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Elections are coming, so why is it so quiet around here?

May 2, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

I don’t get it.

We’re coming up to another election here in Seychelles, but I don’t see new roads going in left and right, the shops aren’t stacked with items not seen for months … in fact the usual shortages are still short and there’s been not a drop of the second necessary ingredient for a G&T in longer than anyone can recall, much to the chagrin of parched Brits … and only one party is throwing parties.

What gives?

Could it be that because it’s seats on the National Assembly up for grabs, not the presidency, no one’s feeling the same pressure to perform ahead of the polls?

There’s no doubt that the feeling is local, as districts are small and everyone knows everyone, candidates being no exception, and has since childood. There won’t be much in the way of surprise coming from anyone running for office, and this vote may be more personal … although politics are always personal in Seychelles. Always.

The opposition deciding to forego the waving of the green at speech-ladened rallies by the dozen is particularly puzzling, as that sort of rah-rah has seemed so very popular with leaders and followers in run-ups to past elections.

Could it be that their decision to walk out and stay out of the legislature a few months back has even them wondering how to address asking folks to put them back in those chairs every Tuesday evening?

Most people are going to be happy when it’s all over but the shouting. And there will be shouting because there always is … Creole is not whispered … and some portion of the population will not be happy with results.

Very soon after the hoopla, however, we’ll be back to politics as usual … greens will be green (A poor choice of color, in my book, equating with envy as it does, but no one asked me.), and reds will put away their laker dan laker umbrellas and cherry-on-the-top-like baseball caps, and that will be that.

No matter what, some will kvetch that life is hard on this island where not one person goes hungry, everyone has a roof over their head, education and healthcare are free, women enjoy complete equality, and freedom of religion is guaranteed … and this in Africa. There will be some gnashing and wailing and general grousing.

Before too long, though, someone will buy someone a beer, and the conversation will return to the usual two topics: fish and the weather.

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Posted in Seychelles | Leave a Comment »

Small world eats Thai food on veranda

May 1, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

Just had guests leave after a fab Thai dinner lovingly prepared by my dear husband … Tom Ka Gai, Kang Keo Wan, pork satay, fried eggplant. The man can cook! … and am pausing for a thought about how interesting it is to live with the diversity I have in my life.

A table of five adults and three kids … the adults were two Australian Jews, brother and sister, with the brother living here with his Seychellois wife and one-year-old son, and the sister a resident in Qatar … Mark, half Brit, half Seychellois … me, American born and bred, but now also holding a Seychelles passport… and our two kids, Cambodian born with citizenship here and in Britain, which means they are part of Europe.

The world is small, and I’m so pleased to have my nose rubbed in that fact almost daily.

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Posted in Island life, Seychelles | 2 Comments »

Madonna as evangelist?

May 1, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

Now here’s an angle on the international adoption theme that sounds almost too strange to take seriously. Since it’s coming from the Far Right, however, I don’t think I’ll let it sit on the page without a bit of a chew.

The “Conservative Voice” is suggesting that Madonna has an ulterior motive in adopting from Malawi and feeding, housing, educating and otherwise supporting thousands of Malawian orphans. According this rendition of the “fine print” in the Daily Mail … ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘fine print’ do NOT go together no matter how one may try to maneuver the words into the same sentence, by the way. It’s a big-print/no-subtlety publication of the first order as the Brits do so well … her true agenda is to somehow massage the country into a mass conversion to Kabbalah, her religion of choice.

You have to admire writing that makes tremendous leaps outside the realm of fiction … supposedly … going so far out on a limb to snip a bit then spin, spin, spin. Or not.

According to the Daily Mail, nearly half the population of Malawi is under the age of 14 and many of those children are orphans. As a result, it stands to reason that they may be searching for security—a search that might be taken advantage of by those who are pushing a certain form of ideology.

That ‘it stands to reason’ reminds me of the long-accepted carte blanche well known in the South that allows anything to be said about anyone as long as the tone is sugary and followed by a prescribed tag line: She’s ugly as sin and dumb as a shovel … bless her heart.

The article goes to to warn, ” … make no mistake, Madonna is an evangelist …” .

Please excuse me while I laugh about three-quarters of an inch off my too-copious ass. The conjured image of Madonna as Tammy Faye drizzles into my eyes like melting mascara and I’m blind with the mad mirth of preposterous presentations.

Apparently, the author has never heard of Christian-based orphanages or adoptions and is put off by the idea of religion coming into play in aid to African countries. Yeah. Right.

I’m shocked … shocked I say … that a publication called The Conservative Voice speaks spurilously about the Material Girl. And adoption, too?

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Posted in Adoption, Celebs | Leave a Comment »

A dead okapi, or hope for the future?

April 29, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

okapi
In a quick perusal of today’s Huff Post, a quick glance at Arianna’s Sunday roundup had the term “bicameral backbone” leap from the page and poke me in the nose.

Although it sounds like it should be something closely examined during a necropsy on an okapi dead under suspicious circumstances, bicameral backbone is actually much stranger and higher up the list of endangered species.

It’s the Democrats’ bicameral backbone observed on the front page, a resurrection of which seems as much a miracle as the reappearance of the wooly mammoth … the GOP might like a new mascot … or a tasmanian wolf in George Tenet’s clothing.

Can a true Blue streak of stamina flesh itself out? We may have to wait and see just what this backbone is connected to.

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Posted in The USA from the outside in | Leave a Comment »

Cambodian News: Opera and bitch-slapping monks

April 28, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

Take that, you saffron-covered fool!
“Where Elephants Weep” the very first modern Cambodian opera, premiered in Lowell, Massachusetts, and will eventually travel to Phnom Penh where it will open in January 2008.

Sung in English and Khmer, the music features a 12th century pin peat ensemble, traditional Cambodian instruments, a string quartet and a rock band, and the story is of Cambodians returning to their country after the Khmer Rouge years and civil war.

While Cambodian music comes to the West, one big-name star is going the other direction. Former Boyzone babe-and-a-half, Ronan Keating, will soon be playing PP’s Olympic stadium. Cam officials are thinking this will boost tourism. Okay. I suppose, “Come to Cambodia to hear an Irish guy sing” is as good a come-on as some.

This from the Boston Globe gives more on the opera and the people involved. Very cool.

And speaking of cool …

how about this story about Cambodian rangers being trained to protect the country’s bear population?

The Australian-based organization Free the Bears has set up a program to train 2 dozen park rangers in efforts to save the Asiatic black bears and Sun bears that live in Cambodia from poachers who go after them for their bile … a component in Chinese traditional medicine.

And while we’re on wildlife, there’s a crocodile alert in effect in villages along the Mekong. Officials are guessing these are escapees from one of the croc farms in the area. Makes doing the laundry a bit dodgy.

Quality may be on the way up in Cambodia with the passage of a new Law of Standard that is supposed to, ” … ‘urge our local enterprises and producers to produce commodities of unified standard,’ said Ith Prang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy.”

The ramifications for bootlegging the “mark of Standard of Cambodia” will be 6 days to one month in jail and a fine of $125 to $500. Why do I suspect this won’t be stopping anyone?

For a look at investment opportunities in Cambodia, here’s an article that talks about the boom in progress and who’s putting big money into the country.

Prime Minister Hun Sen is giving his that oil money will be put to good use, saying it will mainly go to the education and health sectors.

Okay.

I suppose they can always count on the legions of Buddhist religious leaders in the country to make sure everything is above-board … or not.

A monk melee broke out on the streets of Phnom Penh the other day, apparently over religious freedom for Cambodian Buddhists in Viet Nam.

Sheesh.

And that all, folks …

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Posted in Cambodia | 1 Comment »

Link to fiction

April 27, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

I mentioned a couple of posts back an idea about working on a novel through a blog, since this format seems to be eating my life these days.

Well, I’ve started the process, so if anyone’s interested in reading a first draft version of my latest fiction, which I am doing nothing more than making up as I go along … grueling and tedious, I know, but that happens to be how a book gets written … you can find it here.

I’m not looking for an audience, but I’ve had a number of people lately voice curiosity about the process so I thought I’d share. Plus, feeling that someone might be checking for updates might motivate me to spend the time I really do so want to spend writing from my head, rather than headlines.

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Hear ye, hear ye

April 27, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

I’m going absolutely bozonkers over working on my pro blogs lately. There’s a push on to polish them up, professionalize them, and although I’m well in favor of jettisoning bloggers who have yet to shake hands with the punctuation principal, I’m none too thrilled with the perpetual refrain of “stick to topic”.

My blogs are on international and older parent adoption, and in my little mind both of those cover a range of possible subjects that could be massaged to include just about anything I find interesting. I am, after all, an older international adoptive parent, and seeing that most of my perspective takes on some flavor from this huge part of who I am, what could I write about that is not ‘on topic’?

Apparently, the company doesn’t see things this way, however, and prefers I bang a more repetitive drum. They weren’t at all impressed by my two-parter on intergalactic adoption, and have strongly suggested I don’t go THERE again. Go figure.

Because I already end up with more adoption-related news than I can use, and now will have so much more, I’m going to start posting info here. News about Cambodia will especially feature, as the regular Friday feature of an update on Cam news is no longer favored on the International site being ‘off topic’ … much of it is not specific to adoption … and I’ll be updating regularly.

If you’re coming here from CAL or GAARP or RathCare to follow Cam news updates, welcome! I’m happy to have you. If there is specific adoption-related news, I’ll link to the blog where I post it.

Posted in Adoption, Cambodia, Writing for a living | 3 Comments »

Apologies and explanations

April 26, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

The last post, “Dads and Daughters” was written for the pro Older Parent Blog, but then found unsuitable, as I’d already used the photo ages ago.

Am I losing it? You tell me … or someone can.

I stuck it here because it was written and I couldn’t see tossing it. Too much effort to do either.

Posted in Writing for a living | 1 Comment »

Dads and Daughters

April 26, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

Like many dads, Mark has always assumed that he and his son are destined to pal around, to do guy things, to hang out together in that father/son way that, although it doesn’t include tossing a baseball back and forth in the back yard here … there being no baseballs and Mark not having a clue how to pitch one if it suddenly dropped out of the sky … is a familiar theme all over the world.

Mark was thirty-six when Sam came home, so not nearly as deserving of the older parent tiara as I was at the time, but still no spring chicken. He’d had a long time to observe other dad/kid relationships and decide what he’d like, and what he could take a pass on. Most of his visions of father-son-ing it at that stage involved fish in one way or another, with visions of quiet hours passed side-by-side in his little boat, then more time together as great meals would be prepared from the bounty they would haul home.

To a certain extent, that does happen. Sam enjoys fishing … although he wants to do it in the lagoon … and he loves bobbing around in the sea with Dad. He’s also big on adventures, and Dad is almost as much fun on those as Gay is.

For the most part, however, Mark’s interests are not Sam’s. He has no interest in going out in the boat, can only feign interest in cooking for short spurts, and would rather sit and draw for hours than hammer and saw and that sort of manly stuff that keeps Mark happily under the house and covered in sawdust for much of any given weekend.

It could easily be said that Sam is more like me than like his dad.

Cj, on the other hand … well, she’s a girl after her father’s heart. Peas in a pod, they are. Both have the calm temperament of those who will always choose smiling over frowning and acquiescence over argument. Nothing sounds like more fun to the two of them than mucking about in the wood shavings or spending ages in the kitchen together chopping, stirring, tasting.

And that’s another thing they share … they LOVE their food! Sam’s always been a good eater, but even his willingness to try anything didn’t prepare us for Cj’s total relish of anything … relish or no.

Yep. She’s just like her father is so many ways.

Now, if I can keep her thinking that washing dishes is a hoot and a half …

The shot is Cj and Mark having some father/daughter moments in the kitchen.Washing Dishes

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Planet 581c Inhabitants: Where’s your billboard?

April 25, 2007 by Sandra Hanks

News of the discovery of a possibly habitable planet outside our solar system, the oh-so-lyrically named 581c, had me writing about … cue music … Adopting From Outer Space … fade music … on one of my pro blogs today.

When trawling for blog fodder, as I do every morning, it’s the adoption-related I glom on to first … they pay me for that blog … but certain items of interest resonate throughout the day no matter how done with the concept I may be after cranking out a thousand words or so around the info.

To nab a line from “The Big Chill“: This is one of those times. (Or something like that … Mary Kay Place, sitting in a church at the funeral of a college friend? Minister as M/C warming up the crowd? Ring any bells? Whatever.)

Apparently Planet 581c is the right size, shape and distance from it’s Red Dwarf of a sun to look likely, from 120 trillion miles away, to accommodate a version of life that we might even be able to recognize as living.

Sure, the science guys probably have themselves worked into a frenzy thinking about slime lichens or midgazoas when they talk about the place possibly supporting life forms, but you know darned well most folks are picturing ET or Klingons, at least.

I suppose we have to assume that any 581c-ains are a bit slower than we are, as it appears they haven’t yet discovered us. If they had, they would certainly have put up a billboard or something to let us know that they know that we’re advanced enough to be looking at them. That’s what we’d do, right?

Too bad they’re not light years ahead of us, as ever since I moved to this island I’ve been hoping someone would come across folks who’ve perfected that beamy-uppy thing Scottie manned in Star Trek forty-something years ago.

I hate flying, and when the nearest shopping mall is a four hour trip on a Boeing … that would be Dubai, thankyouverymuch … and my mom and daughter and granddaughter, son, brothers and friends can’t be within hugging range without at least 36 hours of cramped, recycled air torture, I’d give a lot to meet a 581c-ian with a portable transporter.

Maybe the next planet discovered?

new planet581c-ian?

Posted in I wanna, Island life | 1 Comment »

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