News Articles:
People's Daily: Canadian FM to skip ASEAN Regional Forum
CBC: Southeast Asian FMs meet after failure to agree on human rights
VOA: ASEAN Ponders New Charter
Vancouver Sun: Burmese junta's democratic pledge is just a sick joke
Irrawaddy: Where Are They Now?
Refugees/Resettlement:
Relief Web: Over 10,000 Refugees Left Thailand to Begin New Lives
DVB: Resettlement hits camp health, education
Langley Times: Refugees arrive in caring community
Narinjara News: 79 More Refugees Given Chance to Resettle in Canada
Ottawa Citizen: The power of volunteerism
Others:
Toronto Star: Woman lost, police seek help
Ottawa Citizen: Multi-cultural festival held today TheStar.com - News - Woman lost, police seek help
People's Daily: Canadian FM to skip ASEAN Regional Forum
MANILA, July 25 (Xinhua) Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Gordon MacKay is not attending the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) to be held on Aug. 1-2 in Manila, a Canadian Embassy official said Wednesday.
Steven Rheault-Kihara, Political and Economic Counselor of the Canadian Embassy, said MacKay is sending Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Leonard Edwards to represent him in the regional security forum.
Rheault-Kihara said MacKay can not attend the forum due to pressing domestic responsibilities.
However, Marciano Paynor, Philippine Secretary General of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) National Organizing Committee (NOC), said the non-attendance of a foreign minister will not diminish the value of the meetings.
"The level of participation of each country is really dependent on the availability of the highest official. This is their prerogative," Paynor said in a press briefing.
Washington formally announced Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is skipping the ASEAN forum because she will travel to the Middle East from July 30 to Aug. 2.
This is the second time that Rice is absent from an ARF meeting after that in Vientiane, Laos in 2005.
Her previous absence from that meeting is linked to Washintong's unhappiness over the failure of ASEAN to exert pressure on Myanmar.
Deputy State Secretary John Negroponte was designated as the U. S. special envoy to the ARF this time.
"He (Negroponte) will be most effective representative of the U.S. and a friend of the Philippines as well," Paynor said in reference to the experience of Negroponte as a former U.S. ambassador in Manila.
"There is no sign of waning relations between the ASEAN and the U.S. We never questioned this. These are inevitable facts. It is not in the intent of the U.S. to disregard the ASEAN," he added.
The ARF is one of Asia's major security groupings that includes ASEAN and its dialogue partners such as the United States, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and the European Union.
The 40th ASEAN ministerial meeting will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center beginning July 29 and will be capped by a two-day regional security forum on Aug. 1-2.
CBC: Southeast Asian foreign ministers meet after failure to agree on human rights
Canadian Press: JIM GOMEZ
July 29, 2007
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Southeast Asian foreign ministers began their annual meeting Monday with a sobering reminder that some countries in the region lag behind in implementing democracy and guaranteeing human rights.
Military-ruled Myanmar, which has been condemned for its dismal human rights record, on Sunday blocked creation of a human rights commission by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said a diplomat on a task force writing the group's first-ever charter.
The document will state that Myanmar did not accept the commission, leaving it to foreign ministers to resolve the issue, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak to the media.
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam also suggested they are not ready for the immediate establishment of such a body, which could deal with human rights violations in the region, the diplomat said.
Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam - ASEAN's most recent members - all have authoritarian or single-party governments.
Separately, a Philippine proposal for a clause in the charter allowing ASEAN to vote on critical issues to hasten decisions instead of its normal reliance on consensus was struck down. It also was decided that there will be no mention of sanctions for member states for serious breaches of the charter, the diplomat said.
In their meetings this week, ASEAN foreign ministers could decide to outline some kind of sanctions in a separate document, the diplomat said.
Conference spokesman Claro Cristobal stressed that any draft produced by the task force could still be changed by the ministers or ASEAN heads of state.
"This is a very important document," he said. "It has the potential of binding half a billion people's lives so every great deliberation is important."
Conference host Philippines believes an ASEAN rights body would give the bloc "more credibility in the international community, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said. Some countries have become frustrated over Myanmar's slow implementation of its pledge to introduce democracy, Romulo said.
"Myanmar has to accelerate its national reconciliation and democratization," Romulo told a news conference. "The world is looking to Myanmar to live up to its promises, and to ASEAN to encourage progressive development in our region, which must entail improvements in both human security and freedom."
ASEAN, formed 40 years ago, decided to draft a charter to become a more rules-based organization with better bargaining power in international negotiations. It hopes the charter can be adopted at an ASEAN summit in November.
The debate over the charter reflects how ASEAN's diverse membership, including fledgling democracies, communist countries and a military dictatorship, has hobbled decision-making.
Some ASEAN countries fear any scrutiny of their human rights, and the group has traditional held to a cardinal policy of noninterference in each other's affairs. Human rights groups complain that this noninterference principle has fostered undemocratic regimes in the region.
In their meetings, the foreign ministers are expected to tackle terrorism, better enforcement of a regional anti-nuclear treaty, disaster management and ways to help poorer members catch up with wealthier ones to foster faster economic integration.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
VOA: ASEAN Ponders New Charter
By Nancy-Amelia Collins
Manila
02 August 2, 2007
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have completed a draft of a charter for the organization that will radically alter the way its decisions are reached. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins reports from Manila, where the ASEAN officials met with their counterparts from 17 nations, including the United States and the European Union.
The charter is designed to define ASEAN more clearly, and to provide it with the legal framework it has lacked since its formation in 1967.
A major innovation is that the group's decisions would no longer need to be unanimous.
The draft has not yet been made public, and probably will not be until a final document is signed at the ASEAN meeting in November. Exactly how decisions will now be made has not been revealed.
But Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told reporters ASEAN's government leaders have approved the new system.
"Where as before it used to be all by consensus, which means unanimous, now we have introduced a provision, and it has been accepted to the leaders: we do not impose any requirement of consensus or unanimity. It is up to the leaders," said Mr. Romulo.
The charter also stipulates the establishment of a regional human rights body. This provision was agreed upon with difficulty this week, only after the foreign ministers were able to obtain the grudging agreement of Burma.
Many countries, including its fellow ASEAN members, have criticized Burma's poor human rights record.
Once the new system is in place, it would presumably become easier to overcome the objections of a single member nation like Burma.
Nuclear security figured prominently in the forum that brought officials of the 10 ASEAN nations and 17 others together.
Earlier in the week, the ASEAN ministers welcomed advances in six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said he hopes those talks will continue to progress.
"We look forward to the work that is going to be done in the six-party format during the next several weeks, and are hopeful of continued progress towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which is obviously a very, very important element of establishing long-term and enduring peace in this part of the world," said Negroponte.
The ASEAN ministers also agreed to create their own regional nuclear watchdog body, to ensure nuclear reactors in the area are not used to produce nuclear weapons.
Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo says these discussions bring nations closer and advance the cause of peace in Southeast Asia.
"We have reached a certain stage now where we are breaking through to a new level, in our internal construction, in our relations with all our partners, in our dedication to the construction of a regional architecture, which will maximize our chances for peace and development," said Mr. Yeo.
As the conference closed, ASEAN named former Thai foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan as the organization's new secretary-general.
Vancouver Sun: Burmese junta's democratic pledge is just a sick joke
Jonathan Manthorpe
Monday, July 30, 2007
The generals' brutish refusal to address any real political reform has stymied Burma's neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Ten years ago, ASEAN leaders, with Thailand at the helm, ushered Burma into their club. They assured a skeptical outside world, especially the United States and Europe, that the generals would inevitably succumb to the "constructive engagement" of their neighbours.
Well, this was dreaming in technicolour. Not only has Burma not reformed, Thailand has been taken over by a military regime; neither Vietnam, Laos, Brunei nor Cambodia have implemented full civic rights for their people; Singapore remains a "managed democracy;" Gloria Arroyo's legitimacy as president of the Philippines is questionable; and only Indonesia stands out as a beacon of adherence to universally accepted civic values.
No wonder the Burmese generals feel comfortable in their uniforms.
And if anyone retains illusions about what the generals are up to, just go through the text of the proposed constitutional principles and stop at the sentence that says no elected legislator in Burma can be married to a foreigner.
Suu Kyi was married to British academic Michael Aris, who died in 1999.
Jonathan Manthorpe is Sun International Affairs Columnist
Irrawaddy: Where Are They Now?
By Anne Fletcher
August 1, 2007
Correspondent Anne Fletcher meets former activists of the 88 Generation who made new lives on the other side of the world
The menacing group of five soldiers emerged from Rangoon's city hall, knelt down and aimed their guns at the protesters. Tin Maung Htoo, a 16-year-old high school student, sat tight, linking arms with others in the front row.
The first shots Tin Maung Htoo heard, however, sounded like machine gun fire from armored cars sweeping round both sides of the Sule Pagoda on that August night, 19 years ago.
Then the soldiers facing Tin Maung Htoo and his companions opened fire, the bullets from their guns hitting the ground, ricocheting up and striking home. "Some students started running and then falling on one another," Tin Maung Htoo recalls. "I also ran and ran and ran."
Among the protesters who had massed in Rangoon streets the whole day was 21-year-old Toe Kyi. By 10:30 p.m. that night, sensing a terrible climax to come, the leader of his 100-strong group asked him to take half the young demonstrators back to safety in Sanchaung Township.
One protester, Ko Naing, was doubly wary of the danger. Jailed for seven days after taking part in a march near Inya Lake on March 16—also violently broken up by government forces—he left the City Hall area about 5 p.m. to escort a group of teenagers home to Hlaing Township.
Both Toe Kyi and Ko Naing, then 24, were in the crowd on Prome Road the following month, on September 19, when again the military fired on protesters. Those demonstrations were followed by the coup that brought the present regime to power.
Today, after claiming UN refugee status in Thailand, all three men have built new lives in Canada, a country free but very foreign to those who grew up in the tropical time warp of pre-1988 Burma.
From 1989 to 2005, Canada took in 1,085 government and privately sponsored Burmese refugees. Last year, some 2,000 Karens, accepted from the Mae La Oon and Mae Ra Ma Luang camps, began arriving.
Toe Kyi, his wife, Nyunt Nyunt Than, and their 2-year-old child arrived in Canada in 1997 and were at first resettled in Cranbrook, a town of 18,500 people, deep in the mountains of British Columbia.
It was November, when winter holds Canada in an icy grip. The snow lay deep, the temperature was colder than anything they had ever experienced before, and the winter sun was rising late and setting early, making for long, dark nights. They spoke no English, and there was only one other Burmese family in Cranbrook.
"I felt very, very terrible," Nyunt Nyunt Than recalls. "I was fighting with my husband every day."
Ko Naing had an easier time of it when he arrived in Canada in 1998. It was August, and he was resettled in the cosmopolitan city of Vancouver. After three months of language training, he found his first job, in a plant nursery, before moving on to become an apprentice carpenter.
Tin Maung Htoo ended up in Ontario, eastern Canada, in 1996 after a Canadian embassy official arranged his exit straight to the airport from the Bangkok detention centre where the political firebrand had spent three years. "I was stubborn. I was young. I was only thinking about how to bring democracy to Burma," he says today.
That stubbornness helped him meet the challenge of studying for a political science and economics degree from the University of Western Ontario, where he graduated in 2003. Now he's executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma, working energetically for the restoration of democracy and good governance in his homeland.
Toe Kyi and Ko Naing, however, find their political ardor has been dimmed somewhat by the factionalism that plagues Burmese exile groups and by the day-to-day demands of family life.
Toe Kyi and Nyunt Nyunt Than left Cranbrook after one year for Saskatoon, a city of 200,000, in the middle of the Canadian prairie. "We were very lonely," Toe Kyi says. Although even colder than Cranbrook, Saskatoon had a sizable Burmese community, now numbering about 100.
Toe Kyi started work with a car repair company. Nyunt Nyunt Than gave birth to their second son and continued her struggle to learn English, becoming so frustrated she says she would sometimes slam her books shut in anger, vowing never to open them again.
She also found herself disconcerted by Canadian family life. "I was very uncomfortable with the children," she says. "No one controls them."
She was also distressed to see elderly people living alone, their children having long since left home. She found work looking after elderly people. "I don't have parents so I like to help them," she says.
Neighborhood life, too, was very strange to a Burmese couple used to Asian conviviality. Ko Naing waves his hand in the direction of the street in front of his apartment building. In Burma, he says, he would know the goings-on of everyone. "Here, the people next door don't know what happens and they don't care."
He and his wife, Marlar, whom he met at Thingyan celebrations in 1999, have woven tight bonds with several other Burmese families, attempting to recreate the warmth of Burmese life for her son, 11, and their 19-month-old daughter.
He was fortunate to find a wife in Canada, where Burmese men substantially outnumber Burmese women. Others have gone back to Thailand and even to Burma itself to find what the community dubs "parcel brides."
Canada is hard on youthful marriages forged in the jungle or in the refugee camp. Without elders to keep a couple in check and without the understanding that democracy has its own rules, a quarrel can get out of hand, the police are called, a husband ends up in jail and divorce is the next step.
And, although at least one city, Vancouver, has a monastery with a resident monk to teach their children, parents watch their offspring little by little grow away from Burmese ways into Canadian ones.
On the plus side, Canada's comprehensive health care and education systems are praised by everyone. Toe Kyi still marvels at the freedom his family had simply to move from Saskatoon to Vancouver last year, with no questions asked.
With enough money in his pocket, says Ko Naing, he can buy anything he wants.
And open prejudice is rare. "People are very kind and tolerant," says Tin Maung Htoo.
"I'm happy now," say Nyunt Nyunt Than, firmly.
But a strong undercurrent of sadness runs through the 1988 generation for what they've lost and what they couldn't change. "I'm very sorry for our people in Burma," says Toe Kyi.
Ann Fletcher is a Canadian journalist based in Vancouver
Relief Web: 10,000 refugees leave Thailand in biggest resettlement programme
By Kitty McKinsey, Bangkok
BANGKOK, Thailand, July 27 (UNHCR) – More than 10,000 refugees – mostly from Myanmar – have now left their temporary homes in Thailand to start new lives in third countries, as the world's largest resettlement programme picks up steam.
"After many years of living in closed camps with limited opportunities for education and no opportunities to work, finally refugees have hope for a new life filled with exciting opportunities in a new country," said Jeffrey Savage, Resettlement Officer in the UN refugee agency's regional office in Bangkok.
Since the UNHCR programme to resolve one of Asia's most protracted refugee problems began in January, 2005, 10,078 refugees have left Thailand, mainly from the nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. The 10,000th refugee departed last Tuesday. The camps are home to 140,000 refugees – ethnic minorities who fled fighting and oppression in Myanmar (Burma) over the past 11 years.
The largest numbers of refugees are departing for the United States, which made an open-ended offer in 2005 to take ethnic Karen refugees from the camps in Thailand. So far, 4,876 have gone to the United States, settling in places like Syracuse, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Fort Wayne, Indiana and Dallas, Texas.
Departures for Australia since January 2005 total 1,774 refugees, and another 1,269 have left for Canada. Other resettlement countries for Myanmar refugees are Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden.
"We are very grateful to the U.S. and other countries for offering these opportunities and for their commitment to durable solutions for these refugees, who do not have the option of settling in Thailand," said Savage. "Obviously, most refugees would prefer to go home, but for those from Myanmar, this is unfortunately not a possibility either. So resettlement is their one durable solution."
Savage said UNHCR is making good progress in extending the resettlement opportunity to more of the refugees in the nine camps. Last week the refugee agency completed its initial mass registration of applicants for resettlement from Nupo and Umpium camps, the third and fourth camps to be included in the U.S. offer. Departures for the United States from Tham Hin camp began last year, and departures from Mae La camp began in May this year.
Departures are picking up, with additional refugees leaving Thailand every week. More than 3,800 Myanmar refugees are scheduled to depart Thailand between now and the beginning of October, and the number is expected to rise even further.
"What's really gratifying is to see the change that hope of resettlement has made in the camps," said Savage. "An air of excitement has replaced resignation and hopelessness. You see lots of smiles on the refugees' faces these days."
In addition to the large-scale departures under the U.S. programme, small numbers of refugees from as far afield as Africa, who had been stranded in Bangkok and other Thai cities, have also left to start new lives in third countries.
DVB: Resettlement hits camp health, education
July 23, 2007 (DVB) — The resettlement of educated and skilled Burmese refugees from camps in Thailand has hit the remaining camp populations hard, particularly in the areas of health and education, according to a report released today.
'Planning for the future: The impact of resettlement on the remaining camp population', produced by the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand, said that while positive for those granted the chance at a new life, resettlement was causing a serious brain drain in the camps.
"For many people, resettlement offers renewed hope, opportunities, and a permanent solution away from prolonged encampment," the report said.
"However, the departure of skilled, educated, and experienced camp staff and community leaders from camp programs and services has generated concerns about how best to mitigate the negative impacts on service delivery to the remaining camp population."
According to the report, the education and health sectors in many of the camps have been hit hard by the third country resettlement process with many of the few skilled teachers, supervisors, trainers, and specialised healthcare workers leaving to start new lives in countries such as the US, Canada and Australia.
The report's recommendations urged the United Nations office of High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration in Thailand to help ensure that the resettlement process was as predictably timed as possible.
The report also said that work needed to continue to help Burmese refugees in Thailand find their own durable solutions to the challenges their communities face.
Narinjara News: 79 More Refugees Given Chance to Resettle in Canada
7/15/2007
79 more refugees in Bangladesh have been given the chance to resettle in Canada this year after the government of Canada selected them for resettlement, states and official report.
A government official said the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka has already sent a list of names of the selected refugees to the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management.
However, the official also reports that the government has not yet approved the list, although there is no foreseen reason why it would not.
On the list of names chosen for resettlement, 73 are Burmese Rohingya Muslims from two refugee camps, and six are urban Somali refugees in Dhaka.
An official source reports that Canada resettled nine Burmese Muslims last year and 13 earlier this year from two refugee camps located in Cox's Bazar District.
There are also 27 urban refugees from Iran, two from Sierra Leone, one from Afghanistan, 143 Buddhist Arakanese refugees and 23,000 camp Muslim refugees from Burma currently in Bangladesh.
Langley Times: Refugees arrive in caring community
By Kristyl Clark
Times Reporter
Jul 22 2007
Imagine not knowing how to turn on a light switch, open a bank account or use the telephone.
For the 44 government-sponsored Karen refugees who arrived in Langley on Thursday with nothing except the clothes on their back, that is the reality they face.
The Karen are the largest ethnic group in Myanmar (previously Burma), and have been fleeing persecution from the Burmese military for nearly 60 years.
But being unable to perform small routine tasks, which many North Americans take for granted, didn't stop them from smiling or engaging in celebration during a 'welcome to Langley' potluck dinner held at the St. Joseph's church hall on Thursday evening.
"I know all of you are wondering what your future holds sitting here today," said Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender to the Karen people who sat amongst volunteers and organizers who filled the hall.
"I want to tell you that many years ago I came to Canada as a young boy from Germany, and didn't speak any English. So any of you, if you learn the language and work hard you can be the Langley City mayor in the future."
For 37-year-old Sher Gay, who arrived with his wife and three children on Tuesday, it's an exciting chance to start a new life and have a promising future.
"Canada is really beautiful, a perfect country," he said through an interpreter. "Langley looks like a big village. I love it."
Forced to flee their homes to live in refugee camps, the Karen live in camps set up along the Thai-Burmese border, where sanitation, clean water and proper nutrition are non-existent.
Burmese troops frequently cross the border to attack, burning what they can and killing the camps' residents at random.
The refugees are legally confined to these camps, and therefore not permitted to find work or travel outside its perimeters. Life in the camps is difficult, though for many of the younger refugees, it is the only life they know.
"It's a very frightening place to live," said Lindseigh Lochhead, a 27-year-old Langley resident who travelled to Thailand in 1998 to teach English.
"While I was there a school was attacked and there was a threat that one of the teachers would be kidnapped. That meant always sleeping with our bags and having access to the emergency exit. I was usually afraid to sleep," she said.
Lochhead is the leader behind the Karen Initiative, a non-profit society made up of volunteers from a number of Langley churches and formed to fill a major gap in the government's Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP).
"The 110 refugees who arrived last November didn't have it nearly as good as those who arrived in Langley this week," said Lochhead.
After spending less than two weeks in the Immigrant Service Society of BC (ISS) 'Welcome House,' located above its offices in downtown Vancouver, the Karen who arrived last November were brought to Whalley with a few boxes of household items, all of which were completely foreign to them.
"The government basically just sent them in taxis to their apartments with no follow-up. Many didn't eat because they couldn't work a stove and were too afraid to answer their doors or leave their apartments."
Having to buy food, pay bills, cash cheques, or figure out how to use bank cards, fridges, stoves, phones and even lock doors without any support or instruction was extremely frightening.
In Langley, numerous volunteers converged on an apartment complex in Langley to set up homes for the refugees scheduled to arrive.
Foreseeing that the quality of goods to be given to the newcomers would be as poor as those given to the previous Surrey arrivals, the Karen Initiative took on the task of providing furniture and household items to nine families.
Volunteers took special care to make beds, hang pictures, fill toy boxes, and stock fridges with food to make each apartment feel like a real home.
Soroptomists in Langley also made a $3,000 donation, which will be used to meet the greatest needs of the new group in Langley.
Although they're no longer living under in oppression under the thumb of the Burmese military, they'll face some financial hardships.
In just a few months, each family is required to start making payments on loans provided by the Canadian government for their flights to Canada. Although they are provided with financial assistance under the RAP for their first year in Canada, they have a food budget of only $2 per day.
For more information about the Karen or to donate online, visit
www.kareninitiative.com.
Ottawa Citizen: The power of volunteerism
Kate Heartfield
July 31, 2007
The most powerful force for good on the planet is the inclination to act on a simple idea.
Why not volunteer? Why not compost? Why not offer your unused land to somebody who can use it?
That last one is the idea that came to Roger Stone a few months ago. He'd read one of my columns about the Karen refugees, people who have been living for years in camps on the border between Thailand and Burma. Canada is resettling hundreds of the refugees, and more than 100 have already come to Ottawa.
Mr. Stone lives in a farmhouse that's more than a century old, in a rural area that seems doomed to be swallowed up by suburban Kanata South. A stone's throw from the strip malls and parking lots, Mr. Stone and his wife Margaret live with their border collies and the flowers and birds, a few outbuildings and some lovely old trees. They moved there as newlyweds nearly 40 years ago.
Part of their land has been sitting fallow for years. Mr. Stone thought the newly arrived refugees might be able to use it, for picnics or barbecues. So he got in touch with Nimrod Andrew and Colleen Scott, who have been working tirelessly to help the newcomers adjust to life in Ottawa.
Ms. Scott told him that what the Karens really wanted was a place to grow crops. So Mr. Stone, an engineer, mowed about an acre of his land.
"They took one look at it and said, we'll take the whole field," Mr. Stone says cheerfully. "That's when I started to think about water."
He found a guy with a rototiller who could help clean up the field. "Within about a week from a standing start, we were ready to go," he says, surprised himself at how smoothly it happened.
The Karens are now using about three or four acres. Their rows of tomatoes, eggplant, coriander, corn, lettuces, onions, squash, cabbages, dill and peppers stretch across the field, dotted with rain barrels and a few young oaks planted by jays or squirrels.
Mr. Stone hasn't just made his land available; he's become a friend to the community. He keeps a curious eye on the crops and talks with the farmers, across the barriers of culture and language. He gives them advice about growing in this climate, about the need for water and weeding -- although he admits to some embarrassment on the water score, since our summer so far has been downright tropical.
OC Transpo does have a route that goes fairly close to Mr. Stone's place, although it can't be a very convenient trip. So some of the refugees stay overnight on the weekends, making use of a trailer on the grounds or Mr. Stone's homemade indoor squash court (he's always trying to find partners.) The kids swim in his pool.
There's more work to be done: He wants to create a shelter so the farmers can grow from seed next year instead of buying seedlings. As long as the Stones are on the land, it looks as if it will be available for the Karens.
The crops look fantastic: when I was there, the tomato plants were heavy with green fruit and the Karens were harvesting the lettuces and cabbages.
They might not have experience with the Canadian climate, but they do have experience with farming. Many of the refugees grew food in the camps, and before that, when they were living in Burma and being persecuted by the military. In March, I interviewed a woman named Say Blue, who spent 14 years in the camps. She told me she'd like to have a place to grow vegetables: now she does.
These refugees have been in this alien culture for less than a year and most of them don't speak fluent English or French. Despite that, despite all the difficulties they face, they get on the bus and spend their weekends growing food. It's the simplest way people can provide for their families, and a universal joy.
And it started with a very simple idea: if you don't need something and your neighbour does, you lend it out. It's a country idea, as beautiful and old-fashioned as Mr. Stone's house. And just like Mr. Stone's country house, I hope it survives.
I think it will: I know of many other Ottawans who have helped the Karens in their own ways. Anyone who'd like to help at harvest time or on special projects at the farm can e-mail me and I'll put them in touch with the Karen community.
Kate Heartfield writes for the Citizen's editorial board.
Blog: ottawacitizen.com/worldnextdoor
Toronto Star: Woman lost, police seek help TheStar.com - News - Woman lost, police seek help
Justin Piercy
Staff Reporter
July 24, 2007
A woman police believe doesn't know who she is has been found in the northeast part of the city.
The woman was found confused and disoriented on Monday around 10:30 p.m. in the Brimley Rd. and Steeles Ave. E area.
Officers spoke to the woman, who identified herself as Mei Ling Liu, but she was unable to provide her address and police aren't confident the name she gave is correct.
The woman is between 35 and 45-years-old, 4-foot-9, 150 lbs., with a stocky build, brown eyes, and short black hair. She speaks Haka and may have come from Myanmar (Burma).
\She was wearing a white cotton shirt with yellow horizontal stripes and grey cotton shorts. She wore a necklace with a jade circle pendant.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-4200, Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477, or online at www.222tips.com.
Ottawa Citizen:
Multi-cultural festival held today
Saturday, July 28, 2007 - The Nepalese Canadian Association is hosting a multi-cultural dance and music show to benefit the Ottawa Food Bank.
The festival, being held today at Andrew Haydon Park, will feature performances from artists representing Canada, Nepal, Spain, Mexico, India, Sri Lanka, Africa, Lebanon, Burma, Philippines, Jamaica, Haiti and Barbados.
Pre-show festivities start at noon and include henna hand-painting, train rides and a silent
The dance show begins at 2 p.m, rain or shine.
For more information, visit nepalese.ca/fooddrive on the web.
Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
145 Spruce St. Suite 206
Ottawa, ON K1R 6P1
Tel: 613.237.8056
Fax: 613.563.0017
Email: cfob@cfob.org
Website: http://www.cfob.org
