China and the UNSPEAKABLE!

I am VERY, VERY old, by the way.  I grew up in an era when it was prohibited for American citizens to buy anything made in "COMMUNIST China" (and that WAS how it was addressed to us).  This was LONG before Nixon's trip to China or the ping-ping table relays between the two countries that supposedly "opened the door".  Of course, NOW here in 2011 China has a vastly different relationship to the West as it did in the days of the little "red books" of Mao Tse Tung!
My family and I are reluctant to buy things "made in China" because of two factors: 1) such manufacturing jobs put many Americans and Canadians out of a job.  2) we are not at all pleased at how China treats the Tibetan minorities (and they cover this up in MANY ways!). 

Our child needed a "flash drive" for school.  We searched and searched and searched to find one NOT made in China.  At last we found one Made in Mexico.....but it was many more $$$ than the ones made in China; we bought it anyway.

We have a dear Tibetan friend who is a monk and goes back to Dharmasala (God bless India for helping the Tibetans establish this place in exile!) once a year and speaks to Dalai Lama.  We see and hear things about the Tibetan PEOPLE in China and things in Tibet are indeed sad.  In the 1950's China INVADED Tibet, claiming to "protect them from foreign intervention" (the only "foreigners" intervening were the Chinese!).  Thousands of monks and nuns were slaughtered, as were many temples and monasteries.  We all clamored when the Taliban destroyed the Bamayan Buddhist statues in Afghanistan....but we said NOTHING when the Chinese destroyed thousands of religious places and religious people in Tibet.  We are hearing that many present-day Tibetans in Tibet have become drug addicts and China is just looking the other way because drugs is a means by which to CONTROL a people.  We are SO, SO saddened to see/hear what goes on there.

I am NOT (thank God) a Chinese journalist, or I would be subjected to "house arrest" for even speaking this much.  It is not only the Tibetans who are mistreated, but many other "minorities" within China who are not Chinese (Han) descent.

The NEW China is not one I know at all.  Many questions were raised as to WHO (which country) is buying the baby seal fur coats from the poor baby seals clubbed in Canada.  USA has totally banned such furs, as have many countries in Europe.  But CHINA - buys a LOT of baby seal fur coats from Canada....mostly going to the "mistresses" of factory owners.

I have no desire to visit China (just as I have no desire to visit Pakistan - with its "infanticide" problem - murdering by hanging, stabbing, burning 9 out of 10 baby FULL-GROWN babies because they are female or illegitimate).  Poor little corpses are turning up in all Karachi dumps.

AND by the way - China is ridding itself of all it's GIRLS to overseas adoption.  Good luck!!  Now they have all these BOYS who are overfed and raised (many succomb to diabetes) like "little princes" - and already they have a problem....there aren't any girls to marry, so they have to "order away" from other places.

So we try not to buy anything made in China for various reasons.  We do buy things made in Mexico, Nepal, Bangladesh and India because these countries still have cottage industries.    

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania....

Earlier in the month we went to a village named Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.  We had a glorious time there....rode the train (and they allowed doggies!), went bicycling along the river, ate Mexican food and befriended the owner (who is from the state of Puebla, Mexico).  We saw the beautiful Asa Packer Mansion (museum) and learned its history.  We saw the stunningly beautiful St. Mark's Episcopal Church which was built out of a mountain and has some of the largest collections of Tiffany stained glass in the world.

This is one of those "times" where photos speak louder than words, so I'll present photos and websites of this great place (hey!  we don't have a "Shimla" here, but this is 2nd best!).  Firstly, here is Wikepedia's version:      http://www.jimthorpe.org/

And here are some photos from our trip:

Fallingwater

"Fallingwater" is the name of the house in Mill Run Pennsylvania.  It was built in 1935 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kaufmann (then of famous Pittsburgh department store "Kaufmann's") family.  Donated by the son in 1964 to the Western Pennsylvania Conservasy....it is now a National Treasure. 

Fallingwater was built atop a waterfall - on a cantilever system - the only house we know of that was so built and designed.  Anyone who travels to Pittsburgh and doesn't make the extra 1-1/2 hrs to Fallingwater is truly missing out on a great and spectacular attraction.

Here is the Wikipedia version of Fallingwater: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater

And here is our photo:

If you ever take a tour through this magnificent house - you will also feel all the "good ghosts" of those who came to visit - Frida Khalo, Diego Rivera (Frida gave the Kaufmann's a painting).  If you ever visit Pittsburgh and do not make the effort to visit this splendour - then I would be sad.

Dog-Fighting - what a "brave SPORT"!!!!

Dog fighting is a sick, sick side of humanity.  Those who participate in the training of such dogs (I have heard of a pit-bull owner who put chili powder in the eyes of his dog to make it "meaner") are SICK, those who watch such fights are SICK and those who make bets on such fights are even SICKER. 

Think about it - would we humans pay money to watch a human sexual predator rape a young girl?  Are we that depraved?  So why would humans succomb to watching a dog-fight?  Do the dogs have free will or choices?....that's a rhetorical question - of course they don't.  And please don't even THINK about using the "race card" to say that this is an "African-American" problem.....it is not - it is a GLOBAL trans-racial problem!

These so-called "men" have dogs "fighting for them" because they are damn cowards themselves!  That is the bottom line.  They are too cowardly to fight one another, so they force a helpless animal fight "for them" - WOW!!!.....what "machismo"!!!!  What bravery!!!

I have the permission of a wonderful lady named Diane Jessup who CARES about dog-fighting (as I do) to place a link to her website.  Please do check out her website:   http://www.workingpitbull.com/Contactme.html

Here is a photo (courtesy Diane Jessup) of a dog so injured that it doesn't even appear to be REAL:

THEN decide for yourselves if dog-fighting is "worth it".  Oh yeah, so "macho" - so "macho" are these trainers that they won't get into a fighting ring THEMSELVES, oh no!!!!

So "macho" that many of these dogs are killed or skinned alive.  Please do go to her website.  If there is ANY decency in you as a human being, you will be moved by it and you will try to alert authorities if you know of any dog-fighting in your area.

We just got back from a place where there were loons (oh, what a beautiful sound they make at night!) - and saw a Mama Loon with 2 babies on her back and the Papa Loon was fishing for food for them all.  There was a perfect "family" albeit of the bird world.  Does anyone believe that dogs are non-sentinent beings?  If left to nature, dogs (the Mama) would let their sweet pups nurse and would nourish them until they could be on their own.  What a sad and cruel lives these "fighting dogs" have.  Please do your part to prevent such cruelty.  It is against everything that God asked of us as humans.

And one final look at a dog who may have died on a floor for the so-called "pleasure" of betting humans (and I cannot believe we even dare call ourselves HUMAN!):

Please!

The BEST of the BEST jigsaw puzzle website

I don't know what happened to my former favourite jigsaw puzzle website....suddenly it was telling me I needed "Java" and I HAVE Java (and checked to see if it was enabled; it was) - that used to be my best site for jigsaw puzzles.  They SAY that doing jigsaw puzzles keeps Alzheimer's "at bay" longer, so I try to work at least one jigsaw puzzle a day.

Here's a great website: http://thejigsawpuzzles.com/
And don't be "misled" by the "kid-looking" appearance....you can go into categories and there are hundreds of thousands of puzzles.....you can change the number of pieces you wish to work.  You can fill in the "edges" (it temporarily hides the middle pieces until the border is done); and you can even go FULL SCREEN.

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

Isn't life strange?  I don't believe in "coincidence"; I believe in Divine Providence.  After mowing lawns on a hot day, we went for a swim at the American Legion pool.  A woman perhaps 10 years older than I began to strike up a conversation about her "book club".  I'd heard of "book clubs" but wasn't sure how they worked and she was only too happy to tell me.

She said everyone in the group took a turn on recommending a book to be read (they had an agreement with the library - that ordered enough copies of the book for everyone in the club; they did so by borrowing from other libraries and each member could borrow the book for 3 weeks).  She said when it was her turn, as she was new in the group, she felt a little scared to make a recommendation, but she had just read a wonderful book by Laura Hillenbrand named "Unbroken".  Even as early as a week later people in the group who happened to bump into her said "I CAN'T put this book down!  It's possibly the best book I've ever read!"

Laura Hillenbrand had written the book "Seabiscuit" about a winning race horse, and has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so it's very difficult for her to be well enough to write a second book.  Here is the official website of "Unbroken" and it can be purchased or downloaded at Amazon.com:
  http://laurahillenbrandbooks.com/

The story is about an Olympic runner named Louis Zamperini.  He was a teenager when he competed at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.  World War II broke out and he suspended his running career to become an Army Air Corps bombardier, surviving several harrowing combat missions flown out of his base in Hawaii.  On May 27, 1943, Zamperini’s bomber crashed in the Pacific, leaving Zamperini and two other survivors stranded on a raft surrounded by sharks.  This is a TRUE story.....Louis Zamperini is still alive, in his 90's.

The lady in the swimming pool (named Carol) told me more and I felt enraptured by the story and vowed to read the book soon.  The officer who sent him (as the mechanic) and 2 others on this mission KNEW the plane was unfit but sent them anyway.  It crashed in the Pacific Ocean.  He and 2 others survived on a raft.  They had managed a small ration of food and potable water.  Soon, they were encircled by vicious sharks who circled the raft day and night.  They had very little food and water and knew they had to share it sparingly.  One night...one of the other 2 men ate all the food and drank all the water while the others were asleep.   They spotted what they thought was a rescue plane, but it turned out to be a Japanese plane that fired upon them.  The raft deflated and the sharks began to snap at them.  Somehow, one of the 3 make a homemade "bat" and managed to beat off the sharks one by one.  With all water and food supplies gone, dehydrated and sunburnt they floated some 47 days, until they found land.  Alas, it was an island under Japanese control and the 3 were immediately taken as prisoners of war.

There would be one prison guard in particular who would make Zamperini's life a living hell:  

Mutsuhiro Watanabe, “the Bird.”

Known by prisoners as “the Bird,” this POW camp guard was consumed in bitterness over his failure to become an officer.   An ardent sadist, he was especially provoked by POWs who were officers, who were successful in civilian life, or who refused to grovel before him.  When he encountered Louis Zamperini, a lieutenant, a world-famous Olympian, and a ferociously defiant man, Watanabe was immediately obsessed with breaking him.  The two men began a yearlong battle of wills.  This guard was so sadistic and so cruel that the other guards begged for him to be transferred to another prison (and he was, after a year).

As the War came towards the end, all the Allied prisoners of war were sent to one prison and as luck would have it.....who would be the guard there....none other than Mutsuhiro Watanabe - only delighted with glee to have Louis Zamperini as his captive prisoner again.  He tortured Zamperini to near-death conditions.

When the War ended, Zamperini and the others were released, but he suffered PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) - which was not even recognized as an illness in those days.  He met a lovely woman named Cynthia and wanted to marry her....however, he decided against that when he would (alone) wake up in the middle of the night (due to PTSD) strangling his pillow thinking it was Cynthia.  He had fantasies of killing someone and in the dreams he would see the face of Watanabe and Cynthia as one and the same.  He started drinking and was going on a downhill slide.  Still, Cynthia liked him enough as a friend to invite him to accompany her to a talk being given by world-famous Evangelist, Billy Graham.  Louis went and did not like it.  He thought it was all a bunch of rubbish.  HOWEVER.....the next night Louis decided to go (alone) to the Billy Graham talk and his life was turned around.  He began to understand the power in forgiveness; he quit drinking and worked on improving his "forgiveness".  He knew immediately WHOM he needed to forgive: the cruel guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe......and began writing letters FORGIVING him.  As no-one knew where in Japan Watanabe was hiding, Zamperini began to send the letters to the newspapers in Tokyo and they published them each time. 

Mutsuhiro Watanabe, however, was to spend a lonely, bitter life in Japan always in hiding.  He was then wanted by War Crime Tribunals, so he spent his life in hiding.  

There came a point MANY years later when Louis Zamperini went to Japan with a crew from "60 Minutes".....his one desire was to meet with Watanabe face-to-face and tell him that he FORGAVE him.  Watanabe would not agree to the meeting, but was interviewed separately (so long as his location was not disclosed).  He was still (some 50 years later) an ANGRY man consumed by hatred.  A few years later, Watanabe died, bitter and alone.

SO - I really appreciated Carol telling me about this book and plan to read it soon.  It is amazing how some people complain about life and receive no more than a mosquito bite, whereas others who have been beaten, starved, hopeless, circled by sharks, lost at sea, tortured.....can have an amazing resilience and even can forgive.    

Carol told me they will be making a film of this story and hopes Louis Zamperini will still be alive to attend the premiere.   

  

Monkfish....not very "handsome"......but....

Now then, there is a delicious fish called monkfish.  The poor thing is SO UGLY, that truly the ONLY one would would love the looks of a monkfish would be the Mama monkfish!

Not too "handsome", eh??

BUT......the monkfish is absolutely delicious to eat.  In fact, it was known as "poor man's lobster" because the taste is identical to lobster.  Then, as usual, when someone finds an inexpensive (and monkfish USED to be VERY inexpensive) food that tastes like a RICH food.....what do they do????  They raise the prices.  Now: Monkfish is almost exactly the same price as lobster and it's also very hard to find.