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streams 3 days ago
You would be hard pressed in Afghanistan to find a local person who considers a beating torture. Beatings are, sadly, just a part of life in Afghanistan. On Dec. 17, 2003, I was with a group of Canadian journalists who took part in a gift distribution on a squalid hillside of Kabul. The hillside was an internally displaced persons camp and its swelling numbers of more than 4,000 people were a testament to how much more secure Afghans felt since the fall of the Taliban. At the request of Canadian soldiers, the Christian aid organization, Samaritan’s Purse, agreed to distribute gift-filled shoe boxes to the children living in the camp known simply as "The Big One," under its annual initiative called Operation Christmas Child. When the trucks filled with about 2,000 shoeboxes arrived — along with Samaritan’s Purse officials and about 30 Canadian troops, who were volunteering their time — the trucks were rushed by pushy parents and eager, delightful children. This is ...
streams 9 days ago
When my twin boys were in Grade 3 or 4, they mentioned one Sunday afternoon that they had to build a castle each as a project on medieval times. My husband and I call these announcements, homework bombs — information that tends to blow up all other plans. Thankfully, my sister was visiting from Vancouver and kind of took over the projects. My husband darted out to the liquor store for cardboard boxes and the craft store for other supplies while my sister and I helped our boys conceptualize and then build these castles. The weather was really nice, so some of the work was done in the sun on the deck. I recall looking over as I drew stones on one cardboard castle, while my sister attached the strings for the drawbridge on the other, as one son attempted handstands on the lawn and the other was hanging upside down from the jungle gym. I remember laughing at how funny the scene was — my kids being kids, as they should be on a Sunday with their family — and how utterly useless the ...
streams 23 days ago
Last Friday, when the Calgary Flames got their H1N1 shots, the Calgary Herald had an editorial board meeting with Health Minister Ron Liepert. The defensive minister met with us from noon to 1 p.m. One hour later, the Flames team and some of their family members--including pregnant wives and children under five--had finished receiving their vaccinations at a Calgary clinic. Needless to say, since then, this story and Albertans' emotions have burned out of control. Flames players are being unfairly likened to the men on the Titanic who took the place of women and children on the luxury ship's too few lifeboats. It's a powerful analogy, but unfair and wrong, and here's why. When you learn the timing behind the Flames vaccination plan and couple that with the "everyone is welcome to get their shot" message coming out of the premier's mouth, what the team did doesn't look so bad. After the NHL informed all teams to have their players vaccinated for H1N1, the Flames' two ...
streams 25 days ago
Oh, the outrage! The Calgary Flames got about 50 doses of the H1N1 vaccine and Albertans are up in arms. How pathetic. Letting the Calgary Flames receive their shots privately by their own team physician was the right and sensible thing to do. The envy of some people is absurd. The reason why we couldn't expect Jarome Iginla and the rest of his team to stand in a four-hour long lineup to receive their shots is as obvious as a slap shot to the solar plexus. If the Flames were standing in a lineup for four hours bedlam would break out. They would be mobbed by every jock, media outlet, kid, Flames fan and yes, envious people who want to lambaste them for making too much money, etc. It was refreshing for Flames President Ken King to apologize for supposedly jumping the queue but in my view, he need not have. There really was no other option, other than getting the shots in the U.S. on their next road trip or flying to another Canadian city where they are not so recognizable. In ...
streams 26 days ago
PAGE VIEW IMAGES Courtesy, Dr. Chris Brooks Dr. Chris Brooks examines a young boy at Lifeline Malawi's Kasese hospital, which will be visited shortly by the Prince of Monaco. Brooks is in Calgary for Lifeline's annual fundraising gala, which will raise funds for medical care in the impoverished nation. (FPinfomart: Restricted, SouthParc: Restricted) Later this month, Dr. Chris Brooks will play host to Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, at the two "humble hospitals" he has built in Africa. The 70-year-old former Calgary physician leans back in his chair and chuckles at that honour and the irony of life. "It's strange, but when I gave it all up and gave it all away, that's when the real adventure started," says Brooks, who is no stranger to adventure since he sailed across the Atlantic in 1983 by himself. Brooks moved from ...
