importante des infections génitales du VHS-1. Les Canadiens sembleraient plus à l’aise que la moyenne avec le sexe oral, d’où le nombre croissant d’infections génitales au type 1.
- Il y a peu d’études de prévalence du VHS 2 au Canada, et aucune au Québec. Les études existantes démontrent une prévalence similaire à celles des États-Unis , soit environ 21 % .
- Les infections de la femme par l’homme sont plus courantes.
- L’herpès ne doit pas être déclaré au directeur de santé publique comme le VIH et la chlamydia.

Les infections au « feu sauvage de l’amour » à la hausse

2010-12-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

Kinia Adamczyk/Agence QMI

L’herpès génital peut être contrôlé, mais pas guéri,
grâce à des médicaments antiviraux vendus sur
ordonnance. Photo : Archives

Bien que le nombre de cas diagnostiqués d’herpès génital soit en hausse, cette infection transmise sexuellement n’est toujours pas spécifiquement ciblée par une campagne de santé publique au Canada, révèle une enquête de l’Agence QMI.

Les personnes qui ne sont pas diagnostiquées sont à l’origine de 70 % des nouvelles infections, selon un rapport de l’Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ).

Des lésions douloureuses et contagieuses dans la région ano génitale sont les symptômes les plus courants de cette infection transmise sexuellement (ITS), affectant entre 20 et 30 % des Canadiens adultes.

Elizabeth, qui a préféré garder l’anonymat, a été infectée par un homme qui avait subi des tests et pensait n’avoir aucune ITS, son médecin lui ayant dit qu’il était « clean ».

« Je croyais … que je passerais le reste de mes jours toute seule, que personne ne m’aimerait à cause de ce virus en dedans de moi, que ma vie sexuelle était finie », raconte Elizabeth, qui a reçu le diagnostic d'herpès de type 1.

« Je ne savais pas ce que j’avais… Le premier médecin que j’ai vu non plus. Il a tout simplement prescrit une crème contre les irritations. C’est après avoir pris quatre jours de congé, parce que je ne pouvais pas marcher, que ma patronne m’a dit par courriel que c’était peut-être de l’herpès. »

L’herpès génital (VHS) est causé par une infection au virus simplex de type 1 ou de type 2. Il ne fait pas partie de la batterie de tests subis lorsqu’on demande de dépistage des ITS à son médecin.

Elizabeth a finalement reçu son diagnostic après avoir insisté à plusieurs reprises pour avoir un test sanguin chez plus d’un médecin.

Les tests sanguins peuvent coûter jusqu’à 240 $ en clinique privée. Ils ne révèlent pas toujours avec fiabilité la présence du virus, surtout lorsque ce dernier est à l’état latent, explique le Dr Marc Steben, de l’INSPQ.

« Il y a beaucoup de faux diagnostics positifs. Chez quelqu’un qui n’a jamais eu de lésions génitales, c’est difficile à interpréter », dit-il. En effet, le moyen le plus sûr pour détecter la présence du virus est d’effectuer une culture prélevée à partir des lésions. Mais à ce moment-là, il est déjà trop tard pour la prévention.

Comme il n’existe pas de vaccin et compte tenu du manque de ressources pour offrir des diagnostics fiables et un suivi adéquat, certains experts mettent en doute l’utilité d’une campagne de santé publique et d’un dépistage systématique des porteurs asymptomatiques.

L’herpès génital peut être contrôlé, mais pas guéri, grâce à des médicaments antiviraux vendus sur ordonnance.

Le fardeau économique de l’herpès génital pourrait atteindre les 98 millions $ annuellement au Canada. L’INSPQ estime que « ces coûts représentent une raison supplémentaire pour analyser les aspects coûts/bénéfices des différentes options de diagnostic et traitement, et justifient de considérer sérieusement d’intensifier la prévention. »
Pour sa part, Elizabeth a fondé un groupe de soutien pour appuyer les gens affectés par l’herpès 1 et 2 à Montréal, qui se réunit une fois par mois.

Copyright © 1995-2008 Canoë inc. Tous droits réservés

Kapuscinski doc screening in Montreal Dec 5 2010

2010-12-02T04:16:00.000-08:00

Le maire de Joliette et un conseiller municipal pointés du doigt

2010-12-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

La Ville de Joliette admet que son contrat de pavage
a été incorrectement adjugé, mais dit que le maire René
Laurin n’était pas impliqué dans ce dossier.

Agence QMI
Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk

01/12/2010 04h00
© Agence QMI
MONTRÉAL - Deux autres politiciens municipaux du Québec font face à des allégations de conflit d'intérêts dans une poursuite qui vise à les forcer à quitter leurs fonctions, a appris l’Agence QMI.

Le maire de Joliette René Laurin et le conseiller municipal Alain Lozeau auraient ignoré les règles régissant l'attribution des contrats de construction et se sont placés en «flagrant conflit d’intérêts» sur une question de modification de zonage, ce qui les rendrait inaptes à occuper des fonctions publiques, allègue le candidat à la mairie Bernard Gagnon dans des documents judiciaires.

L’avocat représentant le maire Laurin et le conseiller Lozeau a vigoureusement nié la plupart des allégations de M. Gagnon dans leur réponse déposée à la cour. L’avocat Yves Chainé a accusé le candidat défait de répandre des mensonges malveillants dans le cadre «d'une campagne de salissage».

L’avocat de M. Gagnon, qui a remporté le quart des voix aux élections à Joliette en 2009, a présenté les allégations de conflit d'intérêts dans une requête introductive en déclaration d’inhabilité déposée à la division civile de la Cour supérieure, à Joliette. Aucune date d’audition pour entendre la cause n’a encore été fixée.
M. Gagnon veut qu’un juge interdise à MM. Laurin et Lozeau d’occuper n’importe quelle fonction municipale pendant une durée de cinq ans.
Dans les documents déposés en cour à la fin décembre 2009, M. Gagnon affirme que le maire Laurin savait ou aurait dû savoir qu'un contrat de pavage de 39 000 $ attribué à l'entreprise Asphalte Lanaudière Inc. en juillet 2009 l’avait été dans des conditions enfreignant la Loi sur les cités et les villes du Québec.
Il y avait initialement deux soumissions et le soumissionnaire le plus bas s’est retiré à la dernière seconde, allègue M. Gagnon.
Lorsque cela se produit, la ville doit demander au ministre des Affaires municipales son approbation pour accorder le contrat, ou inviter d’autres entreprises à soumissionner. Rien de cela n’aurait été fait en juillet 2009, ce qui fait que le contrat a été attribué illégalement, prétend M. Gagnon.
Dans des documents déposés en cour, la Ville de Joliette admet que son contrat de pavage a été incorrectement adjugé, mais dit que MM. Laurin et Lozeau n'étaient pas impliqués dans ce dossier. Selon la Ville, M. Gagnon ne comprend pas davantage la loi sur les contrats publics. La Ville blâme son propre haut fonctionnaire, le directeur général Rénald Gravel, d’avoir fait une erreur avec ce contrat. Elle lui a envoyé une lettre de réprimande pour avoir outrepassé son autorité dans l'attribution du contrat, en utilisant les pouvoirs d'urgence que seul possédait le maire, indiquent les documents judiciaires. (Le maire a déclaré lors d’un interrogatoire d’avant-procès qu’il était en vacances à l’époque et qu’on ne pouvait le joindre.)
La Ville de Joliette n'a pas payé l'entrepreneur et dit qu'elle ne veut pas le faire.
Asphalte Lanaudière a poursuivi la Ville pour 39 000 $. Son président, André Riquier, dit que sa compagnie a fait le travail et mérite d’être payée.
M. Lozeau n'est pas seulement un conseiller de la Ville de Joliette, mais il a aussi été vice-président de l’entreprise de luminaires Donald Piette depuis 1987.
Dans la poursuite, M. Gagnon affirme également que le conseiller Lozeau a voté pour approuver une demande de modification de zonage pour la construction d'un bâtiment qui était plus grand et plus haut que ce qui était alors permis par les règlements de zonage en vigueur », même si cela l'a mis dans une situation de conflit d'intérêts. La demande de rezonage a été faite par Michel Coiteux et Michel Dulude qui, prétend M. Gagnon, sont des clients de Donald Piette.
M. Gagnon fait valoir que parce que le commerce de luminaires de M. Lozeau avait de bonnes chances d’être le fournisseur désigné pour le projet de construction si la demande de rezonage avait été approuvée, celui-ci aurait alors dû se récuser lors du vote le 21 septembre 2009, ce qu’il n’a pas fait.
M. Gagnon ajoute que le maire Laurin savait que M. Lozeau était en conflit d’intérêts et qu’il lui a quand même permis de prendre part au vote. M. Gagnon ajoute que le changement de zonage a été adopté par un seul vote, celui de M. Lozeau, et qu’il aurait été autrement refusé. Le projet de rezonage a été par la suite retiré.
M. Lozeau réplique qu’on n’a jamais demandé à son entreprise de fournir un prix pour le projet de Coiteux et Dulude. Le maire Laurin a de son côté catégoriquement nié les allégations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Émilie Lord, porte-parole pour le ministère québécois des Affaires municipales, a déclaré que son ministère est au courant de la plainte contre le maire et un conseiller à Joliette.

Le ministère considère que le litige est pour l’instant de nature privée. «C'est à la cour de décider s’ils (les élus) sont légalement aptes à siéger ou pas», a dit Mme Lord. Le maire de Joliette rejoint les cinq autres maires qui se sont retrouvés dans la controverse cet automne, soit les maires de Laval, Mascouche, Saint-Jérôme, Terrebonne, Saint-Donat et Saguenay.

Hydro-Québec et un contracteur blâmés pour insalubrité

2010-11-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

Kinia Adamczyk, Agence QMI

Texte original: Journal de Montréal

Elena Prokhovnick dit avoir contacté
Hydro-Québec au moins à trois reprises,
mais on lui a répondu que sa situation
«n’était pas urgente».

MONTRÉAL - Invasion de rats, insalubrité, refoulement d’égout, contaminations, odeurs nauséabondes: une famille montréalaise vivant cet enfer depuis 2007 réclame maintenant 200 000 $ en dédommagements à Hydro-Québec et l’entreprise Lanauco dans une poursuite devant la Cour supérieure du Québec.

Lors de l’installation d’un poteau d’ancrage à plaque pour le compte d’Hydro-Québec il y a trois ans, Lanauco aurait endommagé et bloqué le conduit d’égout reliant le système de canalisation de la Ville de Montréal et la maison d’Elena et Praskovia Prokhovnick et Stanislav Kossenko, située à quelques pas du métro Lionel-Groulx.

La situation a «clairement mis en péril la santé mentale et physique des demandeurs», selon des documents obtenus à la cour.

Praskovia, la résidante la plus âgée de la maison, avait tellement peur d’une autre invasion de rats qu’elle n’arrivait pas à dormir et refusait de demeurer au rez-de-chaussée.

Elena dit avoir contacté Hydro-Québec au moins à trois reprises, mais on lui a répondu que sa situation «n’était pas urgente».

Aujourd’hui, la famille subit encore les conséquences du bris: les portes d’entrée sont entièrement bloquées par un fossé servant à la décontamination des sols et fondations de la maison sur la rue Bourget, à la suite des écoulements d’eaux usées en dessous de la maison.

C’est seulement en 2009, lors d’importants refoulements d’égouts, que la famille a découvert que le conduit brisé était à l’origine de tous ses maux. La Ville de Montréal lui a suggéré d’embaucher une entreprise d’excavation pour enquêter.

L’entreprise a alors pointé du doigt les travaux réalisés pour Hydro-Québec, selon la plainte des Prokhovnick.

Ce n’est qu’en mai 2010 qu’Hydro-Québec a finalement révélé que c’est Lanauco qui a réalisé les travaux pour son compte. La famille a alors entamé sa poursuite.

Hydro-Québec et Lanauco nient les allégations de la famille, et refusent de prendre responsabilité pour les dommages et de payer les 150 000 $ en frais de réparations et 50 000 $ en dommages moraux exigés.

Elles soutiennent que les travaux d’installation ont été réalisés «avec prudence, diligence, compétence et conformément aux règles de l’art [et que] seuls les demandeurs savaient où se trouvait la conduite de renvoi de leur immeuble.»

Les compagnies effectuant des travaux d’excavation dans la province de Québec peuvent faire appel aux services gratuits d’Info-Excavation, qui établit la présence d’installations souterraines de ses membres, dont font partie Hydro-Québec, Bell Canada et plusieurs arrondissements, mais pas la Ville de Montréal, où habite la famille.

Info-Excavation n’a pas voulu nous remettre les documents reliés au dossier en question à cause «d’ententes de confidentialité». Mais elle a confirmé que Lanauco l’avait contactée pour les travaux sur la rue Bourget en janvier 2007 et que l’entreprise avait été informée de la présence d’infrastructures appartement à Hydro-Québec, Bell Canada, Gaz Métropolitain et la Commission des Services Électriques de Montréal.

Et le conduit d’égout?

«Il y a personne que je connaisse qui soit habilité dans nos membres à trouver l’emplacement de ce drain-là», a expliqué le directeur général d’Info-Excavation, Robert Jutras.

Quant au président de Lanauco, Jean-Claude Mailhot, il s’est dit «navré» qu’il y ait de tels incidents. «Pour l’ensemble… notre travail au quotidien est d’essayer d’enrayer [les dommages]», a-t-il ajouté, ne souhaitant pas commenter le cas de Mme Prokhovnick en particulier.

La dame n’a pas voulu commenter pendant que la cause est devant la cour, mais elle nous a montré les travaux de décontamination ainsi que des photos des dommages.

Selon une porte-parole d’Hydro-Québec, Stacey Masson, c’est à Lanauco que revient la responsabilité de tout dommage.

Presque 500 000 $ en dommages

Hydro-Québec affirme enregistrer en moyenne 18 plaintes chaque année ressemblant à celle de Mme Prokhovnick.

Quant à Lanauco, ce n’est pas la première fois qu’elle cause des dommages lors de travaux, selon des documents obtenus par l’Agence QMI.

Depuis 1995, 12 autres poursuites totalisant 457 035$ ont été entamées au Québec contre la compagnie de Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, incluant d’autres tuyaux de canalisation brisés. Dans certains cas, les poursuites visaient également Hydro-Québec et d’autres entrepreneurs.

Même Bell Canada a poursuivi l’entreprise à quatre reprises pour dommages à ses installations téléphoniques.

Hydro-Québec a également poursuivi la compagnie en 2007, pour un montant de 99 662,81 $. Une porte-parole d’Hydro-Québec, Flavie Côté, a dit que la cause a probablement été réglée hors cour et que les détails doivent donc rester confidentiels. Elle a souligné qu’Hydro-Québec faisait des inspections de manière aléatoire sur les travaux effectués par des entreprises.

«Même le meilleur cuisinier casse des œufs dans son omelette», s’est défendu le président de Lanauco, Jean-Claude Mailhot, expliquant que c’est parfois un manque d’information ou la maladresse d’un employé qui est la cause des dommages.

Robert Jutras, directeur général chez Info-Excavation, qui connaît la compagnie depuis au moins huit ans, a affirmé qu’elle est «n’est pas frivole… et généralement responsable». Lanauco réalise en moyenne 1500 travaux par année depuis 10 ans pour Hydro-Québec, qui dit avoir de «bonnes relations d’affaires» avec la compagnie.

Sept des treize poursuites, dont celles entreprises par Bell, ont finalement été réglées hors cour.

Polish-American Organisations Host Breakthrough International Conference

2010-11-23T02:17:00.000-08:00

Jerzy Buzek i Grzegorz Schetyna z Młodą Polonią - from pangeapolska.org - more in English at pangealliance.org

Europa i Polska potrzebują takich inicjatyw jak dzisiejsze spotkanie młodych Polaków, aktywnie działających w swoich środowiskach, w różnych krajach świata – od Australii, przez Białoruś i Belgię po Stany Zjednoczone i Kanadę – powiedział szef Parlamentu Europejskiego prof. Jerzy Buzek podczas seminarium „Młoda Polonia a Stary Kraj” zorganizowanego przez stowarzyszenie Pangea Polska we współpracy z Pracodawcami RP i Polską Agencją Informacji i Inwestycji Zagranicznych, które odbyło się w Warszawie w dniach 19-21 listopada 2010 r.

Cieszy mnie, że w jednym miejscu, na jednej sali, tutaj w Warszawie mogę spotkać młodych ludzi, którymi Polska może szczycić się w świecie. Razem pracujmy nad budowaniem wizerunku Polski nowoczesnej, która się zmienia, która jest dzisiaj liderem w Europie – mówił podczas spotkania Marszałek Sejmu Grzegorz Schetyna. Chętnie będę Was gościł w polskim Parlamencie – dodał, zachęcając młodych uczestników do aktywnej współpracy z instytucjami publicznymi w kraju.

Otwierając konferencję, Marta Lefik – prezes Pangea Polska powiedziała: Jako ludzie młodzi mamy ambicję być ambasadorami naszego „starego” kraju. Chcielibyśmy poprzez aktywne oddziaływanie w naszych środowiskach budować nowy wizerunek Polski, co często wymaga przełamywania stereotypów. Chcemy reprezentować Polskę, jako kraj dynamicznie się zmieniający, kraj europejski z nowoczesną gospodarką, posiadający jednocześnie wyjątkową spuściznę dziedzictwa narodowego. W dalszej części swojego wystąpienia liderka Pangea Polska swoje słowa skierowała do uczestniczących w spotkaniu przedstawicieli polskiego życia publicznego: Mamy ambicję stać się moderatorami dialogu pomiędzy Polakami w kraju a tymi, którzy z różnych względów zamieszkują inne kraje świata. Chcemy współtworzyć kapitał społeczny, który powinien stawać się naturalną przewagą konkurencyjną naszego kraju.

Chcemy, by młodzi polscy przedsiębiorcy na całym świecie korzystali z polskiego rozwoju gospodarczego i włączyli się w budowę nowoczesnej gospodarki opartej na wiedzy i innowacyjności. Chcemy, by firmy tu w kraju, korzystały z dorobku intelektualnego i ekonomicznego Polaków pracujących za granicą. Ta synergia potrzebna jest nam wszystkim, potrzebna jest naszemu państwu – powiedział Prezydent Pracodawców RP Andrzej Malinowski, kierując swoje słowa do młodych polonijnych przedsiębiorców biorących udział w seminarium, zachęcając do współpracy biznesowej.

Polska jest atrakcyjna, oferuje dzisiaj wyjątkową stablioność – zarówno gospodarczą jak i polityczną. Korzystajmy z tego produktu razem – powiedział Sławomir Majman, szef rządowej agencji inwestycyjnej, która była gospodarzem konferencji.

Otwierając drugi dzień seminarium minister Michał Boni, szef zespołu doradców strategicznych premiera, mówił o wyzwaniach rozwojowych Polski w zmieniających się uwarunkowaniach demograficznych oraz o tworzeniu nowych warunków dla życia ludzi. „Podstawowym strumieniem dochodów dla rodzin powinna być bowiem praca” – powiedział Boni. Minister wskazał m.in. na potrzebę informatyzacji, zwiększanie nakładów finansowych przede wszystkim na nauki matematyczne, przyrodnicze i techniczne. Zaznaczył bardzo ważną rolę młodych ludzi, również tych żyjących dzisiaj poza krajem w tym modernizacyjnym procesie.

Podczas paneli dyskusyjnych, w których udział wzięli m. in. wiceministrowie: spraw zagranicznych Jan Borkowski, sportu i turystyki Katarzyna Sobierajska, kultury Monika Smoleń i Gospodarki Rafał Baniak, dyskutowano o roli młodej Polonii w tworzeni i promowaniu polskiej kultury, sportu i gospodarki. Rozmawiano również o stworzeniu platformy stałej współpracy i komunikacji pomiędzy środowiskiem liderów polonijnych a krajowymi instytucjami publicznymi oraz uczestnikami życia gospodarczego w Polsce.

* * *

Seminarium zostało zorganizowane przez stowarzyszenie Pangea Polska we współpracy z Pangea Alliance – organizacjami zajmującymi się promocją Polski i działalnością na rzecz Polonii oraz budowaniem wzajemnych relacji między krajem a młodą emigracją. Partnerami przedsięwzięcia były Polska Agencja Informacji i Inwestycji Zagranicznych, Pracodawcy RP i Polska Agencja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości. W spotkaniu aktywnie uczestniczyli przedstawiciele specjalnych stref ekonomicznych: pomorskiej, katowickiej i wałbrzyskiej oraz przedstawiciele inwestorów zagranicznych obecnych w Polsce – m. in. Tesco, IBM, Metro Group oraz innych znaczących firm: PGNiG, TPSA, Trade Trans.

The People vs. Ignorance - Wall Street Journal: 0, people: 1

2010-11-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

Two years ago in the fall, cosmopolitan review was just an idea - and it was brewing in three great cities: Warsaw, Montreal and New York.
Seven issues and more than 150 articles later, with the contributions of almost 50 writers, CR is well alive and kicking. We've taken you around the world - from Barcelona to Baku through Białystok and even Istanbul...

Full article available @ cosmopolitanreview.com

Will the real Africa please stand up?

2010-11-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

By Kinia Adamczyk for cosmopolitanreview.com

At first sight, she has it all.

The brains. The looks. Degrees from Oxford and Harvard.

But most importantly, she claims to have a solution for ending one of the 21^st century's biggest woes: dire poverty in Africa.

Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist and writer, argues leaders of every African country receiving development aid today should receive a phone call telling them the aid will soon be cut. (Picture: facebook.com)

Not today, nor tomorrow. More like in five years.

Full article available @ cosmopolitanreview.com

Le programme d'évaluation du Barreau : de l'« absolutisme »?

2010-10-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Kinia Adamczyk / Agence QMI

Le processus d'évaluation de l'École du Barreau du Québec instauré en 2005 est plus que rentable. Mais il exaspère certains avocats en herbe, qui déplorent qu'on les laisse dans le noir quant aux raisons de leurs échecs aux examens.

Plusieurs se plaignent du nouveau système reconnu pour son niveau de difficulté, selon une enquête de l'Agence QMI.

Depuis 2005, au grand dam des élèves, les examens, les grilles de correction et les corrigés ne sont plus rendus publics. La raison? L'École du Barreau désire « que les questions d'examens puissent être réutilisées » pour réduire ses coûts.

Mais Meena Khan, une élève de l'École, s'en plaint – devant les tribunaux.

Elle trouve le nouveau système d'évaluation tellement injuste qu'elle a porté plainte en Cour supérieure. Et elle a obtenu gain de cause – en première manche, du moins, puisque le Barreau a interjeté appel.

Tout en serrant la vis aux élèves, le nouveau processus a permis au Barreau de quasiment doubler ses revenus en droits de scolarité : ces derniers sont passés de 1,9 million $ en 2004 à 3,4 millions $ en 2009, une augmentation de 76 %.

Le Barreau explique cette hausse par celle du nombre d'étudiants et par les frais d'inscription aux cours préparatoires. Toutefois, il refuse de fournir ou de commenter des statistiques détaillées concernant les inscriptions à son programme et les échecs.

Depuis 2005, la durée de la formation professionnelle à l'École est passée de huit à quatre mois. Pour accéder au stage et à la profession d'avocat, les élèves paient plus de 4000 $ pour suivre la formation de l'École et passer ses examens. Avant 2005, il y avait six examens à « livre ouvert ». Maintenant, il y a une évaluation finale, à « livre fermé ».

Des cours préparatoires additionnels sont aussi disponibles moyennant 700 $ de plus.

Ce nouveau programme intensif de quatre mois déplait à plusieurs. « Je ne pense pas que ce soit la meilleure formation qu'on puisse donner à un étudiant. Huit mois seraient plus productifs, pense Raphael S. Barchichat, de l'Association des étudiants de l'École du Barreau de Montréal. Quatre mois, ça ne donne pas la chance à l'étudiant ... de passer à travers la matière . »

Selon Géhane Kamel, avocate de formation et finissante de l'ancien programme, si les gens payent plus de 4000 $ pour la formation actuelle, c'est un minimum que d'obtenir le corrigé de leur examen, comme ce fut le cas pour elle.

Meena Khan partage cet avis.

Comme elle, plusieurs de ceux qui ont subi l'examen de reprise ont connu un deuxième échec. Ils ont dû repayer la documentation et reprendre les cours préparatoires et la formation professionnelle de l'École au complet.

Mme Khan explique dans sa plainte qu'elle n'a pas pu savoir pourquoi elle a échoué puisqu'on ne lui a pas remis une copie de son examen de reprise ni même permis de prendre des notes en le consultant. Ses échecs ont retardé son entrée dans la profession et lui ont coûté plus de 34 000 $ en droits de scolarité et en salaire perdu, soutient-elle.

Mme Khan accuse le Barreau de manque de transparence et estime qu'il cherche volontairement à diminuer « le nombre d'avocats et l'offre de service au Québec, permettant ainsi une augmentation artificielle des honoraires » payés aux avocats.

Le Barreau rejette ces accusations.

Une première victoire

La juge Jeannine Rousseau, de la Cour supérieure, a ordonné au Barreau du Québec de remettre à Mme Khan une copie des documents qu'elle réclamait à la suite de ses échecs.

La nouvelle façon de faire du Barreau au « contrevient aux règles de l'équité procédurale sans justification », a estimé la magistrate.

« Cet allègement recherché l'est au bénéfice du Barreau, non au bénéfice des étudiants », a-t-elle déclaré, en déplorant ce qu'elle a appelé un « absolutisme » motivé par des raisons qui « semblent être financières et de commodité ».

Mme Khan et l'École du Barreau ont toutes les deux refusé de commenter la cause pendant que l'affaire demeure devant les tribunaux. Le Barreau appelle de la décision.

La Cour d'appel entendra l'affaire le 4 novembre.

Les coûts

Pour devenir avocat au Québec, depuis 2005, il en coûte :

- entre 12 000 $ et 16 000 $ en frais de scolarité et en livres pour étudier entre trois et quatre ans à temps plein à l'université en vue d'obtenir un Baccalauréat en droit;

- 4065 $ pour suivre la formation professionnelle du Barreau (quatre mois), réussir des évaluations et un examen final (ce dernier vaut 70 % de la note globale);

- 700 $ pour suivre les cours préparatoires optionnels du Barreau de quatre mois.

Il faut aussi compléter un stage de six mois (habituellement rémunéré).

Si l'on échoue l'examen final et sa reprise, il faut obligatoirement reprendre la formation professionnelle et les cours préparatoires et racheter la documentation.

Canadian climbers' heroic will to live

2010-09-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

By ANDREW McINTOSH and KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI Agency
cnew.canoe.ca

SEATTLE, Wash. – Two Canadians who tumbled off a cliff during a blinding snowstorm on Mount Rainier this spring feared a lonely, icy death before rangers finally located and rescued them, according to dramatic recordings of the woman’s 911 calls.

"Don’t let me die here please," Quebecker Geneviève Morand begged 911 operators from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, south of Seattle, in Washington state.

"We will die here if we’re not rescued," she told the operator, referring to herself and boyfriend, Simon Brunet.

"I don’t wanna die," Morand told another. "I’m afraid to lose the signal on my cellphone... I can’t feel my body parts anymore. Please!"

QMI Agency obtained recordings of Morand’s 911 cellular telephone calls on April 26 and April 27 under Washington state and federal U.S. Freedom of Information legislation.

The calls were made to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, which manages Mount Rainer National Park, and the Pierce County Sheriff.

The calls show a heroic effort by Morand to contact authorities and help them pinpoint the couple’s location, even as they battled storm conditions, frozen hands and feet, altitude sickness, a dying telephone battery, bad connections and language barriers.

Morand is heard becoming increasingly frantic to get help after several of her earlier calls were disconnected as 911 operators tried to redirect her call from a county 911 service to a U.S. National Park ranger rescue station high on the mountain itself, the calls indicate.

"Please can somebody stop transferring me and just help me?" she begged another local 911 operator. He was struggling to transfer her calls to rangers at Mount Rainier National Park who could help locate and help the couple.

Morand is heard breathing heavily during the series of 911 calls. Brunet is unconscious, she says, after working to keep them from being buried alive during an all-night snowstorm. She repeatedly presses operators and rangers to tell her how long it will take rescuers to find them:
Morand: "Do you know, please, I really have to know how long I have to survive before you getting me?"

Ranger: "We're trying to get to you as soon as possible."

Morand: "I know, but do you have an estimation because I need to prepare myself, my mind, for this fight."

Ranger: "It could be as soon as one hour or it could take us a lot longer than that if we cannot find you."

Morand: "What does it mean, a lot longer?"

Ranger: "It could be several hours, it could be most of the day. We will try to continue to put people around you but you're far down in a hole so it's very hard to find you."

Morand: "OK, sir."

Ranger: "We have everyone in the park trying to help."

Morand: "Sir, I won't survive a whole day."

Ranger: "We are trying our hardest... Try to keep a clear mind. We are looking for you. We have everyone trying."

Morand: "OK."

Ranger: "We are talking to your family too so they know of the situation, think of them."
Mt. Rainier rangers eventually found the couple. A helicopter took them to a local hospital, where they were treated for hypothermia and altitude sickness before going home.

Lost climbers

Not all climbers who fall and or get lost on treacherous Mount Rainier are as lucky as Geneviève Morand and Simon Brunet.

More than 300 have perished in the park since it was created in the 1900’s and some are never found. Three climbers have died on the slopes of the 13,000-foot mountain this summer alone:
On June 5, Mark Wedeven of Olympia, Wa., was buried alive in an avalanche while ascending Mount Rainer with 11 others, who survived. The group ignored a ranger extreme avalanche warning before their outing.
In July, Eric Lewis of Duvall, Wa., went missing during a climb and is presumed dead by authorities and his family. Lewis became separated from his group after he unclipped himself from a rope in a windstorm with no visibility.
On July 10, Lee Adams, 52, of Seattle, Wash.,fell to his death on Mount Rainier's Emmons Glacier. Adams was coming down from the summit with three other climbers when another climber — not Adams — tripped and fell, and Adams crashed 35 feet down into a crevasse. He died on impact, Rainier National Park officials said.

1,8 M$ pour polir les dalles de granit d'Hydro-Québec

2010-09-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

Agence QMI
Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk
Agence QMI
01/09/2010 14h41

Au moment où la province est aux prises avec un déficit budgétaire de 5 milliards $, Hydro-Québec compte débourser entre 1,5 million $ et 1,8 million $ pour retirer, polir et reposer des dalles en granit sur le parvis de son siège social de Montréal.

En vertu de ce projet, 600 dalles en granit ont été retirées puis envoyées à une entreprise du Lac Mégantic, Grani Bois, où elles seront polies. Ce projet voit le jour alors que d'autres sociétés et ministères provinciaux se serrent la ceinture en réduisant leurs dépenses et que les Québécois devront bientôt payer un «ticket modérateur» pour la santé.

Une porte-parole d'Hydro-Québec, Danielle Chabot, a toutefois justifié ces dépenses. Elle a précisé qu'on avait également remplacé dans le cadre de ce projet, une membrane étanche installée dessous les dalles.

Infiltration d'eau

«Il y avait de l'eau qui s'était infiltrée dans le terrain de stationnement, a-t-elle indiqué. Ces travaux étaient nécessaires.» Mme Chabot a toutefois interdit à un journaliste de voir ces fuites d'eau en ajoutant qu'elles avaient été réparées de toute façon.

Selon Mme Chabot, Hydro-Québec ne pouvait se permettre de passer à côté de ces travaux. Il n'existait pas de solutions moins chères pour remplacer ces dalles de granit, a-t-elle insisté, car le gratteciel gris très ordinaire d'Hydro-Québec, un édifice vieux de 50 ans, a été classé comme un monument historique par la ville et la province.

«Nous avions l'obligation de ramener le parvis à son état d'origine, a affirmé Mme Chabot. Par exemple, nous n'aurions pas pu opter pour un granit de couleur différente.»

Un parvis de 50 ans

Selon elle, les dalles de granit sur le parvis du siège social d'Hydro-Québec ont 50 ans et ont donc besoin d'être repolies. Dans certains cas, des dalles fissurées ont dû être réparées ou remplacées.

À la suite d'un appel d'offres que Mme Chabot qualifie de concurrentiel, ce projet a été accordé au printemps 2009 à l'entrepreneur St-Denis Thompson, entrepreneur montréalais spécialisé dans les travaux de remise en état.

Les travaux ont démarré en mai 2009 puis ont dû être suspendus pendant l'hiver. Ils ont repris au printemps. Selon Hydro-Québec et les responsables de St- Denis Thompson, les travaux devraient être complétés d'ici à la fin du mois.

Grani Bois du Lac Mégantic a hérité de ce projet en sous-traitance, car très peu d'entreprises font ce genre de travail de restauration, a signalé Mme Chabot.

La rivière Rouge a fait 18 morts en 20 ans

2010-09-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

(Agence QMI)
Kinia Adamczyk

canoe.com - 3 août 2010

Agence QMI / Ronald McGregor

MONTREAL – Sournoise, la rivière Rouge a englouti sa 18e victime en 20 ans la semaine dernière.

Le corps de Mandar Verma, 27 ans, a été retrouvé à Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, à 100 kilomètres à l’ouest de Montréal le lundi 26 juillet.

La Sûreté de Québec enquête pour déterminer si l’alcool a contribué au décès de l’étudiant en génie à l’Université Concordia. Ce dernier faisait la fête à un site de camping proche de la rivière lorsqu’il est disparu.

L’Agence QMI a obtenu et a analysé dix-sept rapports d’enquête produits par le Bureau du coroner du Québec sur les noyades survenues dans la rivière Rouge depuis 1990.

Devant le nombre élevé de noyades dans la rivière Rouge, plusieurs coroners ont recommandé l’installation de signalisation par les municipalités et les campings.

Pourtant, certains panneaux récents interdisent seulement la baignade sans prévenir les aventuriers des dangers qui font de la rivière Rouge un tueur sournois. Ses sables mouvants, ses forts courants souvent cachés, et son lit instable lui confèrent un caractère insidieux, puisqu’elle semble inoffensive en surface.

Malgré les précautions habituelles comme le port de la veste de flottaison, des nageurs et canotiers chevronnés ont été emportés dans la mort par ses flots.

Plusieurs noyades auraient par contre pu être évitées en faisant simplement preuve de prudence: certaines victimes ne portaient pas de veste de flottaison lors de randonnée en canot, d’autres ont ignoré des avertissements interdisant la baignade, et ce, même lorsqu’elles ne savaient pas bien nager ou ne connaissaient pas bien les risques associés à cette rivière.

La rivière Rouge, qui prend sa source dans la réserve Matawin dans les Laurentides et se jette dans la rivière Outaouais 255 kilomètres plus bas, est facile d’accès par des routes majeures ainsi que par les pistes cyclables.

Pour cette raison, la rivière est un endroit très fréquenté surtout dans le secteur des municipalités de Labelle, de La Conception et de Brébeuf.

La famille d’Andrew Selby, qui s’est noyé en 2008, a demandé à la municipalité de la Rivière-Rouge d’en faire davantage pour prévenir les noyades.

«On a une piscine ici, il y a une clôture de six pieds et les gens réussissent à passer par-dessus. Il y a cet endroit-là, mais il y a d’autres endroits aussi, alors c’est difficile. Est-ce qu’on va devoir clôturer toute la rivière?», demande la mairesse de Rivière-Rouge, Déborah Bélanger.

En saison chaude, les vacanciers seront toujours portés à s’aventurer en eau vive, malgré les risques que cela comporte. Où s’arrête le rôle des gouvernements en prévention?

Dans un rapport, publié à la suite d’une des noyades, la coroner Andrée Kronström recommande l’utilisation de la veste de flottaison et la sensibilisation aux dangers spécifiques de la baignade en eau vive (dénivellation, courant, fosses, sables mouvants) par l’éducation et sur des panneaux de signalisation. Elle affirme que ses recommandations ont eu un suivi positif par les gouvernements et les sociétés de sauvetage.

Post-Zambia: a whole new appreciation for taxes and ZEBRAS... can you imagine?

2010-08-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

Zebras grazing to the waking sun - Livingstone, Zambia

In Zambia, less than a million people work within "formal" and "legal" employment structures, according to Costa Mwansa, a local journalist. For a country of 12 million, that's a pretty thin taxe base for the government to feed on. A lot of people work "informally" - in agriculture, as street vendors - and don't pay taxes, but also don't benefit from social services.

(N.B. the TV production Costa and I are working on aims to show Zambia from a dynamic perspective, blending challenges and successes. Success is often overlooked when representing African countries.)

Nevertheless, my point here is that I developed a whole new appreciation for taxes when being in an environment where most people don't pay any.

I understand the result is a lower quality of publicly used goods: roads, schools, electricity supply, waste disposal, etc. We take these services for granted on an everyday basis. In Zambia, there are frequent power cuts, many bumpy roads, a lack of schools, a suuuuuppppper slow internet connection ...

There is no "public" transportation as we know it in Canada, i.e., subsidized by the government. There is a privately owned network of buses, and even though I haven't used it, I suspect it to be rather efficient. Most countries that I've visited that had similar systems were quite easy to navigate.

Now, another topic: zebras and wildlife. The zebras found in the national parc in Livingstone (home to the Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world) are pure beauty. They look like someone painted stripes on them. There are impalas everywhere and one of the most magical experiences is to lock eyes with one of them, standing still. They freeze. And when you lift a finger - WOOOSH, they are gone.

The elephant walks its slow majestic strut with the rising African sun in the background, ears flapping, horn sniffing, head slowly moving up and down ... it is only a few meters away and I want to touch its rough-looking skin.

This trip to Africa, like most trips, has made me feel very much alive. I recommend anyone wanting to understand their own country to come to this sunny, crisp, vibrant continent full of life and challenges.

Girls, glue, taxi bosses ... through the naked eye

2010-08-17T03:15:00.000-07:00

The biggest challenge is to let go of the patterns and stereotypes that have been ingrained in your mind throughout all your life, and to see a new place through the eyes of a child.

Making room in yourself to notice the hidden layers and power structures of the place that surrounds you ... Informal systems in place of set rules, discernible only to the local eye.

For example: the fact that the taxi drivers parked near the BP fuel station have a leader, and he should be the one answering a journalist's questions.

Or "street kids' and workers' turf". A bunch of men and boys gathered around a 15-year-old street girl we interviewed, shouting at her that if she lied to the camera, they would go after her.

Turns out that after a day of begging, the girls have togive guys part of their earnings if they don't want to get beaten up. They getvery cold and hungry at night and some sniff glue not to feel the cold.

I wouldn't have known any of this if my Zambian project partner hadn't explained it to me.

It is hard to forget this little girl who didn't have parents and didn't go to school. She's 15, but looks no more than 10.

Apparently, these girls on the streets get sexually abused, too.

I know we have similar problems in Canada, perhaps less visible to the naked eye, tucked away, out of sight. Here, poverty hits you more directly, I guess. I don't know why ... maybe it's because we are told about it so much that it is impossible not to notice it.

At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that there is growth and progress (in Zambia). But what a pity to come to a new place, seeing your surroundings through the lens of poverty, a lens often created for you without your knowledge

Zambia diaries: so much room for growth

2010-08-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Generous people, famous musicians, shaking hips at Mayela night club, traditional markets, fickle electricity supplies, bumpy roads and cold evenings ... "Zambia is real Africa!" The first 3 days of the East4South reporting project - Africa segment

The first impressions are always the most important to record, because with every day, I will slowly lose the fresh, unaltered perspective I had during my first contact with a new place.

Getting off the plane, a group of forty uniformed schoolchildren shouted, “Welcome to Zambia! Welcome to Zambia!”

Costa, from MuviTV, picked me up, and we looked for accommodation. We went to three different places before settling on Mika Lodge.

On the way there, we passed through Manda Hill, where the Parliament is situated. It is made of copper, an abundant resource in Zambia. When there are elections, Zambians speak of the “race to Manda Hill”.

We drove on bumpy roads full of holes. According to Costa, it’s because of corruption. The government spends money on roads, but often, they don’t get built. There are many public health billboards on roadsides, including one with a little girl saying sex with her won't cure aids; another one informing Zambians sexual harassment is a crime; a third one encouraging the fight against malaria.

Below, a little 2-minute movie from the first drive, READ MORE first day impressions HERE

There is no constant electricity supply. Many people rely on generators during power breaks. I’ve been told Zambia has the worst internet supply in the world. It is indeed a challenge to get a good connection. And, it's actually COLD in the morning and after 5 p.m. It's fall season right now and quite dusty, too.

Costa Mwansa, my African counterpart in the East 4 South project, is a journalist at MuviTV. Of course, we stop by his office where we are greeted by friendly, relaxed journalists.

Most Lusaka citizens who can afford to hang out at the “Arcades”.

It’s an outside strip mall with many restaurants, cafés, movie theatres. (movie) Very lively, very colourful. It could be anywhere in the world. It could be Florida.

After the Arcades, we visited Costa’s home in the middle class district. He has the cutest 2-year-old little boy ever. He’s really a mini-Costa, actually.

My first thoughts about here: there’s everything to build! Roads, schools, hospitals, infrastructures, entertainment… If only someone with a vision could encourage investment and development.

August 6

Day 2

My first (real) day in Zambia, and I find myself in court!

But I didn’t do anything wrong. Costa has been subpoenaed as a witness since he saw political violence in the North-Western part of Zambia, near Kansanshi.

It’s 8:55 a.m. on Friday, August 6, 2010. Costa should be in court at 9. (video)

In the end, Costa doesn’t testify. He has to go back on Tuesday. However, I got a glimpse of the Superior Court (lobby) in Zambia. One of the lawyers wears a traditional British wig.

We’re a bit late for our meeting with Marsha Moyo, a celebrated Zambian musician with international recognition, who is also a UN goodwill ambassador.

We were talking to her and her mother, explaining the documentary project we are working on. I go off on a rant about Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid; about how she argues that development aid is not the long-term solution for Africa. They ask me whether I agree or not, and I reply that yes, she does seem to be quite a credible expert on the subject, given she comes from Zambia (compared to foreign “experts” that have not grown up here and think they have the solutions to putting Africa on the path of development).

Turns out that Marsha, who came out in a blue velvet track suit and big, movie-star glasses, is, well really a star. And she tells me Dambisa is her sister. I feel rather stupid, really.

But in a way, I’m glad I didn’t know so much about her before meeting her, because it made for more natural conversation. We’ll have an interview with her on Tuesday and we think she’ll make an excellent subject.

Today was a big logistics day. We met with our cameraman, many of Costa’s coworkers that will be assisting us in the production process and Costa’s extremely helpful boss.

We attended the launch of a foundation and got an interview with Zambia’s former finance minister, and then headed out to film some of the nightlife.

Destinations: Arcades, including Rhapsody and Times, Jazz Club and Mayela. My favorite: definitely Mayela. The first two clubs were fancy: they were the place to go to see and be seen. Jazz Club was buried somewhere in Lusaka’s dark streets. That’s where we danced a bit… but I was hungry to see something more real. ‘Take me to the ghetto!” I asked. To the bumping and grinding and shit.

And thus we wound up at Mayela. I was the only white person there and felt slightly noticed, but, oh well. The club was rather dingy, but big and packed. It was full of mirrors, black lights and laser lights. My teeth had an eary neon glow to them. Outside the club, the streets and dusty lots were packed with cars and youth having beer, street vendors selling cigarettes.

Oh, the dancing! That’s what I was talking about. Zambia beats. Hips shaking. People letting loose…

Costa brought along a bunch of fun-loving friends who showed me a great time: Bang Bang, Jellybu and others.

We bumped into JK, one of Zambia’s most famous artists.

August 7

Being here has reminded me how much we take for granted. Electricity. Smooth roads. Comfort. Traditions and habits we don’t question.

We started filming late for many reasons. Costa lost electricity at 3 a.m. We had to get tapes and it took quite a while to find parking. Our cameraman had different commitments earlier.

But then we hit the Cultural Village and a nearby market where I will get some dresses sown, perhaps get braids.

Then a place where there were a bunch of bars and dozens of youth getting drunk. We bumped into a famous gospel star and a football star. We hit up “African Braii” – goat’s their specialty. Everything goat: ribs, sausages, what looked like goat steak…

We stopped by the Parliament Hotel, where MEPs stay. A few MEPs from different parties were chilling together in one of the rooms.

Costa had to head home and get food for his family, as there was no electricity.

Saudis get better visa deal

2010-07-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

By ANDREW MCINTOSH AND KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI AGENCY

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has quietly secured a better visa deal for the rapidly growing number of Saudis entering Quebec and Canada to study or work, the QMI Agency has learned.

From 1984 to 2002, Saudi nationals could enter and leave any part of Canada without a visa.
But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, visa requirements were imposed on Saudis following security concerns about stolen and fraudulent Saudi passports and the number of 9/11 attackers that came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

To counter the security threat and control immigration, Canadian foreign affairs, immigration and security officials required Saudis to apply for entrance visas before coming to
Canada to study or work. And they were good for only 18 months.

The new visa deal gives Saudis visas for five years with unlimited entrance and exits — privileges secured after a quiet Saudi lobbying campaign in Ottawa, federal documents show.
In mid-March, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Ottawa hired former Canadian diplomat Charles Mann to help improve "the availability of visas to come to Canada for Saudi citizens,"
according to documents Mann filed with the federal Lobbying Commissioner’s office.

Mann, Canada’s ambassador to Kuwait and Qatar from 1999 to 2004, disclosed that he would lobby the Foreign Affairs, Public Security and Citizenship and Immigration departments
on behalf of Saudi Ambassador Osamah Ahmed Al Sanosi Ahmad between March 15 and June 14.
Three weeks before Mann’s lobbying gig ended, Canadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia David Chatterson announced on his embassy’s web site in Riyadh that Saudi nationals can
now get multiple-entry temporary resident visas to enter Canada that are good for five years.
Chatterson unveiled the changes on May 24, on the eve of a holiday long weekend in Canada, saying they would "greatly facilitate movement" of students and business people
between the two countries. No public announcement about the "more flexible visa rules" was made here.
Neither Mann nor a spokeswoman at the Saudi embassy would answer further questions about who Mann lobbied, who he met with or when. Foreign Affairs says Mann did not have
meetings with anyone there, though they did not rule out telephone contact.
Despite tougher visa controls imposed in 2002, the number of Saudis entering Canada on entrance visas has increased exponentially since then.
Canada granted entrance visas to 5,292 new Saudi students and 1,665 Saudi Arabian workers in 2009 alone, compared to 199 Saudi workers and 351 students admitted on visas in
2002, according to data compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
There are currently around 8,200 Saudi students at Canadian institutions, including 750 medical doctors, Chatterson said in his news release. Two thousand more students are
expected to study here later this year, he added.
Saudi Arabia is now paying for about 62,000 of its own students to attend foreign universities through a major scholarship program.
In contrast to the rising number of Saudis entering Canada since 2002, the number of non-immigrant Saudis admitted to the United States fell sharply after the 2001 attacks: to
22,314 in 2002 and 16,154 in 2003 from 66,722 in 2001. That has recovered somewhat to 61,530 in 2009.

Last Updated: July 18, 2010 2:35pm

East4South kick-off: the Polish-Canadian + Zambian perspectives on media and Africa

2010-05-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Kinga Adamczyk - Poland from European Journalism Centre on Vimeo.

Costa Mwansa - Zambia from European Journalism Centre on Vimeo.

East 4 South participants

2010-05-10T23:55:00.001-07:00

Development: keep or kick? Africa's time is NOW

2010-05-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

"Africa's time is NOW.

It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life," argues Dambisa Moyo (left) an international economist who writes on the macroeconomy and global affairs. She is the author of critically acclaimed New York Times Bestseller Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa, which details the inefficacy of development aid for poor countries.

Moyo argues Africa needs alternatives to the established donation schemes in which conditionality plays a predominant role: this includes genuine partnerships, the liberalization of markets and attracting FDI (foreign direct investment)

Non-aid dependency schemes work in South Africa and Botswana, whereas in other countries, "overreliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious circle of aid dependency, corruption, market distortion, and further poverty, leaving them with nothing but the “need” for more aid," she explained.

One of East4South's participants, Veronica from Monrovia, Liberia, explained how NGO efforts are duplicated in her country and how it breeds corruption. 

"At the end of the day- what is our goal?" Moyo asked. "Is it to reduce poverty and boost economic growth in Africa? If it means overhauling the current system, it’s something that has to be done. It shouldn’t just be about protecting foreigners' jobs. Moyo cited Zambia as an example of tremendous improvement in the last 5-6 years, with great decline in commodity prices, thanks to agressive policies to implement free market.

One of our Zambian journalists, Costa, was nevertheless sceptical about the progress and added that market liberalization didn't only have benefits.

Several measures have been tried out [in my country, Cameroon] and it’s not working, said Jessie Ayamoh Bawak (second from the right), from Spectrum TV. "There is the government-to-government donation problem. The government-to-individual scheme is bad too. We need good governance."

Odelia Ofori (right), a TV3 network journalist from Ghana, added that "whilst Moyo was speaking about liberalization, in Ghana, it’s been so liberalized that the Chinese market has taken over, the poultry and clothing industries have collapsed. The small (poultry) industry that was doing SO WELL. Liberalization, if not done well, will cause institution to collapse."

Irene, from Kenya, believes conditionality is more harm than aid itself. "African countries can develop well if they have the right policies. We need discussions on tax heavens, about trade justice, policy of freedom." Aid – she's something between the pessimist and the optimist. "We need to have the policies right."

Veronica (top, first from the left), from Liberia, added: "My country has the first female president in Africa. Go and see: 3.5 million debt-waver, donations from World Bank. You can’t see anything [getting better] in Liberia. We need alternatives."

These comments were collected during a Deutsche Welle East4South workshop preparing 10 European and 10 African journalists for collaborative reporting summer assignment about the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. 

No more poverty by 2015?

2010-05-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

We are dot-connectors. The watchdogs of power structures.

We have the responsibility of being fair and accurate; to be accountable to our audience and to trust our public's intelligence. We shall inform and inspire further research.

We are journalists. 20 of us, 10 from Africa and 10 from Eastern Europe, will team up to report about Millennium Development Goals in Africa this summer.

(Top: Costa, a reporter from Zambia, and Aleksandra, a former classmate of mine from the College of Europe.)

Empowerment. Support. Control. Politics. Manipulation. Values. Pity ... = development aid

May 9th was our first day of training in Brussels with Deutsche Welle's East4South program. We discussed our role as journalists and filmmakers and the meaning of development aid.

Perspective. The 20 of us sat in a circle: in the middle, a plastic container. We each had to describe it in three sentences or less - and none of us guessed we were looking at a nasal cleanser. Some descriptions were factual (blue and transparent, with a lid on top and a handle at the base), others, more whimsical (a strange object for tiny Tupperware creatures which could also be used as a tall swimming pool when the lid is removed). Our container was a bit similar to the one on the left, but it was turned upside down.

I am struck by the beauty of our African colleagues, their happy spirit and their professionalism. Their hope.

We journalists, after all, shall also deliver hope...

East4South training starts today in Brussels

2010-05-07T03:20:00.000-07:00

Development Awareness from the Roots

Gathering EU and sub-Saharan journalists
to report on international development issues

e: info@east4south.org

In a nutshell

East 4 South is your chance to see development in action. Young European media professionals will team up with experienced African journalists and report from the field. You’ll capture the story and share it with the world, learning tricks of the trade from veteran journalists.

Varsovie mon amour

2010-05-07T02:28:00.000-07:00

English: that's what I hear on the terrace of Coffee Heaven corner Marszalkowska and Aleje Jerozolimskie in Warsaw.

Warsaw, my love. I had left her last June (2009) without really saying goodbye. Oh, how vibrant she is at the moment! I had missed the sound of the trams echoing in her streets, her pretty faces, her language. Her languages, for she is a very cosmopolitan city now.

There are no signs of mourning in the center - mourning after the Smolensk plane crash in which 97 prominent Poles, including President Kaczynski and his wife, had died in mid-April.

In the morning, it's the usual hustle and bustle that fills our senses with her energy.

I'm here for less than 48 hours, flying off to Brussels to participate in the first training at East4South with the Deutsche-Welle.

Varsovie mon amour, you are seducing me again...

Portrait video Concours Jeune Correspondant 2010 (Radio-Canada)

2010-05-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

Voici les quatre finalistes:
                   Nom: Kinia Adamczyk
Lieu de résidence: Montréal
Âge: 25 ans
Kinia termine un bac en  Communication et en Journalisme à l’Université Concordia pendant lequel  elle a notamment remporté un prix Forces avenir pour des reportages  effectués au Guatemala et en ex-Yougoslavie.
Elle a aussi suivi un  programme en journalisme international aux Pays-Bas et au Danemark et  poursuivi des études de 4e cycle à Varsovie en plus de fonder la revue  électronique cosmopolitanreview.com
Parlant 6 langues, elle a  déjà visité une vingtaine de pays. La gouvernance de l’économie  mondiale, la place des femmes dans les sphères du pouvoir et les  relations du Canada avec l’Union européenne sont au nombre des enjeux  qui l’intéressent particulièrement.

Regardez le portrait de  Kinia Adamczyk diffusé au Téléjournal le 5 mai 2010

                   Nom: Chantal Renaud
Lieu de résidence: Montréal
Âge: 24 ans
Chantal se fait un point  d’honneur d’effectuer un grand voyage à chaque année et a ainsi foulé  quatre continents. Pour elle, l’expérience du voyage s’apparente au  grand reportage qu’elle partage avec ses amis. Ainsi après avoir visité  la communauté tibétaine en exil en Inde, elle séjourne deux ans plus  tard en Chine, au Xinjiang, pour mieux saisir la réalité concrète des  territoires autonomes (Tibet et Xinjiang).
Elle a poursuivi des études  universitaires en études internationales, en langues modernes et en  anthropologie, participant aux activités du Groupe de travail sur les  interventions militaires et humanitaires à l’Université de Montréal.  Elle s'intéresse de près à l’aide humanitaire et aux questions et  contradictions qu’elle soulève.
Regardez le portrait de  Chantal Renaud diffusé au Téléjournal le 4 mai 2010
                    

                   Nom: Anaïs Elboujdaïni
Lieu de résidence: Gatineau
Âge: 20 ans
Anaïs a un père marocain et  une mère québécoise. Elle fait des études en science politique et  philosophie. Elle parle l'anglais, l'espagnol et le berbère, et commence  à apprendre l'arabe et le russe. Elle est chef de pupitre des  actualités du journal de l’Université d’Ottawa, ce qui lui a permis de  mener à bien plusieurs dossiers en profondeur.
Elle a vécu plusieurs mois  au Maroc et séjourné en Espagne, en Italie et en France, notamment comme  lauréate du concours international Poésie en liberté à Paris.
Elle a aussi travaillé au  pair au Chili où elle a découvert les conditions déplorables de  Péruviennes qui sont employées comme aides domestiques. Les mouvements  de population et le sort des réfugiés la préoccupent particulièrement.
Regardez le portrait  d'Anaïs Elboujdaïni diffusé au Téléjournal le 3 mai 2010
                    

                   Nom: Laurence Deschamps-Laporte
Lieu de résidence: Montréal
Âge: 22 ans
Laurence a aussi visité une  vingtaine de pays. Elle est boursière de l’Université de Caroline du  Nord à Chapel Hill, où elle termine des majeures en relations  internationales et en langue arabe.
Elle a auparavant étudié en  Allemagne, travaillé au pair en Pologne et en Grèce et participé à un  programme de coopération internationale au Nicaragua.
L’an dernier, elle a assisté  le journaliste Khaled Sid Mohand de Radio France Internationale qui  préparait des reportages avec des réfugiés irakiens en Syrie. Le sort du  mouvement réformiste en Iran et l’avenir de ce pays sont au cœur de ses  intérêts.

Regardez les portraits des quatre  finalistes qui seront diffusés au Téléjournal du 3 au 6 mai.

Jeune correspondante avec Radio-Canada?

2010-04-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

"Marrainé par Céline  Galipeau, le concours Jeune correspondant s’adresse aux  citoyens canadiens ou résidents permanents de 18 à 25 ans, passionnés  d’actualité et avides de comprendre le monde."

Me voilà à mon endroit favori, la Dominion Tavern sur Metcalfe, avec une productrice de Radio-Canada. Elle réalise un portrait des quatre finalistes du concours Jeune Correspondant (dont je fais partie).

 

Je viens régulièrement à cet endroit planifier un reportage avec un collègue de Concordia: en automne, nous partirons en Turquie, dans le Caucase, en Sibérie, en Ukraine et en Moldavie. Nous sommes présentement en phase de recherche et de pré-production. La Dominion Tavern est notre endroit de prédilection pour sortir nos mappes et notre enthousiasme pour planifier le périple d'une vie.

Je me sens dans le "spotlight" avec le caméra de Radio-Can et la productrice juste en face de moi. Le tout ne pourrait pas être plus "live". 

Les prochains mois seront pleins de voyages: Bruxelles, Afrique et Bonn avec Deutsche-Welle, reportage dans l'Est avec Joey, et qui sait, peut-être un reportage avec la fabuleuse Céline Galipeau...

Je dois communiquer au public de Radio-Can l'enjeu international qui m'interpelle le plus. En plus d'être intéressée par les droits des femmes, le rôle du Canada et du Québec sur la scène internationale et l'Union européenne, ce sont les enjeux reliés à la gestion des ressources naturelles (énergie) et de l'eau, que j'aimerais explorer plus en profondeur lors des mois à suivre.

J'étais en Pologne lors de la crise de gaz qui a affecté l'Ukraine et plusieurs pays de l'Europe de l'Est. J'ai également été en Turquie et en Azerbaïdjan et assisté à des conférences de l'OTAN pour jeunes professionnels et étudiants.

C'est lors de ces voyages que j'ai été tout particulièrement interpellée par les politiques énergétiques de la Russie et sur l'énorme influence que cette dernière exerçait sur ses voisins avec ses pipelines.

"Des portraits ou entrevues seront enregistrés puis diffusés au Téléjournal  les 3, 4, 5 et 6 mai. Le nom des quatre personnes retenues vous sera  communiqué en ondes par Céline Galipeau le jeudi 29 avril au Téléjournal  et les noms seront diffusés sur cette page. Restez à l'écoute et  suivez-nous jusqu'au dénouement de cette grande aventure."

From the Top

2010-04-14T10:27:00.001-07:00

PM  to attend State Funeral for Polish President Kaczynski   

13 Apr 2010 Prime Minister  Stephen Harper today announced that he will attend the State Funeral of  President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska on Sunday, April  18, in Krakow, Poland.

"This Sunday, the people of  Poland will lay to rest a true patriot and a staunch defender of  democracy and human rights," said Prime Minister Harper.  "On behalf of  all Canadians, I will express our country's respect for a strong and  trusted ally and stand alongside the Polish people in their grief."

President Kaczynski, the  First Lady and numerous political, military and civil society leaders  were tragically killed on Saturday in a plane crash en route to an event  commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.

The  White House - Office of the Press Secretary - For Immediate Release -  Statement by the Press Secretary on the President Traveling to Poland

Apr 13 2010 On Saturday  evening, the President will travel to Krakow, Poland to attend the State Funeral of  President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska on Sunday, April  18th. The President will travel to Krakow to express the depth of our  condolences to an important and trusted ally, and our support for the  Polish people, on behalf of the American people.

CR commemorates

2010-04-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Poland in the Rockies alumni, CR contributors and their friends continue sending words of grief, reflection and remembrance our way:

PitR alumnus and film maker Eric Bednarski Captures Grief in Warsaw (photoreportage)

Canadian PM Stephen Harper Announces National Day of Mourning for President of Poland - 15 Apr 2010

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on 12 April 2010 that Canada will mark  a National Day of Mourning on Thursday, April 15, following the death of Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, who died in a plane crash on Saturday along with Polish political, military and civil society leaders. 

Wording the Unspeakable - Dispatch from Ottawa

13 Apr 2010 By Dominic Roszak The unspeakably tragic death of the Polish President and numerous Polish leaders shocked the world. Some have called it tragically ironic, occurring near that 'cursed' place of Katyn. While it was and remains difficult for me to comprehend the scale of this disaster, I find myself hit with a deep sense of sorrow when reading about the vibrant lives that each of the victims had led. These were people whom Poles knew very well as being devoted to the service of their country; coming from all sides of the political spectrum and a wide range of positions of responsibility. Most of them were also proud parents. I cannot help but keep imagining in my mind the moment that the plane went down...the last thoughts in their minds and the despair felt by their families when they learned of the crash. It is a haunting thought. 

The New York Times - The Glory of Poland

13 Apr 2010 By Roger Cohen My first thought, hearing of the Polish tragedy, was that history's gyre can be of an unbearable cruelty, decapitating Poland's elite twice in the same cursed place, Katyn.

Beyond the Wreckage of an Air Disaster

13 Apr 2010 By Allen Paul The tragic crash that wiped out nearly half the leadership of the Polish government Saturday is a stark reminder that death stalks always in ways no man can see.

Late last Friday I declined an offer to fly with those whose lives were so suddenly and unexpectedly lost. The invitation came at the end of an hour-long meeting with a close friend, Andrzej Przewoznik, the high-ranking official in charge of on-the-ground arrangements for the visit of President Lech Kaczynski and his entourage to the cemetery in Katyn Forest near where the crash occurred.

Grieving from Shamokin, Pennsylvania

13 Apr 2010 By Vince Chesney These past few days have been numbing. Although we in the Anthracite Coal Region may only be the fingertip on the hand that is Poland, we still flinch whenever the motherland is harmed. Even those that have no Polish identity can certainly appreciate Poland's loss by imagining a comparative catastrophe in America.

It is my hope that by screening Wajda's Katyń that the students here can appreciate Poland as a partner in liberty who's history intertwines with its young fellow Eagle: America. Boże, coś Polskę!

Remembering Senator Bochenek
12 Apr 2010 By Ania Barycka April 10 will forever be a memory etched in my mind. It began with a shock, my roommate waking me up, his fists pounding on my door and his voice saying something tragic was on the news. I got up, unlocked the door, and found him shaking. "A terrible, terrible tragedy," he began. I was barely awake; his voice trembled as he told me about the deaths of the Polish President, his wife, and almost a hundred other members of the Polish government in a tragic airplane crash. I just stood there, half asleep, wondering when I would awake from this nightmare.

Poland Grieves

2010-04-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

CNN - Why Poland's Grief is Doubled

11 Apr 2010 By Alex Stororzynski The tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski and Poland's political and military elite among the trees of the Katyn Forest is surreal, given that in those same woods, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were murdered by Joseph Stalin's secret police.

Newsweek - What's Next for Poland

President Kaczynski's visit to Russia was supposed to help heal a historic rift between the two countries. But as NEWSWEEK's former Warsaw bureau chief Andrew Nagorski explains, that won't be easy. Especially now.

Edmonton Sun - Poland Weeps

10 Apr 2010 By Patrycja Romanowska On April 10, the courtyard of the presidential palace in Warsaw was aglow as grief stricken people lit candles encased in coloured glass and prayed for the souls of those who had once lived there. In Krakow, church bells tolled heavily and even the sky wept, sending down thick sheets of rain to drench the hundreds of people gathering to mourn at the Wawel Cathedral. The evening mass began with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz somberly listing the names of the 93 people who had died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia only hours before.

BBC News - Looking beyond Poland's 'unprecedented disaster'

10 Apr 2010 ... Krzysztof Bobinski consider the immediate and longer-term effects of the 70th anniversary of the massacre in a wood outside Smolensk. ...

Remembering the Katyn Forest Massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Wanda Urbanska After weeks of delay, the Russians issued my friend Allen Paul a visa yesterday. He had been invited by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to be a part of the Polish delegation to the ceremony at Katyn, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet massacre of more than 20,000 of Poland’s military officers and reservists, its best and brightest, in 1940.

Washington Post: Meeting of Russian, Polish leaders could shed light on 1940 massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Justine Jablonska A historic meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top leaders of Russia and Poland is expected to provide new details about Russia's mass execution of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 and may open the way toward improved relations between the two countries.

The mass slaying of the Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police is one of the darker and less known chapters of World War II, said Kyle Parker, a Russian expert and policy adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. agency that helps formulate American policy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Gloomy Saturday

2010-04-11T10:43:00.001-07:00

10/04/2010 - All of us at the cosmopolitan review send our deepest sympathy to the families of President Kaczynski and of all the other victims who died in the tragic accident in Smolensk. We share the grief of the Polish nation, and of Poles in the worldwide diaspora as we mourn the loss of so many gifted and dedicated men and women who served their country with distinction.

+ Krystyna Bochenek

+ gen. Tadeusz Buk

+ Grzegorz Dolniak

+ Grażyna Gęsicka

+ P. Gosiewski

+ Mariusz Handzlik

+ I. Jaruga-Nowacka

+ R. Kaczorowski

+ S. Karpiniuk

+ Andrzej Karweta

+ J. Kochanowski

+ Janusz Kurtyka

+ Tomasz Merta

+ A. Natalli-Świat

+ Piotr Nurowski

+ Maciej Płażyński

+ Ks. Tadeusz Płoski

+ A. Przewoźnik

+ Krzysztof Putra

+ Sławomir Skrzypek

+ Władysław Stasiak

+ A. Szczygło

+ Jerzy Szmajdziński

+ Szymanek-Deresz

+ A. Walentynowicz

+ Z. Wassermann

+ Wiesław Woda

+ Paweł Wypych

+ Janusz Zakrzeński

+ inne ofiary / other victims

BY CR CONTRIBUTORS: Krzysztof Bobiński, Wanda Urbanska, Justine Jablonska

Reminiscing Guatemala - 2006 dispatches for the Center for International Studies and Development

2010-03-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

The sound of corn

San Juan la Laguna wakes up to the sound of corn mills. I love the saying here, ‘sin maís no hay país’, which means, ‘without corn there is no country’. Even if you’re in the mountains, you still hear the corn mills from the peak.

Women and girls line up in the morning with their bowls of the yellow grain to get it processed into a paste that resembles butter. Then, it’s tortilla-time. All the food here is served with tortillas.

I ate in a comedor today- the cook still hadn’t arrived at my eco-hotel by 8:30 and my stomach was growling. For eight quetzals (about $1.50), I got beans, eggs, rice, a bunch of tortillas and a coffee with too much sugar. What’s great is that eight hours later, I’m feeling fine. I think my digestive system is finally going local.

Took-took, pickups and colourful buses

Guatemala boasts a colourful palette of means of transportation. The most common is the chicken bus (so baptized by tourists because… well, the description that follows should depict it fairly enough.) The chicken bus is an old diesel-fuelled Canadian or American school bus painted in bright colours and decorated with flashing lights. The driver has a helper than hangs on to the side of the bus, shouting the destination as the bus honks a few times. The point is to squeeze in as many people as possible, so sometimes a human has to transform into a monkey and literally climb over the other passengers’ heads in order to get out. Animals have been known to travel in these buses, including chickens in bottomless cages sitting above the passengers. When nature calls… If you haven’t been on a chicken bus, you haven’t been in Guatemala.

In the more mountainous regions, one can opt for a colectivo, which is a pick-up truck that goes from town to town. It usually costs Q1.50, a few cents. It can actually be quite fun to ride on the pick-up. If you’re lucky, they’ll cover you with plastic when it rains. If not, at least you’ll have your ride and a shower too.

Took-tooks are three-wheeled taxis. Apparently, five years ago, they didn’t exist in Guatemala. The concept was imported recently from Asia. My first took-took experience was a bit ‘sketchy’. I was in Antigua, it was already dark and rainy. I had to take a took-took to the house I was staying at, but the driver had a hard time finding the street, which was actually a dirt road. Of course, my heart started beating a bit faster as we went back and forth without finding the place. But eventually we found it. Another proof that more than 90% of the things we worry about don’t happen…

Saving the earth

San Juan la Laguna was severely affected by hurricane Stan. This community’s main mode of subsistence is agriculture, so when heavy rain washed away its lands, its people were rather disempowered. Nevertheless, with the help of Fundación Solar, tremendous progress has been made here since the hurricane. An earth-saving program was implemented with incentives for farmers to clean up the boulders choking their lands, reforestation projects are under way with the help of tree gardens that breed the plants that will fill the lands when they are cleaned up, and vegetable gardens were created so people don’t have to depend on exterior help to eat.

The city is pretty clean, because the Fundación equipped it with trash cans that didn’t exist before, and because people are getting sensitized to the importance of hygiene. Traditional arts, crafts and medicine are being valued through touristic circuits which allow the visitors to tour the local artists’ associations and workshops. There are also two eco-hotels offering rooms within a very natural ambience, offering organic coffee, foods, shampoo and toilet paper… One of them has an advanced recycling program which included composting.
I see a lot of potential within this little town bordered by the magical Atitlán lake…

Faces of San Juan

I think my few days of photography lessons have paid off, and I’m much happier with the pictures that I’ve been taking since then.

CIDA and NATO Efforts in the Balkans

2010-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Flashback to 2007 - Canadians working in the Balkans agree on one thing: democracies aren't built overnight. Working within broader international organizations, they are building accessible health care and education systems with locals working for military, health, democratization and judicial reform projects funded by Canada in the former Yugoslavia.

"I think it's important for the Canadian public to realize that we and the peaceful Western world, with our good governance and our affluence, have a responsibility to step up to the plate to assist countries who are struggling," said Maj. Greg Frank, who has been serving since last March on Canada's last military mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Operation Bronze.

Twenty minutes away from downtown Sarajevo at Camp Butmir, where NATO's headquarters are located, Frank and the seven other Canadians serving in Operation Bronze have just finished small arms training.

Camp Butmir headquarters is home to troops from more than 30 countries. Since 1992, more than 40,000 Canadian military personnel have served in the Balkans on peace support missions to protect the lives of civilians and allow for stabilization and reconstruction initiatives. While deployed in the Balkans, 23 CF members have lost their lives.

Now, Canada's main, and final, military contribution in Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of supporting NATO in defense reform tasks, which includes the merger of the country's two armies and police forces, as well as fighting terrorism and supporting the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The merger is a very difficult process, for Bosnia's Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, is politically isolated. Bosnia and Herzegovina's unemployment rate is over 30% . (Top: a man that's lucky to be employed in Sarajevo. KA)

Canada has been mine-clearing and initiated a treaty making sure that legal framework to ban the use of landmines was in place. Djenana Jalovcic is the project manager for the CIDA-funded Balkans Primary Health Care Policy Project.

Canada has assisted the Balkan countries on many levels from the early 90s, when the civil war broke out in the former Yugoslavia. CIDA has disbursed over C$540 million in the region, which has translated into more than 800 projects. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia (including Kosovo) and Montenegro have been the largest recipients of Canadian assistance.

Jalovcic and her team of doctors, consultants and nurses from Queen's University in Ottawa and the Canadian Society for International Health opened 60 community-based rehabilitation centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For disabled people and those wounded after the war, this meant finally getting the care they required within their homes and communities instead of having to go to special institutions.

The concept of community-based rehabilitation not only addressed people's desire to regain control of their lives but also the need to raise awareness about disability among the countries' populations. This led to the creation of peer-support groups, one of the foundations of the project.

After the Dayton Peace Accord which ended the war in the former Yugoslavia in 1995, Bosnia was divided into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly populated by people who consider themselves Bosniaks and Croats and Republika Srpska, inhabited by Serbians. Each entity has its own government with different ministries and up to recently, two armies. A central government runs the whole country.

After the CBR project was successfully running in the Federation, CSIH and Queen's wanted to expand to Republika Srpska. However, since Serbians were still perceived as "the aggressor", donors refused to support the project.

"From an ethical point of view, how can you say to a child in one part of town, 'I will help you', and to another child on the other side of town, 'I won't'? How can you justify this?" asked doctor Malcolm Peat, a consultant for the project. Luckily for Dr. Peat and his team, a Canadian became the head of the World Health Organization and decided to support the project. It expanded to Republika Srpska.

The Balkans Primary Health Care Policy, which is at the root of the CBR project, is part of Canada's bilateral help to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is a type of cooperation that requires signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the receiving country and the donor to establish development objectives together.

CIDA has also developed strategies that can quickly address specific population needs. Local Initiative Program (LIP) funds are amounts up to C$100 000 given to local or international NGOs which support sustainable peace, prosperity and democracy.

Lepojka Mitanovski started an SOS helpline to provide legal and psychological counseling to over 3000 disabled women since its launch. During the last three years, it has increased access to gynecological exams for disabled women.

In the judicial reform project Canada supports in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one third of the program should be committed to improving the position of women in the legal and justice system in general. Men have over 70% of the economic power here.

The project team in Bosnia and Herzegovina printed 80,000 brochures about women's rights distributed on Women's Day. The teams are also analyzing legislation and laws that affect women to improve their situation at the legislative level. They will work with judicial staff to educate them on how to effectively protect rights of women in court.

These Canadians are a reminder that Canada's contribution on the international level, be it through NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe or our own CIDA-funded organizations like the Canadian Society for International Health, is more crucial than ever.

Kinia Adamczyk for orato.com, 2007

Recovering a Stolen Childhood - Justine Jablonska

2010-03-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

by Justine Jablonska, for the cosmopolitanreview.com

Wesley Adamczyk survived deportation to Siberia and exile to chronicle that journey in “When God Looked the Other Way,” published by the University of Chicago Press in 2004. His father, Jan Adamczyk, was one of tens of thousands of Polish officers killed in the Katyn massacre.

Over the years, Adamczyk, a tireless activist on behalf of Polish history, has collected memoirs and mementos of the Polish children in exile in Iran, India and Africa, including children's autograph books. A few are shown below; their descriptions are located at the bottom of the article.

1940

It is spring 1940 and the world is more than a year deep into a war that will last five more. Wesley Adamczyk is 7. He has sandy blond hair and large blue eyes, and loves listening to his father tell stories about knights and ancient battles. Some days, Wesley likes playing hide-and-seek with his sister.

But not on this day, because he is on a train eastbound out of his Polish homeland. He tried packing his toys and books, but the soldiers said no. And so he huddles with his mother, sister and brother in a crowded train wagon with no seats or sanitation or food, hurtling toward Kazakhstan.

When they arrive, they'll spend the first day of more than 700 in a Soviet forced labor camp. For weeks and months on end, they will almost freeze and nearly die from starvation. They are only one Polish family out of countless others being deported to Siberia as the war rages on. During the worst, coldest, hungriest winter days, Wesley dreams of home. And of food. He also dreams of his father (all the children do), and their reunion. They haven't heard from him, or of him, for a long time. But it's wartime, and they're deep in Siberia. Thinking about their father sustains them.

Captain Jan Adamczyk, Wesley's father, is 47.

Or, was 47.

The same spring that Wesley is hurtling toward Siberia, the body of his father lies in a mass grave with tens of thousands of other Polish officers in Katyn forest, deep in Russia. He has – like everyone lying next to him – a single bullet hole in the back of his skull.

Joseph Stalin and the entire Soviet Politburo signed the order for this mass execution in March 1940. The April 1940 execution is a concerted Soviet effort to wipe out the Polish intelligentsia: the Polish officer corps includes lawyers, doctors, professors – anyone and everyone who is a university graduate, according to Poland's conscription system.

There are multiple mass graves in Katyn forest. Some will lie undiscovered for the next three years. The one with Wesley's father will not be found for 50 years. In the spring of 1940, no one – except for the executioners, of course – knows they exist. The Polish government-in-exile doesn't know. The rest of the Polish army, scattered across Europe, doesn't know. The families – the ones who are in the photographs still in the officers' pockets and wallets – they don't know. And so Wesley continues to dream about his father.

2010

Wesley is 77. His gray hair is pulled back into a small ponytail. He wears large, tinted sunglasses when he's outside, and sometimes when he's indoors. If he closes his left eye, he can barely see anything out of his right one.

He's been a widower for ten years and lives alone.

There's a framed photograph in his living room – it's the only surviving pre-war photograph of Wesley and his siblings. In the photo, Wesley is a tiny two-year old, wearing a light-colored coat and hat, holding his sister's hand. Their brother stands in back of them.

This same photograph is on the front cover of Wesley's book: "When God looked the other way: An odyssey of war, exile, and redemption."

Published by the University of Chicago Press in 2004 with a foreword by acclaimed historian Norman Davies, it chronicles not just Wesley's journey to and from Siberia, but his father's.

Wesley had an awful time writing the book. "I quit for three years. I was crying, my wife is feeling sorry for me. I said, it's not going to work."

He came back to the book because he knew that without those very feelings, that emotion, it would be lifeless. And it's anything but: "Many women say they cry," he says, "men too but men don't admit it."

1943

Wesley is 10. He's a bit taller and much thinner. He's living in a refugee camp near Tehran with his sister Zosia.

They escaped Siberia with their mother the previous year.

As the war continued on and alliances shifted, Russia and Germany turned on one another. Polish leaders took advantage of this development, and approached Soviet and British authorities with a request and proposal: That the thousands of Polish deportees serving in forced labor camps in Siberia be allowed to join a reconstituted Polish army that would help Russia and the rest of the Allies fight against Germany.

The Soviets said yes. But Stalin made no provisions for these thousands – no food, no training. Polish leaders then asked the British army to take these masses under their protection. The British said yes. And so those Poles who survived began a reverse exodus from Siberia.

They were shipped to a British outpost in Tehran, where some died and some ended up in further flung outposts in India, Palestine and Africa.

Wesley's older brother is in the Polish army fighting with the British, stationed in Iraq.

The three Adamczyk siblings are full orphans now. But they just don't know it yet.

They know they've lost their mother: Anna Adamczyk died in October 1942 of malaria and dysentery and exhaustion and a weakened heart. They weren't there when she died, but were there when she was buried in a cemetery in Tehran. They're still searching for their father, hoping that they'll somehow find him.

But in April 1943, a mass grave in Russia is discovered by German soldiers; German armies have pushed deep into Russia by now. An international commission is called in to examine the graves and the bodies, which are wearing winter Polish army uniforms, coats, hats. They have all their personal effects on them: wallets, insignia, diaries, newspapers, photos, wedding rings. There are more than four thousand dead soldiers in the mass graves of the Katyn forest.

The commission's investigation identifies the execution date – April 1940 – and the executioners: Russians. But Russia – officially Poland's ally – denies responsibility for the Katyn massacre. They blame the Germans. They'll continue their denial until 1990.

Wesley and his sister hear about the graves. But their father's body is not among those found thus far. So they continue hoping he's somewhere out there searching for them like they're searching for him.

2010

At book lectures, Wesleyoften asks his audiences if anyone knows what it means to starve. Usually, no one does. "I say, in America you rush from school and you say, I'm starving! It's a figure of speech." So he explains what it means, because he's lived it: Starving means you've had no food for a number of days; your stomach hurts; you lose weight; your gums are bleeding; you think you're going to die.

He says he uses the word "imagine" but to please remember it's only to a point that one can imagine. "In real life you can't imagine unless it's you." He tried to write his book in a way that would help readers imagine as much as possible. It wasn't easy.

"It's so hard to put on paper what your heart and soul is thinking about," he says.

1945

Wesley is 12. For a while, he and his sister lived in a camel stable on a desert near the Persian Gulf. Then Wesley is sent to a refugee orphanage in Tehran. His sister visits him there one day. She's been to the British embassy and has been told that their father's name was on a list of the Polish prisoner-of-war camps in Russia. All of these prisoners-of-war are missing. Some are accounted for: they're the ones in the mass grave found by the Germans in 1943. But there's still eleven thousand missing. Their father is one of them.

Soon afterward, Wesley escapes the orphanage to be with his sister in the refugee camp.

And then the war ends.

Poles throughout the world –the Polish government-in-exile, Polish soldiers fighting alongside the Allies, Polish deportees and prisoners-of-war – all hope for one thing: to return to a free and sovereign Polish nation. But no such nation exists, because Poland is handed over to Soviet Russia by those very same Allies.

Wesley and his sister travel with other Polish refugees to Lebanon, where they'll remain until 1948, when they'll travel to England and be reunited with their brother.

The Soviets will continue to deny their responsibility for the Katyn massacre. In Soviet-controlled Poland, the official party line will always be that the Nazis shot all those Polish leaders in the back of the head at Katyn.

2010

The front of Wesley's refrigerator is filled with overlapping notes, business cards, photographs. The lower third of his kitchen cabinets are in a similar state, with taped notes and business cards, drawings and scraps of paper with just a few words or sentences on them.

Wesley is often asked about the incredible amount of detail in the book.

"We have two types of memories," he says. "Conscious and sub-conscious. The conscious –if you want to be a mathematician, you remember formulas. But there is a sub-conscious memory often hidden deep inside, of either powerful things that were tragic or beautiful things."

1949 - 1990

Wesley is almost 16 in November 1949 when he leaves England for America on the British ocean liner Aquitania. It's her last voyage with passengers.

He'll arrive in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day and eat his first Thanksgiving meal at the home of his father's sister. Three years later, he'll graduate from high school. In 1957, he'll graduate from college, then work as a chemist for Lever Brothers until 1995.

In 1989, Poland is finally freed. It's the beginning of the end of the Soviet Communist bloc. The Berlin Wall comes down.

Wesley is 56 in 1989. In addition to his professional work, he's an accomplished, semi-professional tournament bridge player. He's married with one son.

In Poland, Polish Communist authorities lift the ban on publishing information about Katyn. No one at this point still believes it was the Nazis. Still, there's been no admission from Russia –until April 1990, when Mikhail Gorbachev finally offers one. He also reveals the locations of the remaining, lost gravesites – in Miednoye and Kharkov.

Wesley's father is in one of them. Captain Jan Adamczyk, born 01.21.1893 in Ciezkowice, Poland, executed in 1940 in Kharkov. The total number of Polish officers executed in the Katyn massacre is almost 22,000.

2010

Wesley has been asked why he didn't write the book sooner.

"Simple," he says. "Because for 50 years I was looking for my father's grave and unless I found it, it would've been a book without an ending."

The one chance he had at formal closure was 12 years ago when he traveled to his father's grave with his son to take part in an international memorial ceremony. Wesley wasn't sure in which of the mass graves his father's remains were. So just to be sure, he said a prayer at each one.

Wesley's latest project is a compilation of children's memorial notebooks. They're like American yearbooks, but with blank pages where children write poems and notes to each other. He's gathered more than a 100 of these notebooks from Siberian deportees who were – like him – children during the war. Despite the horrors they saw – or maybe because of them – the children somehow managed to carry and preserve these notebooks. Wesley's organized them into a powerpoint presentation, and clicks through it slowly, pausing at each slide to explain that notebook's origins.

Childish drawings: A little girl stands by a mushroom with a bright red top with white spots; on another, fairies and elves. One page has real flower petals on it. They've lost their color, are brittle. More sophisticated drawings: a brilliant bouquet of flowers. A few green stalks with strawberries. An intricate bunch of violets.

Those who drew these had seen death, starvation, torture. And yet they were still able to make these drawings. "It's encouraging. It's hopeful. It's beautiful," he says.

He's organized his presentation by country, and it moves from Russia to Persia, then Egypt, India, Palestine, Tanganyika, Lebanon, Uganda, England. He knows stories about each of the drawings and authors: "This was a friend of my sister's in Siberia. Their mother died in Siberia, her two-year-old sister died in Tehran," he says. "This girl lived in a tent with my sister in Tehran. We met again after 50 years in Chicago."

His sister carried her own book through the 12 countries of their wartime journey. He likes reading the English translations of the notes and poems that accompany the drawings aloud: "Some people seek great happiness / Others for themselves seek love / I seek only to be remembered / Remembered in times to come."

Like the faded, brittle flower petals, there's a delicacy and sensitivity in the books that speaks to how those who drew them had witnessed horrors: "This girl's sister froze to death in the Soviet Union in 1940."

And perhaps because of the death that went hand-in-hand with these experiences, many of the notes are about remembrance: "Remember me," "remembrance," "a wreath of memories."

"We all want to be remembered, don't we?" Wesley says. "We don't want to be forgotten. And that's what it is all about." CR

NIGHT OF DEPORTATION; Wola Pilsudskiego, Poland
From the diary of Wanda Barbara Kociuba, deported to the Soviet Union with her family in February 1940.
Courtesy of Wanda Barbara Kociuba

COVER OF ZOSIA ADAMCZYK'S BOOK
Wesley's sister, Zosia, carried this book with her through 12 countries. Their father bought the book for Zosia in Zakopane in 1938; it has a wooden cover. Courtesy of the Adamczyk-Kaminski family

ARAB MEN IN THE DESERT; Tehran, April 23, 1943
By P. K. for Sabina Soltysiak
Courtesy of Sabina Soltysiak

ARAB WOMEN; Isfahan, Persia, 1943
From the diary of Wanda Barbara Kociuba
Inscription: "I am astonished that they (not the men) hold such heavy things on their heads. I am so excited to explore Tehran." Courtesy of Wanda Barbara Kociuba

MEMORIES OF POLAND; painted in Zouk, Lebanon, Dec. 1947
From the diary of Wanda Barbara Kociuba; Kociuba was on her way to England from Lebanon in 1947 when she painted this picture, which she captioned: "Distant memories."
In her diary, she writes, "But what of the memories - the truth has vanished. What happened to it all? Ah, it does not matter - because it will return - it will return, but then I will no longer be a child." (Translation: Wesley Adamczyk) Courtesy of Wanda Barbara Kociuba

PYRAMIDS; Isfahan, Feb. 6, 1945
Inscriptions read:
"...In remembrance. Have heart and look into your heart..."
"For dear Basia, in memory of our time together - Jaska Taborowna"
Courtesy of Basia Kulikowska

JUNGLE; Masindi, Uganda, Nov. 10, 1944
By Teodezja Platowna for Irena (Walaszek)
Courtesy of Irena Walaszek

ELVES; Tehran, Sept. 11, 1943
This drawing depicts elves, or "krasnoludki," magical creatures that live in the forest, says Wesley Adamczyk. Polish fairy tales describe these magical creatures as so tiny they sleep under mushrooms during the day. They work at night - and children know that's why you can never find them.
By Krystyna Kolodynska for Zosia Adamczyk. Courtesy of the Adamczyk-Kaminski family

Justine Jablonska is a graduate student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, with a specialization in urban issues, politics and foreign policy. In her previous corporate life, she worked as an editor, writer and project manager for various companies, including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, NASD, Humana and Creative Powers Inc.

I'm a Woman, Not a Headscarf: Debate in Canada, reflections from Turkey

2010-03-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Gazette: MONTREAL – Proposed legislation that bans the niqab from government offices, the education system and health care reflects a broad consensus in Quebec that equality of the sexes is paramount, rights experts said yesterday.

But any further step to purge religious symbols from the public sphere would intrude on individual rights, said constitutional lawyer Julius Grey. “We shouldn’t follow France into secular radicalism,” he said. “I believe that is too dogmatic, and I do not think we should make secularism a religion.” Read more in The Gazette.

The niqab... a piece of garment that speaks a thousand words, as it veils the face of a woman, revealing the eyes only through a slit.

Under Bill 94, tabled March 24 in the National Assembly in Canada, "all public sector employees will be required to have their faces uncovered, as will any citizen using government services, for example, someone paying her car registration or applying for a medicare card. The ban on such face coverings as the niqab or burqa also applies to the entire education sector, from daycare centres to universities, as well as hospitals, public clinics and social services," The Gazette reported on March 26, 2010.

This debate sparked thoughts and memories from a sojourn in Turkey, where over 90% of the population is Muslim, and where it is prohibited to wear the headscarf in universities and schools.

"I'm a Woman, Not a Headscarf," features a series of portraits, backgrounders and analysis pieces that give the reader a glimpse of the situation of women in Turkey.

90th after 80 years offers background information about the general situation of women in Turkey. Thou Shall Not Cover, Modern Woman contextualizes the use of the headscarf in Turkey and explores various opinions and fears regarding the headscarf ban enforced since 1998. I Am a Woman, Not a Headscarf depicts the consequences of the headscarf ban on the lives of four women. Turkish, Woman and Successful challenges the stereotype that most women in Turkey are subservient and stay at home through the success stories of two women.

A few memorable quotes:

“I do not believe God is interested in my hair. This is a completely male way of interpreting religion,” said Canan Arin, a well-known Turkish feminist, activist and lawyer. “This means that God is a man only interested in man’s sexuality, so he tries to cover women, pushing them out of society. Our prime minister says women should have at least three kids. The more kids you have, the more you have to care for them, and so women will be closed from society."

"When the headscarf ban came into force, 35-year-old Esma Gokcen had the choice to take off her scarf or to leave her job. “When I speak to people from Europe, they are shocked I left my job
because of my headscarf and they ask me, who forced you? They think they have to get
us to take off our scarf to give us freedom,” she added. Gokcen started wearing the scarf
at the age of nine, even though her mother found her too young for it.

Her husband suggested she take it off to keep her teacher’s job, but she refused.

“I listened to God and I prayed. Then I left my school and my job,” the mother of two
said. She cried for a week. “I love my students like my own children and I love my job,
but I just couldn’t take off my scarf… It’s very difficult. Other people can understand, but
they cannot feel it.”

Zeynep Piyade fainted on a few occasions the first times she wore the headscarf. Her new
Muslim attire contrasted sharply with the skimpy bathing suits she wore in the coastal city of Antalya as an atheist and rebellious teenager. “I thought there was no point in covering yourself. I was pretty close to believing people should walk around naked,” Piyade said mischievously.

When she was four, in 1973, Piyade’s parents moved from Turkey to Australia. Her
father was a socialist – “that was the ‘out’ thing in Turkey at that time” – and the family
escape the country to avoid him being hanged like some of his friends.

“I adjusted pretty well I think, although the British Australian kids made fun of different
kids. They called us wogs, which is some form of illness,” Piyade recalled.

Picture at the top: the author (second from the left) during a visit to Turkey in 2008, with two friends and their mother. Many women choose to wear the headscarf, others decide not too. While she chooses to cover her hair outside of home, this mother leaves it up to her daughters to decide whether they will cover up or not.

"La moitié des Québécois n'en veulent pas"

2010-03-30T10:09:00.001-07:00

OTTAWA – 49,6 % des Québécois estiment que les personnes affichant des symboles religieux ne devraient pas travailler dans des hôpitaux ou des écoles.

En revanche, 45,6% pensent le contraire, révèle l’enquête en ligne de Léger Marketing, dévoilée en exclusivité à l’Agence QMI. From canoe.com

In love with music

2010-03-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

He loves Polish landscapes, fishing, mushroom-picking and biking at his grandparents' cottage. That's when he's not busy charming the world with his magic fingers. At the age of 14, Calgary-born pianist Jan Lisiecki has conquered the hearts of music lovers in Canada and beyond. And yet he has stayed remarkably down-to-earth. "I believe that life should unfold the way that it is supposed to unfold," he told CR between concerts in Munich and Banff. Pianist extraordinaire? Yes. Extraordinarily human? Most certainly. Jan Lisiecki on being a citizen of the world and on why he prefers music to math. Interview by Kinia Adamczyk. MORE

Istanbul: Lust, Attraction and Attachment

2010-03-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Her ample body follows the sinuous curves of the Bosporus; her two seductively adorned bridges straddle the strait. She's rather promiscuous, seducing men and women alike, while opposing factions in rival families, Asia and Europe, buy, attempt, fail to control this willful and wayward woman.

Whether she is modestly covered, sometimes barely looking you in the eye; or exposing her countless delights, İstanbul rarely fails to entice her visitors. Her name was Constantinople when Byzantium controlled her. She kept it even after the Ottomans took over in 1453, until the Turkish Republic's father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, reformed the Turkish language in the 1920s, adopting the Latin alphabet, and giving the beautiful city a new name. İstanbul is a shortened version of the Greek phrase ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΙΝ (EIS TIN POLIN), meaning "to the city", since Constantinople was the biggest, wealthiest and most populated metropolis of the times. (Top: A bar with a view- old, squeaky apartments buildings often hide breath-taking rooftop sights. KA) MORE

Chopin, NATO, Soviet Relics... CR's spring issue is here!

2010-03-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

CR is celebrating spring with a new look because, as you will see, it's time for a party.

There's much to celebrate, starting with the 200th birthday of Poland's most famous exile, Frederic Chopin, born in Żelazowa Wola, just outside of Warsaw. We join the festivities bearing gifts of poetry, prose and a guide to Chopin events worldwide. In CR's first fiction, Eva Stachniak transforms her readers into aristocratic guests at a salon in Paris in the company of Polish exiles, among them, Chopin himself. (Photo: Liberté 1 by "MonOeil" from creativecommons.org)

Were the composer alive today, would he accept an invitation to give a concert at Warsaw's Soviet-built Palace of Culture and Science? Would he dance in the Palace's hip club Kafe Kulturalna? Or would he side with Minister of Foreign Affairs Radek Sikorski, who is suggesting Poland "demolish its own symbol of communist misrule"? Whether you agree or not, we invite you to follow the little red arrows to find out more about what this issue has in store. Join our global Polish party, open to all. Bring your friends. We'll introduce you to both emerging and seasoned writers from around the world. All you have to bring is your ideas... and find a sun-filled, comfortable spot from where you can enjoy CR's spring issue. MORE >

Paradise? Or utopia?

2010-03-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

Delicious, tasty, natural food.
Beautiful living interiors.
Nature - around you, beneath you, above you.
Self-reliance.
More time to do what you love.

Did I mention awesome toilets?

It took a couple of months to gain perspective about living the ecovillage life. Indeed, from North America, Svanholm and Munksoegaard, two Danish eco-villages, now evoke a certain nostalgia for nature, simplicity, community.

Ecovillages are “human-scale, full-featured settlements, in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future,” according to sustainability thinker Robert Gilman.

“They are places where people have invested time and money in finding new and alternative solutions to what is offered and what people are accepting,” explained Etienne Gernez, a young engineer who set out to document sustainable living in Scandinava during the 2009 summer. "When you live an urban life, you have to use the way energy is produced by the city, its waste management system, its transportation… you have all these services and facilities that are offered. You can just use them without any thinking about how improving them. These people in eco-villages are working on making them better.”

Gernez gathered a group of curious individuals from Europe and North America to collect footage and spread awareness about how groups of committed individuals are making big changes in the way they lead their lives. His team is now busy putting together the 50 hours of footage gathered this summer into one spunky, original hour and a half documentary.

For more information about the project and the team's findings, go to Taking Good Intentions One Step Beyond.

As for the cool toilets, you'll just have to check out Jytte Abildstrom's awesome composting potties yourself...

Whether you think ecovillages are paradise or utopia (or maybe somewhere in-between), finding out more won't hurt. Who knows, it may even inspire.

European citizenship saves me from a fine

2009-05-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

I am on the verge of tears when the ticket controller finally decides not to fine me. A man in his late forties at the table next to me is on his fifth beer (I’m estimating), since the train leaves Gdansk for Warsaw at 9:25. He's looking at me less and less discreetly. I'm shouting, louder and louder. It must be around noon. More

Follow-up article in Polish Gazeta Wyborcza

The freedom to seek a better life - migration and the EU

2009-05-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

Nous sommes tous des immigrés, il n'y a que le lieu de naissance qui change.

We are all immigrants. It's just our birthplaces that change. [anonymous, from evene.fr]

A l'immigration subie, je préfère l'immigration choisie.

I prefer chosen migration to imposed migration. [Nicolas Sarkozy, in an interview with Le Figaro, January 2005]

A main source of frustration when exploring policy-making at the EU level is the feeling that the main stakeholders are often left out of the debate. Decisions are elite-driven, policy analysis takes into account the substance of directives and regulations, but only briefly glosses by the consequences on the people they affect.

This thought was spurred by exploring the EU's migration and asylum policies. "The temptation to externalise the difficulties encountered with unwanted immigrants is obvious, and may lead to a profound change in the meaning and exercise of liberal commitments towards foreigners in Europe... There are also limits to how long liberal democracies can turn a blind eye on the severe human rights violations that have occurred in the context of returns in countries such as Morocco or Libya," wrote Sandra Lavenex, a prolific expert on the matter. (She is a professor at Lucerne University in Switzerland.

I followed a course she taught at the College of Europe.) One of the characteristics of the EU's approach towards migration is indeed to "externalise" its approach - i.e. to shift the burden of dealing with illegal migrants to the states from where they emerge. It is something of a unilateral approach, and its limits have been pointed to. Lavenex continues: "A problem with the conclusion of readmission agreements [by which the country of origin 'retakes' an illegal migrant] is that as these are solely in the interest of the [EU] ... there is little that can be offered in return ... Indeed, the difficulties in motivating countries such as Russia, Ukraine or Morocco to sign such agreements show very well the limits of an unbalanced, EU-centred approach. To respond to this challenge, the Commission has ﬁrst created a new budget line to support ‘Cooperation with third countries in the area of migration’.

In 2004, this was replaced by a multi-annual ﬁnancial framework for the years 2004–2008 with a total amount of e250 million (the so-called Aeneas Programme). Apart from the general goal to support third countries’ efforts to improve the management of migratory ﬂows, the Regulation stresses in particular stimulation of third countries’ readiness to conclude readmission agreements, and assistance in coping with the consequences of such agreements.It is said that a doctor cannot feel compassion for a patient's pain. Yet how can we remain so sterile with regards to such a human condition problem that is migration? What right does a certain group of people have to decide whether this man, that woman or this child will have the right to build a better life or not?There is a huge gap between policy-makers and the people affected by the policies they create. Of course, the media can play a role by bridging that gap but often its attempts leave the persons in question (eg. migrants locked up in detention centers) with little dignity and agency. Media can denounce the lack of humanity of such centers, show horrendous pictures and stir a bit of emotion in its viewers. If those viewers happen to be active citizens, they may put pressure on their governments to change their practices.

But can this be done at the EU-level? Dealing with migration issues in the realms of insulation of European policy-making shields politicians from the direct responsibility on the fates of thousands of human lives restrictive migration policies imply, leaving citizens with little room to contribute to the debate on the matter.Of course, major inflows of immigrants do cause strain on EU member states. It is a costly phenomenon, and politicians, after all, experience pressure from their voters to restrict massive inflows, pushing them to adopt inhuman policies.But at the end of the day, someone has to take responsibility for a matter that will only grow in importance. Putting migrants in detention centers is not a long-term, sustainable solution for dealing with migration and its consequences.

Why was Sarajevo the Jerusalem of Europe?

2009-03-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

Why did it work? Why did Christians, Jews and Muslims live there peacefully for such a long time?

Nobody in my class answered my question. (Top: Srebrenica massacre commemoration in Sarajevo - summer 2007.)

Let me put this into context: we are talking about conditionality, EU accession as an incentive for "Western Balkans" to reform their justice systems and to bring war criminals to justice and models of democratization. Which models of democratization should be adopted in the region?

I ask: how about asking the people there what they think about democratization? What is democracy to them? I say: democratize through democracy. My professor says that the man on the street doesn't know. You should ask experts.

I think this is a top-down approach (which I resent). I argue the Canadian model: if you want to bring democracy to a multicultural region, why don't you look at societies where multiculturalism works? Canada is the home of multiculturalism (thanks PE Trudeau).

This is where I asked: why did Sarajevo work?

Another point I made earlier: the EU must regain trust without conditionality in the region. Not getting rid of conditionality entirely (because the EU would lose its values - one classmate rightly pointed out). You have to win people's heart. People in the region (and this stems for more than 50 interviews I've done two years ago) - feel betrayed. Where was the EU when Sarajevo was under siege for four years?

The movies No Man's Land, Welcome to Sarajevo and the Hunting Party represent this feeling of betrayal well.

I don't think you can build democracy without asking the locals how they think it should be done. I have a hunch the EU is slightly guilty of this (moral and political) offense.

More from the author:
Learning Kosovo
From a No Man's Land to Fragile Peace: Building Democracy in the Balkans

Folks, Friends, Faeries

2009-03-13T12:41:00.001-07:00

Folks, Friends, Faeries

We’re up and out the door, and you’d better catch us while on the move. www.cosmopolitanreview.com is shaking things up and out.

In the Spring issue, walk the line down 25 Nobel years with Lech Wałęsa, reach out to what it was growing up Polish in Tanzania, put historian Georges Mink on the hotseat, learn how to find treasure in a lump of coal.

From Paris to Kilimanjaro to Rome, Siberia to Paris, Baku and back, and an oracle of elsewhere thrown in for good measure -

Gombrowicz crossed the Atlantic before us with words. Today we ride on the backs of giants –

From Warsaw, Montreal, New York

With love

CR

Oh, PS: If you like our work, or an article, or anything about CR, send us out to your friends and colleagues. We love your feedback, but if you really want to pay us back for the love put into this, pay it forward. Get friends talking, writing, engaging. Use us as a forum for debate. That’s how initiatives like CR keep levitating, defying forces of time and gravity.

Spread the word about Canada's best kept secret... it's Polish.

2009-02-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

The second number of the Polish transatlantic quarterly, the cosmopolitan review, will be available by the beginning of March @ cosmopolitanreview.com.

From the world to Poland, and Poland to the world... The next issue of CR will bring you Baku's richness, Tanzania's Polish connection, the hustle and bustle of New York through poetry, a British take on Polish cinema, a magical childhood in Germany... and much, much more.

Stay alert. Travel the world with the cosmopolitan review. And spread the word... about today's best-kept secret. It's cosmopolitan. CR

Six-minute romances: speed-dating in Paris (also in Deutsch, Polski, Italiano, Français, Español)

2009-02-24T19:38:00.001-08:00

continued...

A literary child is born...

2009-02-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

continued...

The Turkish theologist who stopped wearing the headscarf

2008-11-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

Giving the grey Ruhr Valley a green future

2008-05-17T06:25:00.001-07:00

Giving the grey Ruhr Valley a green future

Published: 6 May 08 17:09 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/11733/

Once a sooty part of the Ruhr Valley, Dortmund’s Hörde district is going green. Kinia Adamczyk examines a project aiming to turn an industrial relic into a city of the future.

Read on...

I just wanna be a woman, but it ain't easy...

2008-05-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

KONYA- Turkey. When I presented the views of a feminist who held the headscarf is a symbol of patriarchy and a violation of human rights, a classmate of mine gracefully suggested I "buy myself a brain."

(NB- I made sure to add it to my shopping list... still on the lookout)

After spending a weekend with more than a hundred headscarf-wearing women, I saw the other perspective, or shall I say perspectives.

(Adding a dollop of cheese: I came to the "Women's Meeting" with some fears and questions, but left with 100 sisters. I can hear the squeals of dismay- why look, she is just trying to be politically-correct on that picture! What a show!)

No matter how open you try to be, I think it is very hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has strong faith when you yourself do not have the same degree of belief. (I tried, I came as close as I think I can.)

But I developed much empathy for a girl who snuck into school at 6 am before the police came to order students to take the scarf off. Or for a woman who shaved her head, and countless ones who quit their jobs because their faith was more important to them.

It would be easy to ask- why don't you just take it off for a few hours, for a little bit? But you cannot. One woman told me: if you believe, you believe and you can't question what God asks you to do.

It is not much of a stretch to say that for a woman who wear the scarf, taking it off is almost like for a non-headscarf-wearing woman to be told to uncover her chest. (I can hear the cries of opposition and grumbling... but that is the closest comparison I can make at this point to illustrate what these women told me.)

Regardless-

When I mentioned this empathy to a self-proclaimed secular woman, I came under fire. How could I possibly think like that? I should feel sorry for her, she told me, because she is afraid Turkey will become like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Women who wear the scarf are "the enemy of secular women like me," she said. She has no respect for her PM, her president and his covered wife, she said.

"Turkey is a secular country, with a secular government, and that's how it will stay," she said.

I was told that America and the West think everyone should be free to wear what they want- but in Turkey it's more complicated. So I should look at this issue from the "right perspective." Which is???

If looks could kill, I wouldn't be here to write this note.

Whatever you think about the HS here, you will find someone who doesn't like what you think. After a few weeks in Turkey, I think I understand the issue a little bit better.

My partial conclusion? It's too bad it divides women into the "covered" category and the "uncovered" one. The resulting political debate turns women into objects, creatures people criticize and think they can decide for. It's too bad it turns the attention away from other fundamental issues, like violence against women, or the quality of education or of the health care system. Oh, if we could just live and let live!

And I, sadly, by writing this note, am contributing to this categorization of women, to my dismay.

(Maybe I can make up for it in further writing...)

One woman told me: I am not a headscarf- I am a woman. And all of us are different.

Yet from the looks of the debate, commentary in the press and people's attitude, this piece of fabric will stay on the central stage for a long time...

CODA: After all these experiences, I have come to believe it is easy to sit in your ivory tower- of course, reading your dose of media to be "informed" - watch customs you are not used to from far away, and have an opinion about it all. Without talking to the people who are actually involved in the issue at stake.

It is much harder to come out and try to understand the customs without feeling threatened. But also a lot more rewarding.

For me, and ideal world would be one where women could wear what they feel good in. Where they wouldn't feel they have to protect themselves from male violence or stares, whether that implies covering your head of avoiding certain places. A world where my (potentially future) daughters could feel safe anywhere, regardless of their attire. And a world where women- and humans- are not divided into politically-motivated categories (which doesn't make me a Marxist).

That's just the beginning. Ahhh, utopias...

Whatever you are, come

2008-05-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

They were whirling
The soft sound of leather shoes shuffling silently
on the wooden ground
Sufi sound...
Round and round in a circle
Quietly, peacefully
Inhaling Allah into their souls
And spreading peace to those surrounding them
The Mevlevi of Konya

"Come, Come again ! Whatever you are... Whether you are infidel, idolater or fireworshipper. Whether you have broken your vows of repentance a hundred times This is not the gate of despair, This is the gate of hope. Come, come again... "
Hz. Mevlana

How Turkey Stole My Heart. Plus: the Headscarf Discovery Continues.

2008-05-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first conversation with a woman wearing the headscarf. I had interviewed covered women in Utrecht, but it wasn’t a heartfelt talk, just rather flat exchanges of information.

Feyza works for the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Turkey. She has the sweetest voice ever: I’m sure it would soothe any angry child. She is here in Konya for a conference of the Women’s Platform, about whose activities I will find out about this weekend.

We spoke briefly, but I felt totally at ease.

Of course, my attitude might seem strange. But the headscarf is not part of the culture I grew up in, or in my close “interactive” culture. I never had any covered classmates or friends. It’s just something that seemed “different”, something I couldn’t comprehend. Something I felt shy to ask about.

Besides, in Turkey, it is such a potent social political symbol at the root of much debate and discussion… Not only in Turkey actually. One way or another, my conversation with Feyza has opened a new door for me, a door of comfort and openness. I am not shy to ask anymore.

And this weekend in Konya, in central Turkey (the home of the famous Sufi mystic Rumi and of the twirling Dervishes) I will have the opportunity to speak to women who wear the scarf and who will be open to answering my questions.

…

Turks often add the suffix cim (jim) when speaking to you- eg. Kiniacim. It means Kinia dear. Also, relationships between people, even in academia are less formal than elsewhere. Not less polite, but warmer, more engaged, not as distant as I have experienced in Canada. The women I have interviewed (heads of NGOs, department chairs) have quickly adopted the second-person approach with me. And I feel like they make my project their cause.

I’ve been feeling this sense of euphoria this week (although I’m tired from enjoying the Istanbul nightlife!) regarding my relations with people.

They are just SO KIND. Everyone goes out of their way to help me. I have lost count of the people who have walked me to a bus, to a destination, escorted me. Doesn’t matter if sometimes it took them 30 minutes, they took the time for me. OK- taxi drivers have tried to charge me the night rate during the day every time, but I have been fed for free (even in cafés) or have been charged lower prices for food on many, many occasions.

When I flew into Konya, the airports electrician took me all the way to my hotel (about 45 minutes). He got people from the car rental agency to drive me closer to the center, then he took a dolmus (public taxi) to the Rixos with me. Not sure if that would happen in Canada.

Sure, I may sound a bit naïve and too optimistic, but really, the social culture in Turkey and Konya has been very welcoming.

I am charmed. Turkey has stolen my heart.

What are women born for? Not to provoke men?

2008-05-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

People see what they want to see, Canan Arin replied to me when I told her lots of Europeans saw Turkey as a traditionalist, conservative country.

I feel like in most European cities here in Istanbul, except that I do get a few more stares from men. But I must say I was surprised by the "level of modernity" here. We really do tend to put Muslim heritage societies into one bag. However, Istanbul feels very secular, and I feel at home.

Canan Arin (photo: radikal.com) struck me as a beautiful and strong person the moment I met her. Wearing a colorful shirt, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses, she quickly ran out of her office to move her car as soon as I came in. Like most Istanbulites, she must deal with the city's notoriously thick traffic when driving to her office in Taksim.

I had time to look at all the eclectic paraphernalia in her office: clearly she had traveled the world. She is against "any injustice at birth" and that's what drives her in her fight for equality between women and men. She believes the headscarf to be a violation of human rights: if women are to cover their hair, their faces, to stay at home, then "what are we born for?" Arin asks. Not to provoke men?

Arin is a lawyer and a leading feminist here in Turkey. She co-founded many associations to combat violence against women, including the well-known women's shelter MorÇati- Purple Roof.

Arin is only one of the inspiring women I will speak with during my stay in Turkey. I was pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastically a well-known journalist, a researcher and Arin herself responded to my request for an interview.

I though it would be much more difficult. I thought there would be more no's and I'm-too-busy's.

I would like to dedicated a full article to Arin. She has been written about more than once, but her combat for the rights and equality of women is one that deserves many pages and much praise.

We all bleed red, from East to West

2008-05-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Istanbul-- 23 years and 30 countries behind me, I have realized we are really the same. Yes, I know I'm not the first one coming to this conclusion.

I have been in the homes of people in Guatemala, the US, Serbia - Kosovo, Macedonia, Poland, and well, most countries of Europe, Morocco, now Turkey.

On the outside, some of us wear veils, others shorter skirts and hats, religious symbols in some cases, in others none.

But in the home, most human beings try to build a cocoon of comfort, love, family space, where guests are celebrated, offered food, drink and hospitality.

Sometimes we don't speak with the same alphabet, but the language of laughter, smiles and pats on the back allows us to communicate. Besides, it's not so hard to learn thank you in other languages.

Like millions before me, I have now experienced Turkish hospitality in more than one home.

Yesterday, it was in the company of Alp, his wife Serap (picture on top) and her parents who hosted us for dinner. The table was full of dolma, sarma, bulgur, different salads, sauces, cakes... and that was only the beginning. Tea was accompanied by so many deserts I can't even name them all.

The grandfather treated us to a tambur concert after dinner. The Turkish quarter-tone harmonies emanated from the strings and echoed in the case, reminding me a bit of a bagpipe.

In the home, at the table, it is easy to forget we are from different countries. We are just plain human beings.

...

12 hours later, May 1, holiday- worker's day

There are demonstrations on Taksim square- the center of new Istanbul. Police are using tear gas... so I am staying home. Although as a journalist, I would love to see it first-hand.

My host is there- I lent her my goggle so she can protect herself from the gas.

(Picture: May 1 2007)

From Hürriyet news

Turkish labor unions call off planned Taksim May Day celebration march

Turkey's leading labor unions on Thursday called off their planned march to Istanbul's Taksim Square as part of the May Day celebrations. Labor Unions Confederation (DISK) Chairman Suleyman Celebi said the unions would end the march in the Sisli district of Istanbul as they did not want to be seen as the government’s provocation mechanism. Turkey's major labor unions were planning to celebrate May 1 Workers' Day at Istanbul's Taksim Square but the government cited security reasons as the justification for refusing to grant permission.

DISK Chairman Suleyman Celebi told reporters on Thursday that together with Confederation of Public Sector Unions (KESK) Chairman Ismail Hakki Tombul and Turkish Confederation of Labor (Turk-Is) Secretary General Mustafa Turkel, they decided not to push workers towards Taksim Square for a colossal meeting.

"Now we are ending the celebrations with common sense, because we don’t want to be seen as the government’s provocation mechanism," Celebi told reporters on Thursday.

"We wanted to gather in Taksim (square) to express our demands with an enthusiastic festival. Now, all squares and the whole Turkey have become Taksim," he said.

Police wearing gas masks first broke up a crowd which had gathered in front of the DISK office in Istanbul’s central business and residential Sisli district with the intention of walking to Taksim.

Police, blocking all streets leading to Taksim, also broke up groups of workers trying to enter the square through various alternative routes, firing tear gas and beating some demonstrators with clubs.

Some demonstrators were seen throwing rocks at police. Journalists and people trying to get to work were also affected by the tear gas fired at the demonstrators.

The Turkish government had insisted on its rejection to lift the decades-long ban and open Taksim for celebrations despite pressure from the country’s leading unions, which represent around 3 million workers.

Turkish officials cited security concerns and warned on provocative actions during the celebrations, while unions vowed to celebrate May Day peacefully in Taksim with an estimated 500,000 people.

Turkey banned May Day celebrations in Taksim Square after 36 people were killed on May 1, 1977; a date since referred to as the "Bloody May 1." This event is seen as a turning point in Turkish history and an important factor that paved the way for the military coup in 1980. Still-unidentified armed men opened fire on the crowd of some 1-million-people attending the celebrations. The clashes between left and right political groups in the 1970s had brought Turkey to the brink of civil war.

DISK last year attempted to breach the ban and hold celebrations in Taksim. But clashes erupted between the demonstrators and police forces, wounding tens of people. Some 1,000 people were taken into custody in 2007.

The Turkish government has decided to celebrate May Day as "Labor and Solidarity Day," but declined to declare it a national public holiday.

Observers say the Turkish government is reluctant to lift the ban due to concerns that it could turn into a mass anti-AKP rally over the controversial social security law.

No scarves in Istanbul med school. So far.

2008-04-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

It's quiet in IU's med school library. Only a few typing sounds emerging from below the fingers of the medicine students who are wearing white frocks.

It's a busy faculty, with over 9000 students. I'm working in the library, which looks out onto the Marmara sea, while my friend Rabia attends her psychiatry class.

We have a 40-cent (delicious) lunch in the uni's cafeteria. I don't see any student wearing a headscarf.

I'm fascinated by the headscarf. I guess it's a powerful social and religious symbol- that's why I'm fascinated.

Imagine: one line in the Q'ran advising women to cover their heads... and what ensues are decades of social debate, sometimes conflict, talk of freedom of expression, of religion.

Rabia's friends are über-friendly and talkative. We sit in the sun on campus and talk about traveling, the scarf (surprise, surprise), politics, parties. Everyone is smiling.

Of course, there are med students who wear the scarf, but I haven't seen any yet. I would like to talk to girls who wear the scarf. It somehow seems so much easier to address the issue here, because it is at the heart of national debate.

...Especially since the headscarf ban in universities was lifted in Turkey on Feb. 9, 2008.

How to pack 7 days within 48 hours

2008-04-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

My phone was ringing non-stop this morning. Welcome calls from my new Turkish friends. Of course, courtesy of couchsurfing. Alp, Dogan, Fatma... Just overwhelming kindness.

My host Özge spent all morning helping me research and set up interviews: I have 3 set up already. I love this country. I think I won't have problems with finding sources in this city of over 12 million people.

In the afternoon- a short stroll through Sultanahmet- in the rain- and köfte (meetballs) at Sultanahmet Köftecisi, one of the best-known ın Istanbul. A jump ınto the Russian district. I was greeted with zdrastvoitie in all the shoe shops there. Discovered the local warning code: if someone lifts your wındshield wiper, you shouldn't park there anymore. You're not welcome.

This is my second night in Istanbul, and I am spending it at Rabia's place- a girl I met traveling from Bosnia to Montenegro last year.

In less than 48 hours, I took the ferry, different minibuses, the taxi, the metro, the bus and the tram. Oh, and a Turkish plane :) I feel like I've been here for at least a week!

Istanbul, sweet Istanbul.

From Istanbul wıth love

2008-04-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

27 April, Istanbul, Day 1

A baptism by fire. In Istanbul, the city of thousands of years of history, culture and wonders.

My couchsurfing host was quite busy the day I arrived, so I headed out to the city on my own. There I had a different experience surfing: through people, that is. Istikal, the main street in Taksim, or new part of Istanbul, is gorged with people flowing back and forth.

Out of this sea of people emerges a tram that resembles a whale rising out of the water. The pedestrians make way nonchalantly. Music spills out of one shop more colorful than the other, drowning out the calls for prayer echoing through Istanbul’s hundreds of mosques. Istiklal pulsates with life, energy trickling from it into the perpendicular streets to it filled with cafés, Istanbulites smoking narghileh and mountains of fresh fish, fruit and sweets.

The city has embraced me, as a have embraced her. Chaotic, vibrant, delicious, old, new, conservative, flirty, religious, secular. Istanbul is all of that.

I tried to blend into the crowd of the city’s millions of inhabitants. Have the “I know where I’m going look on my face”. I walked down the hill to the Bosphorus on the Anatolian side, took the ferry to Beşiktaş as if I had done it all of my life, and caught a Dolmuş (collective taxi) that took me into Taksim, where I met up with Sinan, a couchsurfer I met in Dortmund.

On the menu: lamb kebap, local ice cream, narguileh, coffee at the faculty of law where Sinan studies, çaj, a view of the Bosphorus on a terrasse in one of Fransız street’s dozens of cafés. Already feels like home. I guess sometimes you just have to jump right into it, even if it's a bit scary.

Finally in Serbia

2007-07-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been a journalistic hurricane.

I've arrived in Belgrade on Sunday and have been doing three interviews a day since Monday.

Is that what it's going to feel like when I enter 'real adult life'? Coming home (because this hostel here feels like home) and feeling drained?

Not that the interviews feel like work- they feel exhilarating. I've been to the Canadian Society for International Health, the ... out of circle organization (it offers counseling and legal advice for disabled women), group 484, which works with refugees, at a press conference for a book launch funded by CIDA, at the Canadian embassy speaking to a CIDA rep and a gender specialist, at the CIDA-funded Serbian Public Health Association and at the Judicial Reform Project office (also CIDA-funded).

Whew! I've filled pages and pages with information about policy-making, gender issues, judicial reforms, public health... And I'm proud of Canada, who's a leader in many aspects, especially integrating gender as a cross-cutting theme in all spheres of involvement, not just as a statement.

I've got a lot of work awaiting me, but I feel optimistic because all the information seems to come together now and it's a wonderful feeling after being overwhelmed for quite some time (hence the lack of blogging...)

A reflexive moment

2007-06-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

It had to come, this moment when I'd feel a bit overwhelmed, in need of guidance. Overwhelmed by the amount of information I have to deal with.

It's a bit hard to take some distance from everything, to see what's "out of the ordinary". What's normal to me is that people live differently in different parts of the world. Sometimes it seems we have a hard time accepting that.

What drew me here in the first place are the people. They are so friendly and in a good mood, always eager to talk to you and find out who you are, what you're thinking.

I've had the opportunity to visit many Balkan homes- in Bosnia, in Kosovo and Macedonia. The table is always full of fresh, delicious homemade food.

Orthodox Christians have a tradition called "Slava". Every family has their "home holiday" during which they invite close friends and family for dinner. Every guest is offered a spoon of this simple, delicious cereal cake when he sits at the table. People greet each other saying "zdravo". Everyone is talking and laughing between having some sarma (meat wrapped in vine leaves), paprika (marinated pepper), many different salads and cheeses, meat and bread.

For me, it feels exceptional because my family in Montreal is very small and big gatherings like that are extremely rare.

I feel privileged to experience being hosted by the locals. It makes me see how most people long for peace, comfort and love. Politics are secondary in these moments, yet they affect people's lives on a daily basis. I'm not exactly sure how to explain that statement.

I came here to write positive stories, because I want to believe that people are good. Aren't we? Don't we wake up in the morning wanting to provide for our families, to build a better future?

It seems that internationals, at least the Canadians I've met, truly come here to build better societies. But of course, not everybody thinks highly of the internationals.

During some informal conversations with local acquaintances, I've heard that international organizations are not always useful. Of course, I know money is often wasted...

I regret not having spoken to more Serbians in Kosovo. Although I don't have many on-the-record statements proving it, I know that they have suffered greatly as a result of the issue.

Kosovo is a cultural and historical land for Serbia, the home of its first monasteries and traditions and I know that losing this land is unacceptable for its people.

But how do you find a compromise between the past and the present? After all, they have lost the battle of Kosovo Polje more then seven centuries ago, and today, there are not many Serbians left there. One woman asked me: is it fair for a nation to have three countries? She was referring to Albania, Macedonia (about one third of its population is Albanian) and soon Kosovo.

I really didn't know what to say. If you dig deeper, you can see that there is much resentment in people's hearts. I certainly couldn't find a solution to this puzzle.

It's normal again

2007-06-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

People around me in Montreal still imagine Kosovo in a state of war. But if you see it if your own eyes, you can’t help but notice that life is going back to normal. Of course, the region is still facing many economic, cultural and political challenges.

“… the normalization of the life, that’s also news for people around the globe. Serbs [who are a minority group in Kosovo] do walk freely- not to the extent they wish, but it’s been ongoing for the last few years,” said Arben H., an OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) officer working in the capital, Pristina/Prishtine. The names of cities are always spelled in Serbian and in Albanian.

Buildings and cities were reconstructed very quickly after the war. Most houses look brand new and construction sites are a common view driving from one town to another. To go back to what Arben said: it is true. Tragedy, drama is news, but when a country goes back to a more normal life after the war, that’s news as well and it seems there may be gap in our reporting about Kosovo.

“The bottom line is what sells. Basically, nobody, no international journalist will come to report about how everything is bright and shiny. But if a political leader is behind some radical movement…,” Arben added.

“I had the opportunity to talk to international journalists in Kosovo. I really admired their stance on Kosovo and the topics they chose to report about. That’s unemployment, miserable economic conditions- majority of people living in deep poverty.”

…

In Gnjilane/Gjilan, I was invited for lunch to one of my interviewees’ (also an OSCE officer) coworker’s house. She had just recently moved in to her new house. Everything was new and clean, simple but sophisticated. She served us traditional food: pinjur (a pepper sauce), sarma (cabbage leaves stuffed with meat), sausages and meat patties, vegetables and cheese and Turkish tea accompanied with berry cake for desert.

It was delicious, fresh and even tastier because it was homemade. We sat around the living room table. We played piano, she played guitar, and it was the greatest lunch I had in a long time.

Anyone who can visit Kosovo should.

To be or not to be in Kosovo. Dilemma resolved.

2007-06-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

June 17

Pejë/Peć: Kosovo

Whether to finally come or not to Kosovo was a big moral dilemma because of safety reasons. I didn’t want my family to worry.

In the end, I decided to come and I’m extremely happy I did. I’m staying with a Canadian working for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and I feel more than safe.

Pejë/Peć (both the Albanian and Serbian names of cities are used simultaneously in Kosovo) was one of the cities most affected by war less than ten years ago. 80% of the houses were burnt. Now, most of them have been rebuilt and the city is in a good state. Bordered by the mountains, Pejë/Peć lays in the Western part of Kosovo, close to the Montenegro border.

I arrived at an interesting time: June 16 was the anniversary of the arrival of NATO troups in Pejë/Peć, who quickly liberated it from the Serbs. The streets were packed with people, a lot of them very young (60% of Kosovo’s population is under 25).

Music and folk dancing created a joyful atmosphere while smoke hovered over the many local restaurants serving grilled meat. The Albanian flag (which I find a bit scary because of the big, blag two-headed bird on a reg background) was everywhere for this celebration.

I thought most people spoke either Serbian or Albanian here. Not true. Most of them speak both. I’ve been thus able to speak with the locals, except that it’s better to say that I’m Canadian and that I speak a bit of Bosnian.

I was warned it might feel scary here. That’s myth number 2. Actually, I’m convinced that Kosovo is much safer than other places I’ve traveled to already.

It’s quite exciting to be in a place which might just became the next new country in the world.

I’ve got many interviews lined up in Pristina/Prishtine, the capital, and in Gjilan region. I’ve spoken extensively to my host, who demystified the OSCE’s work here and to a colleague of his who came to Regina, in Saskatchewan, during the war. He was extremely well-received by Canada.

Like in any place in the world, you have to be careful in Kosovo. But NATO has 18 000 troups in this tiny part of the world… I can sleep tight, no problem. Really.

June 15

Crossing borders, or of the unfairness of having a Turkish passport

A Canadian passport is precious indeed.

I was crossing the border from Croatia to Montenegro yesterday, sitting next to a friendly girl from Turkey. She had studied in Poland during the previous semester and recognized my origins while I was talking on the phone.

They picked up our passports for controlling purposes. Usually, things go smoothly and the bus goes on after 10, 15 minutes.

But they called my friend for some additional questions and I offered to translate. The controller refused to stamp her passport and we went on inside to discuss things over.

Three men were sitting in the office, drinking Turkish coffee and smoking cigarettes. I explained the situation to a very tanned, blue-eyed man; that she was just trying to get home to Turkey, just passing through Montenegro. She wasn’t going to stay long. Just a student…

“And you?” They asked me. “How come you speak our language?”

“Ah, I like to speak the language of the locals… My father studied in Zagreb… I learned from a book…” More explaining about my friend’s situation. She was a bit anxious. Had called the Turkish embassy in Montenegro to make sure she didn’t need a visa.

You’ll have to pay 50 euros, he said. After more discussion: 40.

The man opened his big book filled with rows of names. Wrote in hers.

The people in the bus were waiting. We ran to the office across the street to pay for the visa. Ran back to get the stamp. Trotted to the booth outside for more controlling.

We crossed.

It felt so unfair that this young girl had to pay extra just because she was born in Turkey. She was a student, just like me.

“At times like these, I just want close my eyes and wake up in my own bed,” she said.

She still has a long way home.

Pravda za sve

2007-06-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

Photoreportage: protest in remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide

We have all the time in the world

2007-06-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

"It's cultural. In any eastern European countries, you will always see people on the streets... It's different than socializing in Canada. The cheapest way is to walk on the street, walk and talk. You meet everyone. You can finish many things [like that]." -Djenana Jalovcic

A Bosanska kafa (or Turkish coffee, served in a jezva) costs 50 cents. Everywhere I go, I am invited for coffee. After work, or anytime during the day, people meet friends on the streets.

I've met more people during my last ten days in Sarajevo than during the whole year in Montreal. It may be a euphemism, but it's not far from the truth.

It's a totally different way of structuring time, of interacting. A local Bosnian friend of mine told me that people work more when they need more money. When they don't need it, they don't work.

It's unbelievable how after surviving the war, hardships, confronting death everyday, how much life and friendliness live on in people's eyes. I don't feel like a stranger anymore. How could I, when every few steps, I am warmly, sincerely greeted and invited in for a conversation?

It's not that easy to speak directly about the war, but daily interactions with people show a strong yearning for peace, love, life.

The friend I mentioned earlier was playing soccer during the war and saw his friend shot by a sniper a few meters away from him. He was eight.

Yet I find so much kindness in these eyes, 15 years after they have witnessed murder...

Pictures: A coffee set; a craftsman with his daughter

Footnotes. People.

2007-06-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

The people
Warm, friendly, helpful. Traveling is so much about the people you meet.

Ika and Zahra: they are two women that are working at the internet/restaurant section of the hostel I stayed at the first few days. I’ve been coming back every day to chat with them. They are always happy to see me, I’m happy to see them and to practice my Bosnian.

Sarajevo.

At the market, I was offered a rose today. For taking pictures.

A rose to remember those who perished there during the war. The first massacre took the lives of 69 people, the second one, over forty.

Sarajevo Roses- those traces in the pavement that are splattered on the ground after mortar shells hit it.

The beautiful Old Town, the Turkish Quarters, filled with odors of cheese, meat, tea, Turkish coffee.

The wonderful tea shop. They know my name because I come back every day. Another opportunity to speak with the locals, speak Bosnian.

The famous Tunnel. Built under the airport, when Sarajevo was cut off from the world. When UN prevented people from crossing into Croatia to get food. Serbians took UN officers hostage. The UN had to negotiate deals, hand over 50% of humanitarian supplies to the enemy.

But the Tunnel allowed people to smuggle food, arms, ammo, water, electricity, oil into the city… So many saved lives.

Srebrenica. Genocide. 8000 Muslim men and boys. The worst massacre in Europe since World War II. We cannot forget, cannot let this happen again.

Memorial pays tribute to genocide victims in Srebrenica

2007-06-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

The war could have just ended yesterday in Srebrenica, a village 150 km northeast of Sarajevo. Apartment buildings and houses are cracked, bullet-ridden, barely hanging on to their foundations. How can people forget about the war when it looks them in the face every single day?

In 1995, Serbians murdered 8000 Bosnian Muslim men following Bosnia’s declaration of independence. It was the worst massacre committed in Europe since World War II. Genocide.

Six kilometers from Srebrenica, a memorial honors the murdered. All the names are listed on a long, semi-circular structure. White, vertical gravestones spread across the fields around it, the color almost blinding in the sun.

I spoke to Fetija, a young mother, during the four-hour bus ride from Sarajevo to Srebrenica. She was breast-feeding her blond-haired, blue-eyed, calm baby. She was in Srebrenica during the massacres.

My Bosnian wasn’t good enough to ask her sensitive questions, but one thing is sure: there was not a trace of hate in her eyes. She expressed anger against the perpetrators, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, who are still on the loose, hiding somewhere in Serbia. They are wanted by authorities at the Hague.
“But I cannot hate Serbian children,” she said. She refuses to generalize against an entire nation. After all, Serbians, Croats, Muslims have lived together in peace for centuries in Bosnia.

Seventies hotel, a symbol of the golden age of Yugoslavia

2007-06-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

May 25
Trogir and Medena

During moments like these, I feel like sleeping is a waste of time. When Croatia reveals all it has to offer, full of cypress, fruit and olive trees, friendly people, delicious seafood, history, culture and stunning architecture, I could just stay up all night enjoying the sound of the Adriatic sea caressing the shore, the guiding lights twinkling in the distance of its immensity. Too bad my eyes put themselves to sleep, drained from a day spent in the sun.

While in Trogir, a charming medieval town a bit north of Split (one of the big port cities of Croatia), Joey and I rented bikes to head to Kava beach at the end of the island. Most of Croatia’s beaches are rocky, but this one was made of white pebbles that made the sea even bluer. It’s a moody sea, with everchanging shades of turquoise, navy and light blue. The water is crystal clean. Even in the port, it looks undisturbed by human activity. It’s unfortunate that people don’t always care to dispose of their trash, leaving it on some of the beaches.

After a sun-soaked afternoon, the sky covered itself in clouds and rumbled with thunder. The sea darkened and streaks of rain appeared in the distance. We raced against the storm, pedaling as fast as we could so it wouldn’t catch us. After this exercise, our bellies were rumbling and ready for a nice platter of seafood. Everything tastes so fresh here. The tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes- free of pesticides and of the tastelessness of genetically modified foods. One meal big meal a day is plenty. All the flavors make up for the bigger quantities I have to eat at home to feel satisfied.

We rented the bikes from hotel Medena, a huge vacation resort built during the Tito era, more than 30 years ago. It was an instant coup de foudre for me and I decided we had to come back here for at least two nights.

The resort is everything I imagined the former Yugoslavia to be. After all, communism here was not soviet communism, full of misery and lack of everything. Yugoslavs had great social services. Workers were respected, had a one month paid vacation yearly and could take a one-year maternity leave if necessary. At least that’s what I’ve read and been told. The seventies and eighties were a great time to invest into tourism. The country was open to international visitors and many people took advantage of that.

Hotel Medena represents this epoch, with everything one needs to relax and enjoy the coast. A supermarket, tennis courts, apartments, bars, aquatic equipment, discothèques, restaurants… All 70s style. The hotel lobby is decorated with huge comet-like candelabras that seem to have fallen from the sky and nested themselves into the ceiling. Red couches, light green and metal ceilings, fake wood wall panels take us back in time.

Hotel Medena is like an old beautiful lady that needs to go to the beauty salon to look pretty again. That’s how one receptionist put it. It’s true- the décor is so out of style, so seventies. But that’s what makes the place’s charm to me. It’s a piece of history. The hotel was built by the government, that is, under Tito’s rule. He is the symbol of the former Yugoslavia, which Croatia used to be part of until it declared its independence in 1991, and he ruled over the country with an iron fist for more than 30 years. Today’s Croatian government still owns 60% of the hotel’s shares, which is very rare in the country.

During the war in the early nineties, tourism dropped drastically and Medena took Croatian refugees under her roof for six years. Now, although it looks outdated, it still is becoming increasingly popular not only to Europeans, but to Japanese as well.

Joey is kind of disturbed by Medena’s setting, by the strangeness of the almost emptiness of the resort. It’s not high season yet. The place is mostly filled with teens and old Germans at the moment. This quasi-emptiness reminds Joey of the movie The Shining, where Jack Nicholson goes crazy while staying at a big, old resort. But low season means cheaper prices. We’re paying 34 euros a night for an apartment with kitchen and living room, all ten meters from the shore.

I, on the other hand, am absolutely charmed. It’s hard to explain why because it’s a strong, visceral, emotional attachment. It reminds me of childhood summers spent at the sea at a similar resort in Poland. I’m definitely planning to look into the history of the place.

Finally. Some quietness. The day of the bike ride was first time my mind calmed down after the end of university session. Preparing for my three-month stay in the Balkans was constant running around, making phone calls, writing emails. But it was fruitful, and I established the contacts I need to work on my journalism project of exploring the work of the international community in the Balkans.

My friend Laura even put me in touch with a fellow Montrealer who’s working on a documentary about the international community in the Balkans this summer and hopefully we’ll be able to collaborate.

More gushing. I really feel at home here. I can get by with my really rocky Croatian. Some locals are sometimes fooled into thinking I’m Croatian from another part of the country. Good sign…

Hip Zagreb

2007-06-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

May 17, Zagreb

I won’t be able to avoid the clichés. I won’t be able to resist gushing about my happiness of being in Croatia again, three years after I fell in love with the country for the first time. Zagreb is full of life and sunshine. On the main square, Trg Bana Jelacica, a four-day festival is taking place and he square is bustling with locals dressed in traditional clothing, dancing, foods, crafts…

At night, the streets fill up with beautiful young people chatting in hip, modern cafés and bars. I could live here, I told myself. I took a long walk around town to take care of my cell phone and ended up having coffee with an old Bosnian who spoke twelve languages. He told me so much about the politics not only of the Balkans, but about his perception of our Canadian politicians, His knowledge impressed me, as his familiarity with twelve languages. Without his help, I would have never found the electronics place to take care of my phone.

It’s all these little details that made the day so fulfilling. The owners of the hostel Fulir, where I’m staying, were very accommodating in helping me fulfill all my needs. I headed out to explore and stopped for a humongous piece of burek, this cheese pastry they make in the Balkans. My hands were full of the stuff, and a man just came to hand me over some napkins. A detail, but quite pleasant nevertheless.

The market was bursting with the colors of fruits and vegetables. In the morning, it’s full of people and merchandise. At night, empty, quiet. This calmness gives way to the view of the cathedral guarding the square, which I yet have to visit.

Right away, I got acquainted with fellow backpackers. We headed to town for a bite and admired some traditional dancing that’s part of the festival. The girls were wearing colorful dresses, their faces filled up with smiles. It was impressive. I just came back from a café we went to, talking about how fortunate we are to be able to travel and enjoy this life. Indeed, we are. I love traveling in Europe and I wasn’t excited about this moment for nothing.

"It was the only time ever that I did not use my roots knapsack with a flag on it"

2007-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

... told me my journalism prof, Alan Conter, referring to an assignment in Bosnia in 1999. He arrived in Sarajevo on the last flight before the airport closed down. It was also the same day the war started in Kosovo.

Conter then headed to Banja Luka, a region whose status I haven't quite figured out- it is "the capital of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia". The geographic and ethnic complexities in the Balkans is the depth of something which I am just starting to plume.

My prof and another journalist were there to talk to Bosnians of Sarajevo and to Bosnian Serbs in Banja Luka. The Canadian embassy didn't want them there at the moment, fearing agitation. "It was a little scary, the week before there was an anti-NATO demonstration," my prof told me.

"It’s a very drab Stalinist-style city, it must have been badly damaged during WWII. A lot of architecture was Tito-inspired gray yuckness."

"I didn’t have major expectations. Sarajevo was part pretty, part shelf-shocked. Driving to the Croat part of Bosnia, we drove through villages that were completely destroyed. You are advised not to drive to the shoulder of the road because of mines and stuff. Sarajevo seemed cosmopolitan. Banja Luka was tense. It’s a very drab Stalinist-style city, it must have been badly damaged during WWII. A lot of architecture was Tito-inspired gray yuckness. The hotel we stayed in was from the 1950s, it was one of the most hideous hotels I've seen- purple wallpaper, "disco gone mad" style."

Another one of my teachers (and a writer at The Gazette), Donna Nebenzahl, had been in Sarajevo to write a section for a book about activist women in the world. Along with a photographer, she visited an organization called Women for Women International, a house where women can learn different working skills.

"They were kind of viscerally afraid. I felt really guilty that we had done this to them."

"We met two women who worked for Women for Women International who had been there all the time through the fighting and had been there through the war. They talked about the stress they had gone through.

One of the ideas was to use one of those two women as examples of this organization. So we went with them to the countryside and thought we would photograph them around the ruins of a village. We went out there. Because Nancy [the photographer] needed a strong visual- we walked around one of the derelict houses. One of the women had a total breakdown. She couldn’t stay. I felt horrible because it brought all of this stuff back.

The strange thing about Sarajevo is that it looks so benevolent. And then you realize, because somebody tells you, don't go off the road because some mines are strewn here and there.

People are trying so hard to rebuild houses and homes. When you go into the city, you see a Holiday Inn in the main drag of Sarajevo. They gave it a name I've forgotten.

It was like an alley of snipers. There were so many buildings that were just pockmarked with guns. There we craters from grenades and shells filled with red cement which people called Sarajevo roses.

It must have been a Sunday on a beautiful hillside that was covered with graves. There were many families there at the grave of an 18 year-old that died during this thing...

When you travel with a photographer. You realize how much people are willing to do. It’s not because there’s anything huge at stake. They let photographers do a lot and maybe my friend was good at that.

These were women that understood what they had gone through. They helped other women come to term with their loss. But they simply could not step back. They couldn’t go anywhere that was the past. They were kind of viscerally afraid. I felt really guilty that we had done this to them. But on the other hand you go to the house and there were women who would actually learn to do things- build furniture. You really could see how important the connection was. What would these women have done without Zaneb [the founder of the project]? This is emotional, psychic help, a way to rebuild their lives."

Speaking to some of my profs who have gone to the Balkans is just part of my preparation for my upcoming departure there. I've already gotten in touch with some people on-location, Canadians working in Kosovo.

All in all, my preparation is going quite well. I've just finished my last exam and now I'll be able to read, interview and pitch as much as I can in the following two weeks.

Oh, and pack!

Prelude to pitching

2007-04-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

When I was in Guatemala last summer, internet access wasn't always available and that made pitching stories hard. Three days before leaving for my internship, I still didn't know where I was going and what exactly I would be writing about.
That means I didn't know which publications I could pitch to and I flew off with only a vague idea of the whole process of trying to sell your ideas.
I learned pretty quickly that mainstream media are reluctant to publish stories about international development. Being new to the pitching process didn't help me either. It was frustrating to spend a lot of time writing pitches and receiving negative replies... a week later.
But my efforts weren't useless in the end. I met the editor of the English Guatemalan Revue magazine, who was very friendly and explained what she was looking for in an article. She liked my idea about the development of San Juan la Laguna and ended up publishing my story.
That's why I'm trying to get in touch with as many editors as I can before leaving. I know that I'll be one step forward to getting stories out there when I'm in Sarajevo and Kosovo.

One-month countdown

2007-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

I've been surfing the web, trying to find places to stay in the Balkans and planning my specific travel itinerary.

I know it's not going to be a problem in Croatia, but I was a bit concerned about Kosovo.

According to wikitravel, "Kosovo is quite safe (so long as you spend more time listening to people then spouting your political opinions) but it is also an area that is ripe for conflict. Conflict is quite often foreseeable long in advance, so if you're planning to go, check the news several weeks in advance to make sure that no major 'incidents' have occurred that could lead to rioting or other civil conflict."

This might be cause for concern... but also an indication interesting events are bound to take place:

The UN Special Envoy for the Kosovo Future Status Process, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, has now, after 14 months of intensive negotiations with Belgrade and Pristina, presented his settlement proposal to the Security Council. Ahtisaari's bold proposal, which recommends Kosovo's independence with initial supervision by a strong international civilian and military presence, is the only viable option for the international community, and for Europe in particular. (Now is the time to permanently resolve the status of Kosovo - by Joschka Fischer, Taipei Times, Sunday, Apr 15, 2007, Page 9)

map: wikipedia.com

The grant

2007-04-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

I should have written this almost three weeks ago, just for the sake of celebration. But end of sessions have a great inhibiting effect on me.

I was in the editing room at Concordia, snapping away at some clips for my last short documentary of the semester. Besides me, my faithful laptop that has never left my side since November. My eyes were begging me to leave the room, bloodshot and dry.

And then, the news. It popped into the email inbox on the screen of my laptop.

I got a grant to pursue my independent journalism project in the Balkans this summer!

Of course, the world stopped turning and my doc was suddenly not a priority anymore. I got that warm, bubbly feeling inside my throat- that energizing feeling which makes life worthwhile. I made a few phone calls to announce the news... That was March 14.

Writing the proposal for a Millennium Grant was quite time-consuming. I got the idea to look into the roles of Canada, international aid and the media in the Balkans based on the internship I had done in Guatemala the previous summer.

But this time, I wanted to be on my own and be free to explore the themes I chose and to have more time to do it. I love being immersed in a specific cultural environment trying to understand the dynamics and customs of different societies.

And the Balkans have been a coup de coeur of mine ever since I visited Croatia three years ago.

I'll be landing in Zagreb on May 16th, a bit more than a month. Until then, I'll be interviewing Canadians who have reported and worked in the Balkans, working on my Serbo-Croatian and reading as much as possible.

Just plunging into the history of this beautiful part of the globe that has seen so much destruction and pain...

The power of hands

2006-09-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Over 50 Tz’utujil hands rise up in the air in San Juan de Laguna’s city hall on a sunny Saturday morning. They are learning to make official decisions by voting. Since Hurricane Stan, life has been hard for this Guatemalan community living in the district of Tzanjay and whose main mode of subsistence is agriculture. The people’s earth has been washed away by rain, making growing coffee, beans and corn difficult.

The people’s earth has been washed away
by rain, making growing coffee,
beans and corn difficult.

Nevertheless, the community has been making efforts to rebuild what it has lost, and with the help of CECI and Fundación Solar, its inhabitants have been learning that united, they can grow much faster. Better yet: if their association becomes a legal entity, they will be able to open a bank account, quicken and structure the decision-making process and allow the community to achieve its goals more efficiently. ‘We are here at this assembly to learn about our rights and obligations [within the association],’ explains Pablo Silvestre, a Tz’utujil elementary-school teacher. As part of their obligations, they will have to elect a board of directors and a judicial board. Their goals are to strengthen and develop agriculture, education, health and arts and crafts.

‘We are a group of people that wants to help all the families in our community,’ explains Antonia Xicay Garcia, a woman dressed in colourful Mayan attire. She is the president of this association. All the women in the room are dressed in traditional, intricately woven skirts and colourful blouses, testament to their rich Mayan culture. Many came with their children, who giggle at the sight of a camera.

When they leave legal training clinic, these Tz’utujils will have a few more tools at their disposition to rebuild their country as part of a sustainable and fair decision-making process. And they will know that their hands can have a lot more power than they’ve ever imagined.

Echecs et Mayas

2006-09-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Un mardi après-midi de mai, après une journée de cours à la ENRO (École Normale Régionale de l’Occident) il pleut à boire debout. C’est normal durant l’hiver au Guatemala : les avant-midi sont habituellement ensoleillés, mais les après-midi sont difficilement supportables sans parapluie. Pour échapper au déluge, et pour s’amuser, une vingtaine de jeunes se sont regroupés au centre récréatif de l’école, une initiative d’un coopérant canadien du programme Uniterra, Luc Bélair.

« Le salon récréatif, c’est un lieu pour se divertir et pour apprendre. Avant, on avait seulement le terrain de basket, mais on finit par se lasser d’un sport. Maintenant, nous avons l’opportunité de découvrir de nouvelles activités, » explique Mario Jacinto Matóm, étudiant de 14 ans. « Ça permet de développer les capacités intellectuelles. Il y en a qui n’ont pas la possibilité de faire ce genre d’activité et sombrent dans la délinquance ou la dépendance envers les drogues. Quand on joue, on ne pense pas à faire des mauvaises choses, » ajoute-t-il après une partie d’échecs. Cette journée-là, une dizaine de jeunes ont été initiés au jeu, mettant leur concentration au défi.

« Les jeunes n’[avaient] pas accès à beaucoup de choses ici. Quand
je suis arrivé pour les appuyer, j’ai élaboré un plan avec
eux pour améliorer les installations sportives et récréatives et donner accès à
de l’équipement sportif et récréatif à travers le salon.»

Les étudiants ont également accès à de l’équipement sportif, dont des bâtons de hockey (sport nouveau pour la plupart d’entre eux), des balles de jonglage, des bâtons du diable, deux tables de ping-pong, plusieurs jeux de société, etc. « Les jeunes n’[avaient] pas accès à beaucoup de choses ici. Quand je suis arrivé pour les appuyer, j’ai élaboré un plan avec eux pour améliorer les installations sportives et récréatives et donner accès à de l’équipement sportif et récréatif à travers le salon, » explique le coopérant. Pour créer le salon, il a demandé à la direction un accès à un grand atelier qui a été divisé en deux, permettant l’implantation d’un lieu physique où les jeunes peuvent venir se détendre et apprendre de nouvelles choses. « C’est peu d’équipement, mais ça profite à tout le monde, » ajoute le conseiller en sport, culture et récréation.

La ENRO est une école de pensionnaires qui accueille environ 500 élèves du secondaire. Les élèves sont tous d’origine indigène, provenant de groupes Mayas tels les Tz’utujils, Quichés, Mams, Kakchikels… Les élèves de 12 à 15 ans bénéficient de cours d’éducation physique, mais les plus vieux, non. Comme les élèves passent la majorité de leur temps sur le campus de la ENRO, le besoin de ressources récréatives se faisait d’autant plus criant.

« J’ai l’impression que [ce projet] a beaucoup ouvert leurs esprits. Dans le domaine social [les résultats] sont difficiles à quantifier. Mon projet, c’est au niveau de la participation- c’est plutôt qualitatif, » explique le coopérant. « Je pense qu’il y a plusieurs jeunes qui se sont ‘dégênés’. Il y a plusieurs filles qui se sont plus intégrées au sport. »

En ce moment, les jeunes ont accès au salon deux à trois fois par semaine sous la supervision de Bélair. Néanmoins, le coopérant a comme objectif de former des jeunes moniteurs qui pourraient superviser l’équipement et les lieux. Ainsi, les étudiants auraient accès au centre à chaque jour. Et les après-midi de pluie seraient moins longs…

Alice au pays des merveilles guatémaltèques

2006-09-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

There’s something magical that happens when Alice in Wonderland, Grieg’s Morning Glory and Monet come together in one place, caressed by the edges of Lake Atitlán and embraced by the shape of imposing mountains. When you add the distant sound of corn mills and the clapping noise of tortilla-making, you’ve got a partial portrait of Guatemala- the land of ‘sin maís, no hay país’ (without corn, our country isn’t born).

Imaginez Alice au Pays des Merveilles, Au Matin de Grieg et le peintre Monet tous réunis dans un même lieu, baignés par les rives du magique lac Atitlán, lui-même surplombé par de majestueuses montagnes. Si on ajoute le bruit distant des moulins à maïs et les bruits de claquements des mains de femmes qui font des tortillas, on se retrouve devant un portrait du Guatemala.

In the evening, you don’t need sounds of nature cd’s. Rain is the gentle percussion of the night, far, echoing sounds of crickets die into the immensity of the lake, and some unknown creatures add their ornamentations here and there, like a modern, eerie, magical Moonlight Sonata. Except that the moon and the piano are absent this one night and only a few candles gracefully dance to these rhythms and melodies of Lake Atitlán.

Nul besoin d’apporter son lecteur MP3 ici. Le lieu offre sa propre symphonie naturelle- la pluie de soirée, maître de la section des percussions, est accompagnée des échos lointains des criquets et les cris nocturnes de créatures inconnues se noyant dans les profondeurs du grand Lac Atitlán. La nature offre sa propre Sonate au Clair de Lune. Sauf que ce soir, le spectre est absent et seules quelques chandelles sont les ballerines pirouettant au rythmes et mélodies du lac.

San Juan la Laguna is a secret paradise that allows visitors to experience these marvels of ecotourism. Its inhabitants, the Maya Tz’utujils, are proud of their cultural heritage and will be glad to open the door to their everyday life. Women group together in associations to resuscitate the ancient art of weaving with naturally-dyed cotton fibres or to make organic shampoos and potions from rosemary, chamomile and different herbs from their fragrant garden. You can become a witch for a few hours as you assist them in this process. The local coffee coop La Voz just recently started offering tours of its plantations.

C’est à San Juan la Laguna que ce paradis caché d’écotourisme attend patiemment d’être découvert. Ses habitants, les Mayas Tz’utujils, sont orgueilleux de leur héritage culturel et c’est avec plaisir qu’ils vous mèneront au cœur de leur vie quotidienne. Des femmes se regroupent en associations pour ressusciter l’ancien art de tissage avec du coton teint naturellement ou pour concocter du shampoing et des crèmes biologiques à base de romarin, de camomille ou d’autres herbes de leur jardin odorant. On peut devenir sorcière pendant quelques heures en les accompagnant lors de ce processus. Les amateurs de café peuvent également faire un tour des plantations de la coopérative locale de cet or noir aux yeux des Guatémaltèques.

To spend the night, the visitor has the choice of hostels and two eco-hotels: hotel Maya San Juan in the middle of the town, and for a more secluded, tranquil experience, Hotel Uxlabil, located in its own private jungle of countless flowers, banana trees, hummingbirds and a gorgeous view on the lake. At Uxlabil, one can enjoy organic coffee, shampoo, toilet paper and the nature-lover will adore the composting practice.

Pour s’héberger, le visiteur a le choix entre des auberges de jeunesse et deux hôtels écologiques : Hotel Maya San Juan dans le village, ou pour une expérience plus isolée, tranquille, Hotel Uxlabil, caché dans sa propre jungle d’innombrables fleurs, bananiers et colibris aux rives du lac. À Uxlabil, le visiteur peut profiter de plusieurs produits biologiques : café, papier de toilette, shampoing, bananes du jardin… Les ‘écolos’ seront ravis d’apprendre que le compostage est de mise ici.

Uniterra volunteer Audrey Lamothe is working on a documentary video that will showcase ecotourism in San Juan la Laguna and in 10 other communities in Guatemala. The documentary will be available in August at travel agencies and ecotourism fairs. And little by little, travellers will discover that there’s a lot more to Central and South America than all-inclusive resorts.

Audrey Lamothe, bénévole du programme Uniterra, travaille présentement sur un documentaire qui fera la promotion du tourisme communautaire et solidaire de San Juan la Laguna et de 10 autres communautés du Guatemala. Le documentaire sera disponible en août dans des agences de voyages et lors de foires touristiques. Ainsi, peu à peu, les voyageurs pourront découvrir que les Amériques Centrale et du Sud ont beaucoup plus à offrir que les ‘tout inclus’.

Une mission au Guatemala

2006-09-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

Une musique reggaeton remplit les locaux de la Casa Joven Antigua Guatemala où quelques jeunes s’occupent à faire des travaux d’école, d’autres se regroupent autour de la porte et discutent d’un concert punk qui aura lieu bientôt. Au deuxième étage, les coordinateurs et bénévoles de la Maison des Jeunes élaborent des projets de prévention et des outils pédagogiques pour encadrer les jeunes vulnérables à la violence juvénile ou qui ont déjà fait partie de maras (gangs) et tentent de commencer une nouvelle vie.

« APREDE (Association pour la Prévention de la Délinquance Juvénile) est un projet qui a commencé son travail avec les jeunes dans la rue, sans local, sans bureau. Mais on s’est vite rendu compte que la violence de la rue rendait le travail difficile, et le concept de la Casa Joven est né, » explique Juan Carlos Arrevillaga Varguez, directeur technique d’APREDE.

« Ici, quand les jeunes étudient, c’est généralement pendant des demi-journées. Du coup, soit ils travaillent la moitié du temps, soit ils sont dans la rue, ils ne font rien. C’est là qu’ils vivent le risque, » ajoute Élisabeth Desgranges, une bénévole d’Uniterra qui travaille à la Casa Joven. « Alors on organise des activités, des cours d’informatique, des cours de boulangerie, de l’appui aux études et aux devoirs… »

« Ils ont vécu des expériences négatives dès leur enfance. Ils ont fait ce qu’ils ont fait aveuglément parce que les circonstances et la société sont déjà prédisposées à générer la délinquance. La société ne pense pas à prévenir. Au contraire, elle incite les jeunes à la délinquance. »

La Casa Joven offre également de plus en plus d’activité en collaboration avec d’autres organisations en ville : des bourses d’art et de sport permettent à des jeunes de suivre des cours de piano et de karaté, entre autres. « À la base, nous essayons de produire un changement de mentalité. Nos projets tentent de démontrer à la société que ces jeunes ne sont pas des extraterrestres, ce sont des Guatémaltèques, » poursuit Arrevillaga. « Ils ont vécu des expériences négatives dès leur enfance. Ils ont fait ce qu’ils ont fait aveuglément parce que les circonstances et la société sont déjà prédisposées à générer la délinquance. La société ne pense pas à prévenir. Au contraire, elle incite les jeunes à la délinquance. »

Deux ex-mareros réformés, Alex et Sergio (qui ont déjà assumé légalement les conséquences de leurs actes passés) travaillent à la Casa Joven. Premièrement, ce lieu leur a permis de changer de mode de vie. Maintenant, en plus d’offrir leur support à d’autres, ces deux jeunes dans la mi-vingtaine travaillent avec le gouvernement, la police et les travailleurs sociaux pour montrer que le changement est possible. Ils tentent également de déconstruire le préjugé bien ancré dans la mentalité guatémaltèque que si un jeune est tatoué, il est automatiquement délinquant.

La réhabilitation d’un jeune qui a vécu dans un milieu violent est un processus long et acharné, difficilement quantifiable. C’est un défi de taille que doit relever APREDE, d’autant plus que la recherche de fonds nécessite des chiffres pour appuyer une demande. Néanmoins, ce genre d’encadrement est nécessaire pour permettre aux jeunes de tous les environnements de se construire un futur meilleur.

Kinia's blog

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