First it was wonderful Wednesday and tonight in Vancouver it’s woman’s Wednesday. The ladies owned the podium today, tying the Canadian record for most medals won in one day with four.
Clara Hughes, the incredible Canadian athlete who has meddled in both Winter and Summer Olympic games competed in her final race on Wednesday. Bronze would be the lucky colour she would later add to her collection of accomplishments. The ladies 3000m short track relay team finished in third before Korea was disqualified for an illegal move, advancing Canada into the silver spot. Finally, the ladies on the bobsled took home Gold and Silver. Without a doubt, it was an incredibly exciting day for our ladies of the Olympics.
While our ladies hockey team will go for gold on Thursday, the men faced Russia in another must win game to advance to the semi-finals and they did it! Canada took home the win with a final score of 7-3. Next up, Canada vs. Slovakia on Friday in the final match up before the gold medal game.
What do we have to look forward to tomorrow? Ladies gold medal game against the USA and Joannie Rochette will perform another emotional skate in the final round of womans figure skating. Go Canada Go, we are so proud!
Is traveling a virus, a disease? Once you get exposed to it it seems to nestle itself in your body and there seems to be no cure. Never tried it? Not infected yet? Maybe you should never do it, as to not get “sick”?
Nah! All I can say is, you’d be nuts not to get out there and do what people have done for millions of years; explore your surroundings, i.e. your planet (and beyond if you can afford it, like Guy Laliberte from Cirque de Soleil, exploring space for a lot of cash.) There’s simply nothing like it. It develops your personality, it creates a bigger and better understanding of other people and their backgrounds and could eventually lead to world peace… Ok, that may be stretching it a little, but hey, it could happen.
In any case, I can highly recommend you get up and go. I traveled the globe quite a bit, and did so in sustainable, green ways and less green ways. Unfortunately it is not always possible to travel green, since the bright minds of technology are obstructed by (less bright) minds of the oil industry. But I have seen my share of our wonderful planet, and I am far from done seeing it.
To give you an idea of my travels in random order:
extensive rock climbing and mountaineering (Alpinism) in the Swiss and Austrian Alps over the years,
One year sabbatical by bicycle (7 months) and other means of transportation around the Globe, visiting Netherland (no -s please), Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, the USA, New Zealand (N&S), Thailand and Laos,
A three week visit to the tropical island of Aruba,
Separate trips to Thailand and Laos of at least a month each,
Six month of cycling in France, Switzerland , Germany, Greece and Netherland, studying cycle tourism’s best practices (Report available at request,
Train ride from Denver Colorado to San Francisco, camper vanning ( is that even a verb) to Los Angeles and back,
Mountaineering expedition to Nepal for 8 weeks, climbing Yalong Ri and Parchamo, two unknown mountains in the Everest Region of 5900 and 6300 meters none the less. (That is 19,357 and 20.670 feet for the non-metrics),
Exploring Death Valley and winter camping at altitude over night,
Ice climbing frozen water falls in Austria with my good friend, exploring not just the terrain but myself in the process,
Wild camping in the south of Portugal and Spain while exploring the inner most secrets (oh, and don’t forget about the tapas) of these two amazing European countries,
After having been invited by the Colombian government I spent 10 days (way too short!) in beautiful Colombia, visiting Carthagena, Bogota, San Andres and Providencia Islands,
Skiing Switzerland, but I can’t wait to skip the crowded pistes and start tour skiing,
West Canada (British Colombia, yes, where the Olympic Winter Games are happening right now) and USA by old school bus, connecting with locals and professional travelers,
and the list goes on and on, cheez, I must be getting old…;-
If this list did not inspire you, don’t worry, I am a very outdoorsy kind of person who doesn’t mind breaking a sweat. But there is something for everybody out there. Don’t just watch it from your sofa on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet or YouTube. Participate! Go out there and evoke change by asking questions, meeting people, having fun, sharing parts of your life with others who do the same. And make sure to let me know what you did and how you liked it. But remember, don’t say I did not warn you about that travel bug! Happy travels.
The Canadian Olympic Committee has things that it should apologize for. But I am shocked to see COC apologizing for Canada’s performance in the middle of the Olympics and when there are still Canadian athletes ready to compete for Canada.
My message to Canadian Olympic athletes:
Go Canada Go !!! Be the best that you can be!
My message to Canadian Olympic Committee:
You suck! You shouldn’t have started a post-mortum now. It is just bad form to pour cold water onto our hardworking athletes. COC, shut up and let the athletes be the best they can be, and some of these best may be good for a medal or even gold.
News from
Calgary Sun, “Blown the podium“
CNC News, “Own the Podium dream over: Canadian official“
The greatest thing about being a TV fantatic (obsessive) during the Olympics, is that each day gets MORE and MORE exciting and worth spending the entire day infront of. Like today for example…they are billing it as “Super Sunday” (which to me sounds more like a dessert at Pizza Hut or something…) because it is literally…cant-miss TV every hour of the day and night. Here’s what I’m talking about…
What I’m watching today:
12- Womens Curling
3- Ski Cross (finals)
4:30- Bobsled (finals)
5- Mens Curling
6- Speedskating and Figure skating (dance)
7:30- (EPIC!) Mens Hockey CAN v USA
10- W Curling
If that doesnt speak for itself, I dont know what will. Cancel plans, skip the shower and general ‘rat race’ for the day… it’s “Super Sunday” (with sprinkles…!) and you NEED to be watching it!
The 2008 (or 2009?) Oscar nominated Madame Tutli-Putli is finally available to watch online at NFB! I highly recommend readers check out the film.
After you watch Madame Tutli-Putli, you can have a read and listen to my “Chat with Laurie Maher – Soul of Madame Tutli-Putli“. Laurie’s eyes and mannerism were used by filmmakers Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski to make Madame Tutli-Putli so beautiful and soulful.
By the way, I’ve finished watching Chris & Maciek’s new short animation “Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There must be more to life” (featuring the voices of Meryl Streep & Forest Whitaker) and I will be reviewing the film soon.
OTTAWA, Ontario, February 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic leaders are warning that the Liberal Party could be in danger of losing Catholic votes in light of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s push for abortion in the Third World.
Ignatieff has called on the Conservative government and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to include abortion and contraception in Harper’s new initiative to promote maternal and child health care as president of this year’s G8 summit.
But the Liberal proposal has sparked strong reprimands from prominent Canadian Catholic leaders.
Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, Canada’s largest diocese, rebuked Ignatieff in a February 4th statement, saying his advocacy for abortion and contraception as “fundamental elements” in maternal and child health care is “astonishing.”
“When there are so many obvious practical steps that can be taken to promote maternal and child health throughout the world,” he wrote, “it is sad to see Mr. Ignatieff introduce into the discussion this negative proposal, which in no way serves to improve the health of mothers or children, but which rather imperils the most vulnerable among us.”
“Even those who think that abortion should be allowed do not, however, propose it as a positive contribution to the good of society,” he wrote.
At the same time, criticism of Ignatieff from Canada’s largest Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Register, was so potent that it even drew the attention of the CBC, which published an article yesterday entitled “Catholic Register takes on Ignatieff.” The Catholic national weekly paper’s February 5th edition ran with a cover page featuring a large picture of Ignatieff backdropped by poor African children, with the large headline “Ignatieff urges abortion for world’s poor.”
“As headlines go, most political leaders would probably prefer to avoid one like this,” writes CBC reporter Neil Morrison.
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary also strongly denounced Ignatieff’s proposal in an interview earlier this month with the National Post. “I thought it was pathetic for a political leader to suggest that abortion is somehow tied to the health of women and children,” he said. “It was a particularly crass remark in light of all the orphaned children we now see in Haiti.”
“It was absolutely incredible that he would say that and he is alienating religious people with these comments,” he continued. “This will not win him votes.”
There is evidence that the Catholic vote is key to the Liberal Party’s election success; there is also evidence that Ignatieff’s radical abortion advocacy could endanger the party’s Catholic vote.
In a May 2009 paper, a group of Canadian political scientists analyzed the Liberals fall from power over the course of the 2000 to 2008 federal elections. They found that the two “critical ingredient[s]” of their 2000 majority win were the support from Catholics and visible minorities. But the number of Catholics supporting the Liberal Party dropped from 54% in 2000 to 30% in 2008, while support for the Conservatives grew to 40% in 2008. Additionally, the authors found that in 2006 “views about abortion” had “a significant effect on the probability that a Catholic vote would vote Liberal.”
“Catholics and minority voters have been the twin pillars of Liberal dominance, but their support is clearly crumbling,” the report stated. “[The Liberals] have to go back to basics and rebuild their partisan base.”
Fr. Alphonse de Valk, editor of Canada’s Catholic Insight magazine, pointed out that this is the second time Ignatieff has “called for the killing of unborn children.” He said that the first time was in May 2009, when Ignatieff said “it is the longstanding view of the Liberal Party of Canada that women must have the right to choose.”
Fr. de Valk also warned that Ignatieff could be costing the Liberal Party Catholic votes. He called on Liberal MPs to reject Ignatieff’s claim to speak for the party, stating, “If his claim stands, many Catholics and other pro-life Canadians will not vote Liberal in a coming election.”
Contact Information:
The Hon. Michael Ignatieff
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-9364
Fax: (613) 992-5880
E-mail: IgnatM@parl.gc.ca
Brother André becomes Quebec’s first saint Globe and Mail Vatican City – Globe and Mail Update Published on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 7:34AM EST Last updated on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 7:35 AM EST On Friday Pope Benedict XVI approved sainthood for Alfred Bessette, commonly known as Brother André, …
Brother André to become saint CBC.ca
From simple porter to saint Ottawa Citizen
The Canadian Press - Toronto Star - CTV.ca - Toronto Sun
UofT Multi-Faith Centre & the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office present
At the same time, criticism of Ignatieff from Canada’s largest Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Register, was so potent that it even drew the attention of the CBC, which published an article yesterday entitled “Catholic Register takes on Ignatieff.” The Catholic national weekly paper’s February 5th edition ran with a cover page featuring a large picture of Ignatieff backdropped by poor African children, with the large headline “Ignatieff urges abortion for world’s poor.”