Friday, December 01, 2006

Today In History

Sagittarius (12/1/1954)

It's my birthday. Turns out I am a horse in both western and Chinese astrology.

Sagittarius
November 22 - December 21
Sagittarius, the ninth Sign of the Zodiac, is the home of the wanderers of the Zodiac. It's not a mindless ramble for these folks, either. Sagittarians are truth-seekers, and the best way for them to do this is to hit the road, talk to others and get some answers. Knowledge is key to these folks, since it fuels their broad-minded approach to life. The Sagittarian-born are keenly interested in philosophy and religion, and they find that these disciplines aid their internal quest. At the end of the day, what Sagittarians want most is to know the meaning of life, and if they accomplish this while feeling free and easy, all the better.

It's the Archer which represents Sagittarians, although in this case it's a Centaur (half man, half beast) which is flinging the arrows. Centaurs were the intellectuals of ancient Roman mythology, and Sagittarians are quick to consider themselves their modern-day counterparts. Those born under this Sign are clear thinkers and choose to look at the big picture most of the time. They also like it when others agree with their well-thought-out point of view. The alternative to this, for better or for worse, is a Sag who can become argumentative and blunt. That's not to say that these folks are intransigent -- Archers will listen to what others have to say, in keeping with the Mutable Quality assigned to this Sign. Indeed, Sagittarians are enthusiastic consumers of information (and enthusiastic in general), the better to get the answers they need. It's also a good idea to give Sags lots of room to explore their world. Once these folks start to feel hemmed in, they'll become impatient and difficult.


I've always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos—especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom—external revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside—reach the mental through the physical. I am a Sagittarian—the most philosophical of the signs-if astrology has anything to do with it—the Centaur—the Archer—the Hunt—
Jim Morrison


Sagittarii (also equites sagittarii) were horse riding auxiliary archers recruited mainly in the Eastern Empire and Africa.

By the 5th century, there were numerous Roman cavalry regiments trained to use the bow as a supplement to their swords and lances, but the sagittarii appeared to have used the bow as their primary rather than supplemental weapon. The Notitia Dignitatum does not list any sagittarii as being stationed in the Gallic provinces; the ones in the Western empire seem to have been concentrated in Africa. Possibly some of the other cavalry regiments there carried bows as back-up weapons, but were not the dedicated mounted archers that the sagitarii were. The use of bows as a primary weapon probably originated in the East in the later 4th century to help the Roman Army counter Persian bow-armed cavalry.


Sagittarius

Interactive, wide area map of Sagittarius

Map thumbnail

Tochtli (rabbit)

Daysign Tochtli


The protector of day Tochtli (Rabbit) is Mayahuel, goddess of the Maguey and of Fertility, a pulque goddess. Tochtli is a day of self-sacrifice and service to something greater than oneself. It signifies the religious attitude which holds everything sacred and results in experiences of self-transcendence. It is a mystical day, associated by the passages of the moon. It is a good day for communing with nature and spirit, a bad day for acting against others. Aztec Calendar

News archive results for Dec 1 1954
1954 » Lieber v. Sherman,Lieber v. Sherman, 274 P.2d 816 - Subscription - Supreme Court of Colorado, en ...
1954 » Warring Trial Set for Dec. 1 - Pay-Per-View - Washington Post
1954 » RKO Radio Pictures v. Department of Ed., Division of ... - Subscription - Supreme Court of Ohio

December 1, 1954
RCA began commercial production of color TV sets with a new 21-inch picture tube.

(This was the model 21CT55 receiver, a 21-inch version of the CT-100 circuit. By summer of 1955, two new models, a console and a table model, were started in production. The new sets employed the CTC4 chassis, the first to use printed circuits. The chassis was also used in receiver cabinets sold in 1955-6 by Magnavox and Hallicrafters.)


History of US Government Furnished Headstones and Markers

The above directive was superseded and reissued on Dec. 1, 1954, to provide for inclusion of the word "Korea" on government headstones and markers for the graves of those members and former members of the United States armed forces who served within the areas of military operations in the Korean Theater between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954.

Dec. 6, 1954



World Aids Day

Each year on 1 December, the global community participates in World AIDS Day and focuses on one of mankind's greatest historical challenges, the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. An estimated 38.6 million people worldwide lived with AIDS in 2005. Of these, 2.3 million were children. Last year, an estimated 4.1 million people became newly infected with HIV and 2.8 million lost their lives to AIDS (UNAIDS, 2006).


Grey Cup History

Most Points by a team in a single game
54 Queen's University vs. Regina, Dec. 1, 1923


Most touchdowns by one team in one game
9 Queen's University vs. Regina., Dec. 1, 1923

Most converts by one team in one game
7 Queen's University vs. Regina, Dec. 1, 1923



Obituary; Dec 1, 1947 - The Wickedest Man in the World.

Aleister Crowley, English occultist (b. 1875) dies.

"I am one hell of a holy guru"


The Original John Bull Article on Crowley








Dec. 1, 1953: Hugh Hefner launches Playboy magazine

"I never intended to be a revolutionary. My intention was to create a mainstream men's magazine that included sex in it. That turned out to be a very revolutionary idea."









December 1, 1957 in History
Event:
Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly and Crickets debut on Ed Sullivan Show

This is a chronological listing of the top 100 Hard Bop albums of all time.

89
Roy HargroveDiamond In The RoughDec. 1, 1989Novus



Dec, 1st

659: Death of St. Eloi
1083: Princess Anna Commena of Byzantium born
1135: Death of Henry I, King of England
1170: Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, returns to England from exile
1372: Geoffrey Chaucer left England for Rome on a Royal mission
1590: Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene" is registered for publication
1615: The first Bach or at least, the first musical Bach we know died. Hans Bach is considered the patriarch of a family that produced so many musicians over so many generations (The Bach came much later) that in those days the family name was actually used as a synonym for musician.
1640: Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule
1741: Samuel Kirkland Congregational minister to the Indians of the Six Nations (the Iroquois League) and negotiator of the Oneida Alliance with the colonists during the U.S. War of Independence born
1742: Empress Elisabeth orders expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
1743: Martin Heinrich Klaproth German chemist who discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803). born
1824: The presidential election was turned over to the US House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)
1861: The U.S. gunboat Penguin seizes the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying supplies worth almost $100,000.
1862: President Lincoln gives the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress.
1878: The first telephone is installed in the White House.
1879: Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, "H.M.S. Pinafore" opened this day. Arthur Sullivan conducted the orchestra while William Gilbert played the role of a sailor in the chorus and in the Queen's Nay-vee.
1881: Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp are exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
1886: Detective novelist Rex Stout (mystery writer born
1887: Sherlock Holmes 1st appears in print
1898: Actor Cyril Ritchard born
1899: Robert Welch founder of John Birch Society. born
1904: Former United Mine Workers president W.A. "Tony" Boyle born
1909: The Pennsylvania Trust Company, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania became the first bank in the nation to offer a Christmas Club account. It encouraged customers to set aside money for holiday.
1911: Baseball manager Walter Alston (LA Dodgers) born
1911: Baseball owner Calvin Griffith (Senators, Twins) born
1912: Baseball player Cookie (Harry) Lavagetto born
1913: Actress Mary Martin (South Pacific, Peter Pan) born
1913: The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh.
1913: Continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford (a new
1917: Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska.
1923: Former CIA director Stansfield Turner born
1924: The play, "Lady Be Good" opened in New York City. George Gershwin wrote the music while Fred and Adele Astaire were well-received by the show's audience for their dancing talents.
1926: Actor Robert Symond born
1929: Actor Dick (Schulefand) Shawn (Bewitched) born
1929: BINGO invented by Edwin S Lowe.
1934: Singer Billy Paul (Me and Mrs. Jones) born
1934: Josef Stalin aide, Sergei Kirov, is assassinated in Leningrad.
1935: Comedian-film maker (Allen Konigsberg) Woody Allen born
1935: Soul singer Lou Rawls (You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine) born
1939: PGA golfer Lee Trevino (US Open 1968,71). born
1939: Singer Dianne Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) born
1940: Comedian-actor Richard Pryor (Stir Crazy, Blue Collar, The Richard Pryor Show) born
1942: Country musician Casey Van Beek (The Tractors) born
1942: Nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States.
1943: Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) some sources 1945 born
1943: Ending a "Big Three" meeting in Tehran, President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian Premier Josef Stalin pledged a concerted effort to defeat Nazi Germany.
1945: Actress-singer Bette Midler (The Rose, From a Distance, Beaches) born
1945: Burl Ives made his concert debut this night. He appeared at New York's Town Hall.
1946: Singer Gilbert O'Sullivan (Alone Again Naturally). born
1948: Baseball player George Foster born
1950: British composer, EJ Moeran, died. He drowned at the age of 50.
1951: Actor Treat Williams born
1953: Walter Alston was named manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers on this, his 42nd birthday. He became the dean of baseball managers before retiring in 1976.
1955: Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defied the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man aboard a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. Mrs. Parks was arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.
1956: Country singer Kim Richey. born
1958: The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song" opened on Broadway.
1959: Actress Charlene Tilton (Dallas) born
1959: Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
1960: Actress-model Carol Alt born
1965: An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
1968: "Promises, Promises" opened on Broadway. The play ran for 1,281 performances; earning $35,000 in profits each week of 1969. Dionne Warwick had a hit version of the title song.
1969: The US government held its first draft lottery since World War Two.
1971: John Lennon's ``Happy Christmas'' was released.
1972: Actor Ron Melendez born
1973: David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, died in Tel Aviv at age 87.
1973: 'The Golden Bear', Jack Nicklaus, won the Walt Disney World Open Golf Tournament and became the first golfer to win $2 million in career earnings.
1975: Gospel singer Sarah Masen born
1975: On her 30th birthday, Bette Midler had an emergency appendectomy.
1980: George Rogers, of the University of South Carolina, was named the Heisman Trophy winner. He went on to achieve great success for the Washington Redskins.
1981: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Oscar Robertson as pro basketball's second all-time leading scorer (second only to Wilt Chamberlain). Kareem got to the total of 26,712 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 117-86. Chamberlain's record fell in 1984, when Kareem's scores reached 31,259. Kareem wound up his career in 1989 with 38,387 points.
1986: President Ronald Reagan said he would welcome the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Iran-Contra affair, if such a move were recommended by the Justice Department.
1986: Lt. Col. Oliver North pleads the fifth amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran Contra arms sale.
1986: On this day, the world's most expensive hotel suite (to that date) was offered to visitors at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The eight-room accommodations included four fireplaces, three bedrooms and a library with secret passage. All this, and much more, for a mere $20,000 a night.
1987: NASA announced that four companies -- Boeing Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, General Electric's Astro-Space Division and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International -- had been awarded contracts to help build a space station.
1988: Actress Ashley Monique Clark ("The Hughleys") born
1988: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev won nearly unanimous approval for a more dynamic political structure from the Supreme Soviet, which voted itself out of existence in favor of a new Congress of People's Deputies.
1988: Carlos Salinas de Gortari was sworn in as president of Mexico.
1989: A historic meeting took place between Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev and Pope John Paul the Second. They met at the Vatican and announced agreement to establish diplomatic ties. Gorbachev renounced more than 70 years of oppression of religion in the Soviet Union.
1989: Dissident elements in the Philippine military launched an unsuccessful coup against Corazon Aquino's government.
1989: East Germany's Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of supremacy.
1990: British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel.
1990: Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
1991: Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991: Kidnappers in Lebanon pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
1991: The space shuttle Atlantis safely returned from a shortened military mission.
1992: President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.
1992: Mineola, New York, Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
1992: The Senate Ethics Committee started an investigation into allegations that Oregon Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed women who worked for him. He denied it, but a large number of women came forward with similar stories, and ultimately he resigned from the Senate.
1993: Eighteen people were killed when a Northwest Airlink commuter plane crashed in Minnesota.
1993: Crystal Records issued a new recording of Barber's "Summer Music" for winds, performed by the Westwood Wind Quartet. Barber's "Summer Music" is one of the composer's most inventive pieces but isn't very well known to classical fans.
1994: Former TV evangelist Jim Bakker spent his first full day of freedom after time in prison, a halfway house and house arrest for bilking followers of his PTL ministry.
1994: Rapper Tupac Shakur was convicted in the November of 1993 sexual assault of a woman at his New York City hotel suite.
1994: The Senate gave final congressional approval to a world trade agreement, passing the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 76-24.
1995: The NATO alliance chose Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana to be its new secretary general.
1995: Tens of thousands of people in Dublin, Ireland, warmly welcomed President Clinton to his ancestral homeland.
1996: The Arab League held an emergency meeting in Cairo, after which it warned Israel that peace efforts would be endangered if Israel insisted on expanding Jewish settlements.
1997: A 14-year-old youth opened fire on a prayer circle at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three fellow students and wounding five; Michael Carneal later pleaded guilty but mentally ill, and is to be sentenced December 1998.
1997: An international conference on reducing greenhouse gases opened in Kyoto, Japan.
1998: Exxon agreed to buy Mobil for $73.7 billion. Cuba's Communist Party recommended that December 25th be re-established as a permanent holiday.
1999: President Clinton addressed a World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, where he defended his administration's policies in the face of sometimes violent street demonstrations.
1999: An international team of scientists announced it had mapped virtually an entire human chromosome.
1999: On World AIDS Days, United Nations officials released a report estimating that 11 million children worldwide had been orphaned by the pandemic.




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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Snorefest

Ok Colin James performing at the Liberal Cabaret was a better choice to watch than the Talking Heads Alberta PC leadership debate on GlobalTV. What a snorefest.

About the only time it got exciting was when Morton pouted over being misquoted by one of the reporters asking questions. It was about how Morton had slagged Steady Eddie Stelmach saying if elected he would end up losing the next provincial election. Morton went ballistic and claimed he never said it, and wanted the reporters source or he would sue. Thin skined or what. And what was with Mortons makeup? It made him look like a California Beach Boy.

The winner? Steady Eddie Stelmach.He actually appeared sincere, unlike his opponents. Look at this picture, who is actually looking at you.

The image “http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2006/11/30/ALTA_TORIES_LEADERSHIP_DEBA.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

But I am biased I am a Ukrainian Albertan after all.

See:

Ted Morton


Conservative Leadership Race


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Iggy Endorses The Draft

Gee Canada could get kinda drafty under Iggy's leadership. This gives new meaning to Iggy nation.

Liberal leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff says he'd like to see young Canadians heading overseas, bringing Canadian values to some of the world's hot spots including Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. "This is a generation that can lead the world," he said at the leadership convention Thursday. "I want to be the leader who got this generation out to Zimbabwe, to Afghanistan, to the places where Canada can make a difference."

He must have been talking to his Democratic buddy Charlie Rangel.

See:

Liberal Leadership Race





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Liberal Cabaret

So I have watched the Liberal Convention on CBC, CTV and CPAC and have come to the conclusion this is not a political convention it's a cabaret. There are bands playing when convention business is not being done. And when policy debates are occuring the hall is practically empty, as motions pass with no debate. Heck even when screamin Howard Dean spoke last night the hall was less than half full, with more reporters than delegates.

William Johnson on CPAC noted that in the policy sessions and workshops there are barely any delegates and no debate. Wow what difference from the NDP convention where debate happened in the policy sessions and on the floor for the whole country to see.

Even the one member one vote motion which did not pass was voted on by just over six hundred delegates. 600 out of 5000. Where are the Liberal delegates. Here is a major renewal Convention and it passes motions like an automaton, with no debate, and delegates are missing in action.

Perhaps the cabaret theme of the Convention, right now Paul Martin is being serenaded by a singer doing an Aria from Carmen (there is an irony in that) is reflection not so much of party renewal but renewing the party, as in P A R T Y.

I figure the delgates are out touring Montreal or getting drunk, and having a libidinous good time in sexy Montreal in their sexy Liberal thongs. A Good old Liberal party with liberal dashes of sex and libations. Politics, heck we are only here for the vote.And since it is more of a cabaret than a convention this seems appropriate.


What good is sitting...alone in your room
Come, hear the music play
Life is a cabaret, ole chum...come to the cabaret

Put down that knittin?...that book and the broom
It's time for a holiday
Life is a cabaret, ole chum...so come to the cabaret

Come taste the wine...come hear the band
Yes it?s time...for celebratin?
Right this way your table´s waitin?

No use permittin?....some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret , ole chum...come to the cabaret

Come taste the wine...come hear the band
Come blow your horn...start celebratin?
Right this way your table´s waitin?

No use admmitin?....that ole prince of doom
Wipe all those smiles away
Life is a cabaret , old chum
Only a cabaret, old chum
So come to the cabaret

And while Craig Oliver of CTV said that those clever Liberals with their convention made the Alberta PC race irrelevant, well I am switching channels to watch the PC leadership debate rather than stale tributes to the loser Paul Martin. After all at least the PC debate is political.

See:

Liberal Leadership Race





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Iranian Union Leader Jailed


Courtesy of Labourstart. You can find Labourstart solidarity campaigns posted in the left hand column. Like the oppression of women in Iran, trade unionists are subjected to the iron hand of the Mullah state.

UPDATE ON JAILED IRANIAN UNION LEADER

We told you last week about the arrest of Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the
bus drivers union in Tehran. Your response has been excellent -- over 2,500 of
you have already sent messages to the Iranian President demanding his release.

We've now gotten some more details, and they make for grim reading.

We know that Oslanloo has been taken to Evin prison where authorities claim
that they are "negotiating" with him. (How you can negotiate with someone who
you've arrested is an interesting question.)

The authorities also claim that he will be allowed one visitor, his mother --
but no one has told the guards outside the prison. His mother waited in vain
for a chance to see her son.

His family has not even been allowed to phone him.

Clearly the authorities are hoping to break his will -- and thereby weaken the
emerging trade union movement in Iran. Remember that this is a movement which
managed to completely shut down the capital with a transport strike earlier in
the year, despite massive repression.

It is essential that we turn up the pressure and flood the Iranian government
with more messages this week. Please make sure to send on your message today
-- and to pass this letter on!

English:

French:



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Will The Tories Be Outraged

Looking forward to a real blockbuster of a Law and Order Speech, denounciation of the National Parole Board for being soft on criminals by Vic Toews over this .....Colin Thatcher released on full parole. But of course they won't cause he's a Troy, a wife murdering Tory, but a Tory none the less.

On November 30th, 2006, Thatcher was granted full parole by a three-member panel of the National Parole Board. He had been living at a Regina halfway house since the summer when he was released on day parole. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have been eligible to seek full parole for 25 years, but a jury granted him immediate eligibility at a so-called "faint-hope" hearing in 2003.



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Our Jean

Ms Jean then inspected a guard of honour mounted by a contingent from the Ghana Army and thereafter interacted with the Ministers of State and members of the Diplomatic Corps.

At the end of her interaction with the Ministers of State and members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ms Jean’s attention was caught by the drumming, dancing and acrobatic display by the cultural group.

Apparently enthused by the display, she went to the group to pay her compliments but ended up dancing, to the admiration of the dignitaries.

According to the programme for her visit, Ms Jean will hold bilateral talks with President Kufuor at the Castle and visit places, including the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre and the Supreme Court, as well as Canada-funded projects.

The visit is significant, as this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first major Canadian presence in Ghana’s history.

Besides, Ghana is the first country to receive Canadian development assistance and the country is the third largest trading partner of Canada in sub-Saharan Africa.
Canada has decided to give 480 million Canadian dollars to Ghana in support of the country’s development budget annually.

The decision followed the classification of Ghana, from among 14 other African countries, as a country of concentration for Canada’s development assistance.

Receiving the Governor General of Canada, Ms Michelle Jean, at the Castle, Osu, yesterday, President J.A. Kufuor explained that Canada had decided to select a few countries to receive substantial development assistance, instead of spreading the assistance to many countries.

Out of the 25 countries selected by Canada world-wide, 14 of them are in Africa. Ms Jean is in the country for a five-day official visit.


I have to agree with John Murney on this. Our Governor General is making a difference because she is different than other GG's in the Commonwealth.

She is a woman, yep we have had them before, she is a Hatian immigrant a Quebecois and black. And she is touring Africa.
And as you can see in the picture above she is not afraid to shake her booty. To get down with the ordinary folks.

Michaelle Jean only 2nd foreigner after Mandela to address Mali's parliament

The forgotten contient. Whose poverty is exasperated by its historic exploitation by the old colonial empires and Islam, and now by climate change created by the developed world but impacting on Africa. So there seems to be no outcry against her trip to Africa unlike the outcry over the last GG's globe hopping.

She has drawn attention to accomplishments in a variety of areas including peacekeeping, successful businesses that have been launched by community savings-and-loan institutions, a new skills-training centre, and agriculture and health programs that have helped save a disaster-plagued Malian village.

Most of those projects have benefited from the involvement of Canadians, either through government aid or the help of businesses or ordinary citizens.

Jean said earlier this week that she wants to prove to Canadians that the $1.5 billion spent annually by the federal government on aid to Africa does make a difference.


Jean has been outspoken as well.Denouncing slavery as Africa celebrates the official end of Colonial based Slavery on the contient, though many countries still practice this offense against humanity.

At a state luncheon given by Algeria's president, Jean spoke of her deeply personal attachment to Africa as a black Haitian-born descendent of slaves. It was the prelude to a sombre pilgrimage Jean plans to make next week in Ghana, where she will take a symbolic step through the infamous Door of No Return.

Thousands of Africans passed through that gated archway as they were whisked from a seaside fortress onto slave ships that carried them to their fate in the Americas.

"My ancestors were torn from their lives," Jean told a diplomatic audience in a speech Monday in Algiers.

"(They were) stripped of themselves, of their language, their name, their memory, their history, of their basic dignity as women and men, and were reduced to slavery and deported to the Americas. . . .

"This trip is especially meaningful and emotional for me. And I am delighted that my first state visits have brought me to this continent - to which I feel forever bound by history, by heart and by blood."

Michaelle Jean wept softly for several minutes Wednesday as she stared out from a seaside castle that still literally reeks from the stench of slavery.

The passing of generations hasn't erased the fetid trace of bodily waste in the dark, dank dungeons of Elmina castle where tens of thousands of human beings were stored like cattle.

The Governor General, a Haitian-born descendant of slaves, triggered a chain reaction of tears from her entourage as she broke into sobs while touching the rusty iron gate of the so-called the Door of No Return.

Her ancestors left this continent in shackles, piled like "pieces of ebony" into the rickety slave ships bound for Haiti. They survived the long march to the coast and spent weeks chained in the clammy castle, before being branded with the insignia of their owners and then herded through the door to waiting slave ships.

Tour guide Charles Adu Arhin told her the women were starved and subjected to frequent rapes. They lived in their own filth and were punished for resisting rape by being chained to heavy cannon balls and left in the blazing tropical sun.

"I stood in the women's room where they were jailed and thought of my own ancestors," Jean, visiting as part of a three-week African tour, said later. "I was very troubled."

The fort was built by the Portuguese in the 1400s, who used it first for trading gold and salt, before realizing humans were a far more valuable commodity. When the Dutch took over the fort in the 1500s, they increased the export of slaves by nearly threefold.

It wasn't until the late 1800s that the transatlantic slave trade was finally stopped. By then, an estimated 17 million Africans had been carried across the ocean.

Now, the Ghanaian government is embarking on a controversial tourism campaign called Project Joseph, after the biblical figure who was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, and who forgave them many years later. The project is a tourist program aimed at the global black diaspora in an effort to draw people here to rediscover their roots.

An apology for the country's historical role as slave raiders is part of the campaign.

Trailing a large entourage of Canadian delegates, Ghanaian officials and media from both countries, Arhin led Jean to the dungeon where slaves were once led to the waiting boats.

"The people who entered here knew they would not return," he said. "But thank God you've returned."

and calling for womens rights.

There were some uncomfortable grumbles and glances in Mali's parliament yesterday when Michaelle Jean urged the African country to extend unprecedented rights to its women.The handful of elected females beamed and cheered on Canada's Governor General from their seats.

One leading newspaper columnist compared her with sporting greats Muhammad Ali and Pele.

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean's speech to the Malian parliament earned front page coverage in most of the country's newspapers. Her plea on behalf of women's rights earned the lion's share of the attention and the banner headlines. "There is no governance without equality between men and women," was the cover headline of L'Independant, quoting Jean.

And for celebrating Canada's real Foreign Affairs successes not by sending troops to Afghanistan to fight Americas war but by helping an impoverished African village renew itself. For a measly $35,000 intial investment.Which is a far cry from the $9 billion it is expected we will spend in the war in Afghanistan. This is real reconstruction. Africa is where Canada can make a real difference. And it is Chretien's legacy, something the Tories won't talk about.


African village lauds Canada for lending helping hand
Assistance has made world of difference

BENIELI, Mali — An African village that has endured a near- biblical string of hardship found a few good reasons to throw a party Sunday.

Hunger once ran rampant in the mud and straw huts that sprinkle this craggy Malian plateau. Droughts were common and still are.

Then there was the locust plague that devastated crops and stripped every leaf off every tree last year.

The children's bloated bellies spoke to widespread malnourishment. Many never stood a chance of even making it that far.

Pregnant women frequently died by the highway as they walked or rode carts pulled by donkeys for 18 kilometres to the closest birthing centre.

But the crowd of 1,000 festive locals who clapped, danced and sang with Gov. Gen Michaelle Jean on Sunday spoke proudly of better days ahead.

“ We can only thank Canada," said Oumarta Tapily, the mayor of a conglomeration of area hamlets.

Villagers gave the governor general a goat with a Canadian flag stuck into its collar, which Jean petted affectionately but did not plan to take home with her.

The turning point in this village began with Yaiguere Tembely, who started a women's group and sought help for women in the surrounding area several years ago.

“ We needed to do something," she said in an interview.

“ So I went looking for partners . . . and somebody told me about the Canadians."

Her first priority was to launch a contraceptive program that would prevent the spread of AIDS and help control population growth. She got that help at the Canadian embassy seven years ago.

Then came the microfinance program. And the cereal banks that stabilized grain prices. And the health centre.

All are Canadian contributions that have turned the page on some of the misery.

A male nurse stands outside the health centre, built with $ 50,000 from Canada but run with local funds. The walls of this stone- cement block are splashed with posters full of information about contraceptives and HIV.

This is where the women of Benieli and surrounding towns now come to bear their children. The 29- year- old nurse praises God and says no woman has died in childbirth since the centre opened two years ago.

Behind the centre is a new grain mill that towers over the village. The local women bought it with profits from their new businesses selling soap, clothing and vegetables.

Those business ventures were launched with loans from the new microfinance program. The Canadian funded institution has a 100 per cent loan- repayment rate and has seen its value grow to $ 350,000, from an initial Canadian investment of $ 35,000.

The food shortage was also crippling this community, with observers reporting children so hungry they could not speak or walk. They reported one five- year- old who weighed just 13 pounds.

Canadians introduced the villagers to vendors who could provide betterquality millet, onion and potato seeds, and helped dig ditches to reduce soil erosion.

Malnutrition rates now stand at three per cent, a huge improvement over the near- ubiquitous hunger of just a few years ago.

See:

Africa

Microcredit



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