Friday, 28 November 2008
The History of Coffee
The history and development of the beverage that we know as coffee is varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political intrigue, and the pursuit of wealth and power. According to one story, a sheepherder named Kaldi as he tended his sheep noticed the effect of coffee beans on behavior. He noticed that the sheep became hyperactive after eating the red "cherries" from a certain plant when they changed pastures. He tried a few themselves, and was soon as overactive as his herd. The story relates that a monk happened by and scolded him for "partaking of the devil's fruit." However the monks soon discovered that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help them stay awake for their prayers. Another legend gives us the name for coffee or "mocha." An Arabian was banished to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant. Not only did the broth save the exiles, but the residents of the nearest town, Mocha, took their survival as a religious sign. The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event. One early use for coffee would have little appeal today. The Galla tribe from Ethiopia used coffee, but not as a drink. They would wrap the beans in animal fat as their only source of nutrition while on raiding parties. The Turks were the first countries to adopt it as a drink, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise to the brew. Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia whose inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. The government forbade transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Early in this century, the descendants of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region. Coffee was believed by some Christians to be the devil's drink. Pope Vincent III heard this and decided to taste it before he banished it. He enjoyed it so much and baptized it, saying, "coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it."Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
What you need to know kissing
Not all the kisses are connected with sexual love. Kissing also
signifies courtesy in every country of Europe and America.
Kissing on the back of the palm signifies respect.
Kissing on the forehead signifies friendship.
Kissing on the cheek signifies deep feeling.
Kissing on the lips signifies love.
Kissing on the eyelid signifies adoration.
Kissing on the palm signifies desire.
Kissing on the wrist or on the neck signifies desirous feeling.
Kissing on other part of the body signifies intense emotion
signifies courtesy in every country of Europe and America.
Kissing on the back of the palm signifies respect.
Kissing on the forehead signifies friendship.
Kissing on the cheek signifies deep feeling.
Kissing on the lips signifies love.
Kissing on the eyelid signifies adoration.
Kissing on the palm signifies desire.
Kissing on the wrist or on the neck signifies desirous feeling.
Kissing on other part of the body signifies intense emotion
Friday, 21 November 2008
“ABC” and "banana"
A professor of mine once told a story about when she went to the United States to study.A native Eritrean, she had received a scholarship to pursue a bachelor's degree at an American university. The university organized a trip to Disneyland for her and the other international students. Before the group of international students went to Los Angeles, the coordinators of the trip informed the students from Africa that they should wear their "traditional" costumes, not Western-style clothing.Why?The coordinators were afraid that the African students would be "mistaken" for African-Americans simply because their skin color was also dark.At that time, the 1960s, there was still much overt racial discrimination against African-Americans.Insgroupsto avoid trouble, the coordinators wanted to make sure that their African students did not look African-American.
She ended her story by asking us to think about what we thought she was before we had met her. Her last name is Italian; did we think she was Italian? When we first saw her, did we assume that she was a black American?How much can we really know about a person based upon hair color, skin color, facial structure or body shape?
Identity is a difficult subject to discuss because it is so personal, and it is even more difficult to describe someone's identity clearly in a country like the USswheresjust about everyone's family came from somewhere else. My professor, until she left Eritrea, always considered herself Eritrean.When she got to America, however, people looked at her and saw a black woman, not an Eritrean woman. Similarly, Japanese, Koreans and Chinese people come to the US and are often just called "Asians".Appearance is used as the main condition for identity, although appearances can be quite deceiving.
Is there a difference between a Chinese person born in China and a person born in the US to parents from China?Most people would agree that there is.There are certain phrases that people frequently use insgroupsto define the Chinese-American identity. The two most commonly heard terms are "ABC", meaning an American-born Chinese, and "banana".The former is often considered an acceptable label for people of Chinese descent born in the US; in Canada there is the corresponding term "CBC" for Canadian-born Chinese.The second term, banana, is usually regarded as derogatory or offensive, and it refers to someone who is "yellow" on the outside but "white" on the inside.
The phrase ABC is used so commonly that many people think it is an appropriate description of Chinese-Americans.However, the phrase hides what I think is a very dangerous belief about identity. Identity is developed and learned, not given at birth.To say that someone is an American-born Chinese is to suggest that if that person were born anywhere else in the world, he/she would still be fundamentally Chinese because Chineseness, the quality of being Chinese, is inherent in this person.It implies that an ABC is Chinese first and just happened to be born in the United States.Yet being Chinese is not an inherent quality that one person has simply because he or she looks Chinese.Just about every Chinese-American recognizes that there are huge differences in personality, behavior and physical appearance between themselves and their native Chinese counterparts.
These differences are what the term "banana" addresses.Bananas are yellow-skinned but with white insides - for people, this is meant to describe individuals who look Chinese but whose "insides", that is, their behavior and personality, are "white".But this also carries a demeaning and offensive undertone: that these people are only half-real, they are neither completely Chinese nor actually white. Even worse, the term is sometimes used to suggest that Chinese-Americans really wish that they were white.Being white, of course, is assumed to mean being American, which is a third misconception.Not all Americans are white, and in not too many years the majority of the population in America won't be white (i.e. of purely European descent) at all.
Identity for everyone is a matter of experience and circumstance, not skin color or general appearance.What terms like ABC and banana ignore is that being Chinese-American constitutes a very real identity in its own right.Chinese-Americans are not necessarily caught between the East and the West.The Chinese-American identity is one that has developed over many generations in the US (since the 1840s), but one that can also be shared by recent immigrants and their families.It is important because it is different, because it is the product of blending social and cultural influences, and these differences should be recognized and not brushed aside.
She ended her story by asking us to think about what we thought she was before we had met her. Her last name is Italian; did we think she was Italian? When we first saw her, did we assume that she was a black American?How much can we really know about a person based upon hair color, skin color, facial structure or body shape?
Identity is a difficult subject to discuss because it is so personal, and it is even more difficult to describe someone's identity clearly in a country like the USswheresjust about everyone's family came from somewhere else. My professor, until she left Eritrea, always considered herself Eritrean.When she got to America, however, people looked at her and saw a black woman, not an Eritrean woman. Similarly, Japanese, Koreans and Chinese people come to the US and are often just called "Asians".Appearance is used as the main condition for identity, although appearances can be quite deceiving.
Is there a difference between a Chinese person born in China and a person born in the US to parents from China?Most people would agree that there is.There are certain phrases that people frequently use insgroupsto define the Chinese-American identity. The two most commonly heard terms are "ABC", meaning an American-born Chinese, and "banana".The former is often considered an acceptable label for people of Chinese descent born in the US; in Canada there is the corresponding term "CBC" for Canadian-born Chinese.The second term, banana, is usually regarded as derogatory or offensive, and it refers to someone who is "yellow" on the outside but "white" on the inside.
The phrase ABC is used so commonly that many people think it is an appropriate description of Chinese-Americans.However, the phrase hides what I think is a very dangerous belief about identity. Identity is developed and learned, not given at birth.To say that someone is an American-born Chinese is to suggest that if that person were born anywhere else in the world, he/she would still be fundamentally Chinese because Chineseness, the quality of being Chinese, is inherent in this person.It implies that an ABC is Chinese first and just happened to be born in the United States.Yet being Chinese is not an inherent quality that one person has simply because he or she looks Chinese.Just about every Chinese-American recognizes that there are huge differences in personality, behavior and physical appearance between themselves and their native Chinese counterparts.
These differences are what the term "banana" addresses.Bananas are yellow-skinned but with white insides - for people, this is meant to describe individuals who look Chinese but whose "insides", that is, their behavior and personality, are "white".But this also carries a demeaning and offensive undertone: that these people are only half-real, they are neither completely Chinese nor actually white. Even worse, the term is sometimes used to suggest that Chinese-Americans really wish that they were white.Being white, of course, is assumed to mean being American, which is a third misconception.Not all Americans are white, and in not too many years the majority of the population in America won't be white (i.e. of purely European descent) at all.
Identity for everyone is a matter of experience and circumstance, not skin color or general appearance.What terms like ABC and banana ignore is that being Chinese-American constitutes a very real identity in its own right.Chinese-Americans are not necessarily caught between the East and the West.The Chinese-American identity is one that has developed over many generations in the US (since the 1840s), but one that can also be shared by recent immigrants and their families.It is important because it is different, because it is the product of blending social and cultural influences, and these differences should be recognized and not brushed aside.
Monday, 17 November 2008
England in the 1500s
Here are some facts about the England in the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and, still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then, all the other sons and men, then, the women and, finally, the children -- last of all the babies. By then, the water was so dirty you could, actually, lose someone in it -- hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water
Houses had thatched roofs -- thick straw, piled high, with no wood, underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so, all the dogs, cats, and other small animals (mice， rats, and bugs), lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and, sometimes, the animals would slip and fall off the roof -- hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other droppings could, really, mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top, afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor."
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter, when wet, so, they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way -- hence, a "thresh hold."
They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day, they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and, then, start over the next day. Sometimes, the stew had food in it, that had been there for quite a while -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man " could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so, for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Most people did not have pewter plates, but, had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often, trenchers were made from stale paysan bread, which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed, and, a lot of times, worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
Bread was divided, according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or, "upper crust".
Lead cups were used to drink ale or Whisky . The combination would, sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up -- hence the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small, and, they started out running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside, and, they realized they had been burying people alive. So, they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the " graveyard shift" ) to listen for the bell.
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and, still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then, all the other sons and men, then, the women and, finally, the children -- last of all the babies. By then, the water was so dirty you could, actually, lose someone in it -- hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water
Houses had thatched roofs -- thick straw, piled high, with no wood, underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so, all the dogs, cats, and other small animals (mice， rats, and bugs), lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and, sometimes, the animals would slip and fall off the roof -- hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other droppings could, really, mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top, afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor."
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter, when wet, so, they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way -- hence, a "thresh hold."
They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day, they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and, then, start over the next day. Sometimes, the stew had food in it, that had been there for quite a while -- hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man " could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so, for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Most people did not have pewter plates, but, had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often, trenchers were made from stale paysan bread, which was so old and hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed, and, a lot of times, worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."
Bread was divided, according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or, "upper crust".
Lead cups were used to drink ale or Whisky . The combination would, sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up -- hence the custom of holding a "wake."
England is old and small, and, they started out running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside, and, they realized they had been burying people alive. So, they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the " graveyard shift" ) to listen for the bell.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Queen a Bargain for Canadians
Canada gets its constitutional monarchy cheap, paying just C$1.10 (45 pence) per citizen per year, or half the cost of running one of Ottawa's main museums, according to a study by a royalist group. The Monarchist League of Canada said the $1.10 pays for the expenses of the Governor General, the Queen's representative in Canada, and for the expenses of lieutenant governors in Canadian provinces. It also pays for royal visits, including the Queen's Golden Jubilee tour of Canada. That works out at under half the annual cost of the Museum of Civilisation, across the river from the capital Ottawa, or half the cost of running the Senate. "It's a pretty bare bones operation," said Monarchist League of Canada Chairman John Aimers. "It's a very modest and appropriate expenditure." Aimers said that even without the monarchy, Canada would still spend money on visiting foreign ambassadors and heads of state, and someone would be required to do the largely ceremonial governor general's job. "The costs would still be the same," he said. The governor general and lieutenant governors represent the Queen, who is Canada's head of state. Canadians foot the bill for security and other issues when members of the royal family visit Canada. But they don't pay for royal vacations, like the ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia, taken by Prince Charles and his sons in 1998.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
"Loyal" Donkeys Better Than Wives, Says Textbook
A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their "masters," The Times of India reported Tuesday
"A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.
The book was approved by the state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government but has sparked protests from the party's women's wing.
State education officials in Rajasthan, a western state known for its conservative attitude toward women, said people should not be upset by the comparison, the paper said.
"The comparison was made in good humor," state education official A.R. Khan was quoted as saying. "However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing it (the reference)."
"A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.
The book was approved by the state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government but has sparked protests from the party's women's wing.
State education officials in Rajasthan, a western state known for its conservative attitude toward women, said people should not be upset by the comparison, the paper said.
"The comparison was made in good humor," state education official A.R. Khan was quoted as saying. "However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing it (the reference)."
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Paris Invents New Love Messages
Declarations of undying devotion will flash across Paris's municipal bulletin boards every 20 seconds next month as the French capital invents a new way to say "I love you" on Valentine's Day. Bertrand Delanoe, the left-wing mayor known for his innovative city festivals, said the electronic boards would carry the best short love letters on February 14 - Valentine's Day - and throughout that weekend, adding that they would "help Parisians tell each other 'I love you'". He urged Parisians to send in their messages with a note indicating which neighbourhood they wanted them to be posted in. A special committee would pick out the best ones to display. The illuminated boards, which normally announce everything from city festivals to traffic warnings, stand at key squares and intersections all around the French capital.
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