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Frank McCourt Remembered

I was in my second year of University, the year was 1998, and someone special handed me the book “Angela’s Ashes” and said – read this, PLEASE. For the next month I would take the book with me everywhere, sneaking a chapter or 2 in whenever I got the chance.? The stories of a poor Irish boy growing up in Limerick, Ireland, with all the beauty and tragedy of his childhood.? The book was written in such a way that it became addicting to read, and eventually I would talk about it all the time with the person who had given me the book.? Later of course there was the film version, but it couldn’t compare with that time in my life when I read this special book.

The author, Frank McCourt, died this week at the age of 78.? In honor of his passing, On Point featured an interview with him from 2005. I listened to that interview today as I made my way on the buses and metro of Lisbon. McCourt’s voice took me back to 1998, seemingly putting the book back in my hands.? He spoke about teaching in New York City and his life now compared to Ireland back then.

After hearing this I’m now about to set off listening to the audio book for? “Teacher Man”, his third book. I highly recommend listening to this NPR interview. Whether it was recorded today or 4 years ago, Frank McCourt’s words, like his writing, are not easy to forget.

Clash of Consumer Culture

Caldas da Rainha with its 50,000 or so residents is not a huge city. The city itself is known for its hospital and according to wikipedia, its pottery.? In my family it is known as the city where my mother went to high school, and where every year my parents spend the summer.

In the heart of this ancient city, every morning, there is a fruit, vegetable, and pastry market.? Virtually all the food one can buy at the market comes from this region of Portugal, with peaches, plums, pears, cherries and apples among the stars in the fruit department. At the same time, if you drive (and EVERYONE drives) in any direction from the center you will run into a massive big box store or supermarket.? French owned, American owned, Portuguese owned, it becomes hard to keep track of which huge supermarket has just opened up where. Every year when I see a new one I think to myself “they couldn’t possibly need another one”,? only to be confounded the following summer where another field of fruits or vegetables has been converted to a mega supermarket.

Despite the criticism that I could express, that so many have already expressed about the negative impact the big box stores have on communities, I confess I go to both. Perhaps for the convenience, or the choices, or maybe its the price, whatever the case, I divide my food shopping between the morning market of freshness, and the big supermarket of choices. As I do this I notice the type of customers in both: at the morning market an older crowd, many of whom know the venders and seem to have known them for ages, at the big supermarkets its the families, young families with one or two kids trailing behind the overfilled shopping carts.

In many different parts of the world, the phenomenon I’m describing has been a reality for far longer, and as many of you might be thinking – it is not the end of the world. You’re probably right. But as I watch this tiny city and its morning market where people walk from their home to acquire food freshly plucked from the fields around the municipality, and then I look at the big supermarket with its expansive parking lot and its giant aisles filled with stock, I see a difference. It is a difference not only in choice and price, it is a difference of culture.? A culture that was rich and rewarding in ways that perhaps can’t be expressed in financial numbers.

The last thing I wonder is can we ever go back once the big box stores are everywhere, and the last of the elderly buying and selling fruit are gone. Some thought this trend would change with the dawn of the financial crisis, spurring a return of “buying local”.? Yet here we sit, financial crisis in Portugal just as in much of the world, yet this summer they found a spot for yet another giant department store. I already forget what vegetables they used to grow on the field it is built on.

Scandinavian Arctic Path

My good friend and fellow personal publisher Raymond had a post earlier this month on the topic of Norway that caught my attention.? In it he spoke about the melting of the arctic ice, a topic I’ve followed for the past few years, and the strange prospects for Scandinavia when this new northern trade route opens up.? Focusing on the city of Troms? as a potential crossroads for these new routes, Raymond asks:

Could Troms? or another harbour in Northern Norway be the new Rotterdam? Could we see a development in Northern Norway that defies gravity and is as exciting and news-worthy as the development in the capital of Norway? What will happen once ships can safely travel from Europe to Asia through the arctic region?

He also mentions existing and planned sea, rail, and air links between Scandinavia,? Europe, Asia.? As well as the importance of the world’s largest iron ore mine located in Sweden.

While the melting of the arctic is alarming and indeed, steps should be taken to reduce carbon emissions to hopefully slow global warming, it is also interesting to imagine what the future could bring for regions of the world like Northern Norway.? Places that in this day and age are seen as remote or isolated, suddenly becoming connected and significant in so many ways.

Portugal Summer Note

Getting adjusted and taking care of a long list of errands for my 2 weeks in Portugal that have just begun.? Will return to posting AND podcasting, this weekend. Here’s a photo from today.

Indonesian Elections and West Papua

Last week Indonesians voted in only the second presidential election in their nation’s history. A race between three major coalition parties, it was the Democratic Party Coalition of current President Yudhoyono that cruised to victory with 60% of the vote. A former military man who was known to many as a “thinking General”, his first term seems to have earned a good amount of support among Indonesian voters.

But what of his policies in regards to West Papua?? In the last few weeks the reports have been rolling in about the Indonesian military activities in that region; burning down of homes, attacks and arrests of accused opposition members.? Though I can’t sit here and say for sure these activities were ordered by the president himself, they have still occurred under his leadership.? A leadership that since 2004, could have sought peaceful and open dialogue with the independent West Papua movement as well as human rights workers on the ground who have been trying for decades to raise awareness for the plight of the region.

Does the re-election of Yudhoyono mean that Indonesians approve of the government’s actions in West Papua? Do the reports coming from the region ever see the light of day in Indonesia? And is there any chance that in this second term, the president might shift his approach away from diplomacy by the barrel of a gun? These are only a few of the questions that need answering following last week’s elections.? Questions I’d like to pose in an upcoming podcast to someone closely following the vote in Indonesia.

Learn from the Mayo

Even if you’ve never been to Minnesota (I haven’t) you’ve likely heard of the Mayo Clinic.? To me the name is synonymous with some of the best healthcare a person can get.

However up until today I never knew the details of how the Mayo Clinic works, how it was founded, and what truly makes it unique in the world.?? As I listened to Armand Dimele’s recent program which focused not only on how the Clinic works but also on what lessons any of us can learn from how healthcare could be delivered, I found it to be very inspiring.? Even if I live in Europe, where people often sing the praises of the health system compared to the US, I find the details of how the Mayo Clinic is run to be well worthy of emulating.

Highly recommended listening, because you don’t have to live in Minnesota to have a vision of how quality healthcare should be delivered.