Wal-Mart exec may have used as much as $500,000 to pay for anti-union activities.

"Thomas Coughlin, who was vice chairman of Wal-Mart's board and formerly held the title of president of Wal-Mart Stores, resigned from the world's largest retailer in March after Wal-Mart found what it said was a pattern of expense-account abuses and the use of false invoices to obtain reimbursements.

"Following his resignation, accusations emerged that Coughlin may have
used undocumented expense payments of as much as $500,000 to pay for anti-union activities."

-- see CNN's entire article here or see more on Wal-Mart's union practices in another CNN article here.

Full page ad against Wal-Mart in todays NYT

A group called Wal-Mart Watch put a full page ad in today's New York Times. (If you haven't seen the ad, you can see a pdf version here.)

Highlights from the ad:
"Year after year, Wal-Mart's low pay and meager employee benefits force tens of thousands of employees to resort to Medicaid, food stamps, and housing assistance. Call it the "Wal-Mart Tax." And it costs you $1.5 billion in federal tax dollars every year."

"The $1.5 billion Wal-Mart tax doesn't even include state tax dollars spent on Medicaid, food stamps, and housing assistance. And it doesn't include the millions of dollars that communities pay every year to provide new roads, electricity, sewer, and water lines for Wal-Mart stores. The company has a $10 billion annual profit, but won't even build the driveways to its stores."

And here's some of the info. they post on their website about Wal-Mart:
* California spends an estimated $89 million annually providing public assistance to Wal-Mart’s employees.
* In Georgia, over 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees are on state-funded healthcare.
* Wal-Mart spends $1,300 less per employees on healthcare than average retailers and $2,100 less than average U.S. companies (according to a recent Harvard Business School study)
They have a great research library that lists journal articles, book titles and television and radio programs that address the problem of Wal-Mart. They also list primary sources for the facts that they have posted on their ad (and on the site).
I wonder if they're going to start addressing the union issues, use of illegal immigrant issues, and use of child and slave labor overseas issues next.

Faking It

Do you "fake it" on your cell phone?

Yes, frequently.

 5

No, never.

 8

I've done it a few times but I don't make a habit of it.

 8

I don't have a cell phone.

 2

It's 7:50 and Rob just called me from the airport in San Francisco. He
usually calls at 8 every night so that he can say goodnight to the kids
as I'm putting them to sleep. But his call was ten minutes early so I
knew something was up. (Yes, we tend to be that precise.) I was
beginning to worry that his plane was delayed but all he said was, "I'm
just letting you know that I'll call at 8."

OK,
so Rob can be a bit odd at times, but this was just stupid-odd. Then he
explained, "I'm walking past the information guy and I hate talking to
him."

There you have it. Rob was faking it. Though technically,
to be a true faker, there shouldn't have been a live person on the
other line. (Rob confessed later that he used to speak (his very bad
version of) French when he'd walk by these guys. But then he started
feeling bad about that. So he tried the cell phone approach instead. I
don't know why he can't just do what I do -- ignore those guys.

The New York Times had an article today about faking it. (I'll post the article below.)

I'm
curious. How many of you fake it? How often? Do you call a weather
service or some other non-human so that it seems like there's really
someone on the other end of the line? (I'd ask this as a poll but that
ability either seems to have been taken away, or I it's not an option
while I'm using this old clunker computer of mine, seeing as the newer
one is in the shop.)



Reach Out and Touch No One
By AMY HARMON

Published: April 14, 2005

THE
cashier had already rung up Keri Wooster's items when Ms. Wooster
realized she didn't have her wallet. She dashed to her car and returned
empty-handed to face the line of fidgeting customers she had kept
waiting, a cellphone pressed to her ear. "Jordan, did you take my
wallet out of my purse?" she asked in parental exasperation, as she
made her way back to the checkout counter. "I'm holding up this line!
You need to put things back where you find them."

Ms. Wooster,
who has no children, was not actually talking to a Jordan, or indeed to
anyone at all. But her monologue served its purpose, eliciting
sympathetic looks from the frustrated crowd at her local Wal-Mart.

"My instincts just took over," Ms Wooster, 28, who lives in Houston, said later. "Everyone was like, 'Oh, kids.' "

Ms.
Wooster is by no means alone in the practice of cellphone subterfuge.
As cellular phone conversations have permeated public space, so, it
seems, have fake cellular phone conversations.

How many? It is
hard to say. But James E. Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers
University, says his classroom research suggests that plenty of the
people talking on the phone around you are really faking it. In one
survey Dr. Katz conducted, more than a quarter of his students said
they made fake calls. He found the number hard to believe. Then in
another class 27 of 29 students said they did it.

"People are
turning the technology on its head," Dr. Katz said. "They are taking a
device that was designed to talk to people who are far away and using
it to communicate with people who are directly around them."

Call them cellphonies.

Some
stage calls to avoid contact, whether with neighbors or panhandlers,
co-workers or supervisors, Greenpeace canvassers or Girl Scouts. Some
do it to impress those within earshot, others so they don't look
lonely. Men talk to their handsets while they're checking out women.
Women converse with the air to avert unwanted approaches by men.

Camera
phone shutterbugs fake being on the phone so they can get a good angle
without looking suspicious. And certain cellular vigilantes fake for
the benefit of real callers who are oblivious to the rules of common
decency.

"I fake phone talk to get a point across," said Ty
Hammond, of Pullman, Wash., who once forced an apology from a woman
spewing excessively personal details into her cellphone in an elevator
by shouting (made-up) escapades of his own into his (powered-off)
phone. "People need to know phone etiquette and fake phone calling is a
great tool for showing them."

The fake phone call has an
etiquette, or at least a technique, all its own. Inexperienced
cellphonies risk exposure with their limited repertoire of "uh-huhs."
Sophisticated simulators achieve authenticity by re-enacting their side
of an actual dialogue. Or they call voice-activated phone trees, so it
sounds like someone is talking on the other end.

"I'll take a
previous experience and pretend like I'm talking to somebody about it
so I'm not just making up something off the top of my head," said John
Wilcox, a phone salesman in Albany who often appears to be on his
cellphone when a problem customer walks in. "Maybe it's a snowboarding
move: 'Remember that back flip with the twist and the somersault?' "

Mr.
Wilcox used the technique as he waited for the right moment to approach
a woman he saw in a store at the mall recently. "I couldn't just stand
there looking like an idiot," he said.

For Micheal K. Meyer, the key is the look on your face when you "answer."

"You
grimace a little bit, act really interested in what you're not really
hearing on the other end," said Mr. Meyer, an aircraft mechanic in Lake
City, Fla., who has feigned hundreds of calls. "You've got to sell it."

A
lawyer in San Francisco said she frequently pretends to be finishing up
a conference call that she took on the road so her colleagues don't
give her a hard time about walking in late.

"Pretending is very
flexible," noted the lawyer, 37, who insisted on anonymity to protect
her ability to continue using the ruse. "You can end the conversation
whenever you want."

On many handsets, pressing the speakerphone
button makes a ringing sound that fakers can pretend is a call coming
in. But pros counsel to turn the phone off to prevent your cover from
being blown. Or at least set it to vibrate.

That is a lesson
Scott Spector, 15, learned the hard way, when his phone started
blasting his "American Idol Theme" ringtone as he was pretending to
talk into it in the hall at school last month.

"I felt like such a dork," said Scott, of Buffalo Grove, Ill.

Dr.
Katz of Rutgers said the practice first drew his attention when
students in focus groups he had organized to study a wide range of
cellphone use began mentioning it, unprompted.

The habit, Dr.
Katz said, is the latest technological twist in a culture that has long
embraced various forms of dissembling in the name of image, from
designer knockoff handbags to plastic surgery. Some fakers admit to
programming their phones to call them at a certain time to show off
their ring tones; others wrap up make-believe Hollywood deals in front
of people they want to impress.

And phantom callers are often
simply trying to cope with social anxiety by showing that they have
someone to call, even if they don't. One of Dr. Katz's students said
she pretended to use her cellphone when she was out with a group of
other college-age women who were all on theirs. Another did it to
escape from a fancy boutique where the prices were beyond her means
without speaking to a salesperson.

In that sense fake callers
are may not be so different from a lot of real callers, who are always
partly performing for others even as they as they appear to withdraw
into their own private space in public.

"The cellphone allows
people to show strangers that they belong, that they are part of a
community somewhere," said Christine Rosen, who studies the social
impact of technology at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in
Washington. "Whether or not it's a fictional call, on some level that's
why we're doing it."

But the surfeit of counterfeit calls
underscores the lengths to which people feel compelled to go to project
an image for others. Sometimes the impulse is almost subconscious.

Mark
Konchar, a network administrator in Canton, Ohio, had just hung up
after sitting in his parked car behind a strip mall talking to a friend
one afternoon, when he saw people emerging from the employee's entrance
to one of the stores. Quickly, he put the phone back up to his ear and
pretended to talk.

"I guess I thought people might wonder why
you're sitting out there in your car; it might look strange," said Mr.
Konchar, 33. "It's one of those things where after the situation
happens you're wondering, 'Why did I do that?' "

Many women rely
on fake cell phone calls when they fear for their physical safety.
Yessenia Morales, 21, said she recently called a non-existent friend
while being followed by a group of men on a train platform.

"I'll see you in a few minutes," she promised the ether.

But
fake calls are often made by people trying to preserve a more
psychological remove. Mike Lupiani uses his impersonation of someone on
the phone to ignore his chatty next-door neighbors. "They ask how your
day is going and stuff," said Mr. Lupiani, of Rochester. "I don't
really have time for it."

Christina Rohall, 29, said she
pretends to use the phone to avoid getting hit on. "I feel awkward just
rejecting people," said Ms. Rohall, of San Francisco.

How well
the fake call works is one of its most appealing qualities , and a
testament to how much respect people automatically grant to a cellphone
force field. Bartosz Sitarski, 24, said he once pretended to be on a
cellphone call for a full 15 minutes when someone he didn't want to
speak to was waiting to talk to him at a Milwaukee coffee shop. The
other person finally left rather than interrupt the "call."

Even
security guards seem to respect the cellphone buffer, said Michael
McEachern, 16, of San Diego, who has found the fake call a useful way
to get to the club level at a Padres game when he doesn't have a pass.
Some frequent fakers worry that the wireless charade will be harder to
pull off once more people begin to suspect it.

But that will not
deter Adam Hecht, a radiologist in Berkeley Heights, N.J., whose wife
said she is often mortified by his cellphone humor. Mr. Hecht, 40,
reserves his fake phoning for places with no reception, like the
Tiffany's at the Short Hills, N.J., mall, where cellphones have
apparently been rendered unusable to preserve the ambiance: "I usually
go through a long medical scenario," he said, "that doesn't exist."

Attachment: favicon.ico

They pulled the plug.

During the same minute that Terri Schiavo died, complete with full
media coverage, 11 children under the age of 5 also died of starvation,
though with much less public notice.



700 children under the age of 5 died of starvation during the same hour
that Terri died, and over 15,000 children under the age of 5 died of
starvation on the same day that Terri died.



Unlike Terri Schiavo, none of these children were stuck in a bed,
unable to feed themselves.  There was no disagreement over whether
their brains functioned or not.  There was no disagreement about
whether they smiled at their mom because they were glad to see her or
whether it was only some sort of reflexive action.



Though we can't help all of the tens of millions of kids that will die
this year alone due to poverty, we can help one.  We can do
something for at least one child that will make a difference to them
and their family.



You can build a relationship with that kid, or just send the dough and never look back.



We support a few kids through Compassion
International.  We've built relationships with them and
with a few of the kids who have graduated from the program, we still
keep in touch.  This organization is audited every year by an
outside organization (which doesn't just check the books, but sends
auditors out to the programs to make sure that when Compassion says
"Jane Doe" in Kenya is receiving $x.xx from Compassion, they can
actually verify that Jane Doe really does exist and that she is indeed
receiving that amount of money (in the form of food, education, etc.)).
But Compassion is a Christian program and for those of you who want to
help the starving without proselytizing, there are many other
organizations to choose from.



Children
International appears to be a secular organization (either
that or they're embarrassed about the fact that they're associated with
a religious group.  Nothing was posted about it on their "about
us" page that I could see.).



Other organizations that help kids (some with sponsorships programs and
some without - some that are Christian and some that are not):



UNICEF

World Vision

Save the Children

Heifer International

Thick Vegetable Soup

Description:
A hearty soup that's fairly easy to make and yummy to eat. Feel free to adjust ingredients and herbs to taste (or based on what you happen to have lying around).

Ingredients:
water
3 medium sized russet potatoes (never use waxy potatoes in soup -- it makes the soup gummy)
3 - 5 carrots
1 medium - large onion
1 - 5 cloves of garlic (the more the merrier, i think. but add as little or much as you want)
2 vegetable bouillon cubes (i usually use one with salt and one without. that way i can add more salt to taste without the soup getting too salty.)
salt, pepper and marjoram (or other favorite herb) to taste
1 c. mushrooms (any kind you want)
1 c. corn (frozen works fine)
1 c. whipping cream or half and half (or milk)

Directions:
cut up the potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic into large chunks. (1 inch or so across). toss them all into a large soup pot and add enough water to rise an inch or two above the items in the pot. (i'm very imprecise when it comes to adding water. if the soup seems too thick later you can always add more. at a minimum you want enough to cover everything in the pot.)

add the two bouillon cubes and boil over medium high heat until a knife (or fork) run easily through both carrots and potatoes. turn off the heat.

put everything through the blender. (i usually do a bit at a time and put the blended stuff into a bowl until the soup pot is empty and i can pour iti back in there.) if you're using waxy potatoes (red, yukon, etc.) this is where they'll start to get gummy and you'll realize your mistake.

if you want, you can stop right here and you'll basically have a creamy potato/carrot soup. (you may still want to add the cream/milk, but i've made this many a time with none at all.)

add the mushrooms, corn, salt, pepper and marjoram (or thyme or sage or ...) and heat on low until the shrooms and corn are no longer frozen/cold. add the cream/milk last.

you could probably just as happily add broccoli, cauliflower or any other vegetable that you'd prefer. i like to add corn because my kids love it and it sweetens up the soup a bit.

One Minute with Picks Disease

(Reprinted from my newsletter - Spring '04)

People occasionally ask me how my dad is doing. I generally don't know how to answer that question, not because I'm not around my dad enough to know, but because its not really the right question to be asking. My dad is pretty much the same from day to day and month to month. He doesn't know what has befallen him so there's no sense of "how is he doing in dealing with his disease." He doesn't deal with it. He doesn't realize it. To him, there is nothing wrong. He doesn't remember that he doesn't remember. He has no emotions about it.

The better question to ask might be, "How is your mom doing?" She's the one who is most often frustrated by dad's constant flow of questions (the same questions, over and over and over and over...). She is the one is who has to deal with dad at the check out counter when he says (rather loudly and in great alarm), "Fifty two dollars for groceries?! That's too much!" She is the one who has to plan her events around whether or not one of her daughters can watch her husband.

So, I thought that, in order to give my readers a better sense of this disease, I'd give you a peek at one minute with my dad. A typical minute together would go something (if not exactly) like this: (You may want to read this outloud for full effect. And feel free to pause a few seconds between questions. That's about how long Dad waits.)

Les: Did Mom tell you what her schedule is today?
Meg: She'll be here at 5:15 to pick you up.
Les: Did she say what she's going to do before that?
Meg: She's at work all day until 5 o'clock.
Les: Do you remember what day this is?
Meg: Wednesday.
Les: Wednesday. (Pulls out daytimer and looks it up.) That's right. The day Mom works.
Meg: Yep.
Les: So you want me to fold the laundry that's in the dryer? (He says as he reads the list I made for him that says exactly that.)
Meg: Yep.
Les: Let's see. Do you remember what day this is?
Meg: Wednesday.
Les: (Pulls out daytimer and looks it up.) Yeah. The day Mom works.
Meg: Yep.
Les: Do you know if she's coming to get me after that?
Meg: Yep.
Les: She is? What time?
Meg: 5:15
Les: Oh, 5:15. (pause) So you want me to fold the laundry that's in the dryer?
Meg: Yes, dad.
Les: Hmmmm. Did Mom tell you what her schedule is today?
Meg: She's at work, Dad.
Les: Do you know if she's going to pick me up?
Meg: Yep.
Les: When?
Meg: 5:15
Les: Oh. So maybe I'll go fold the laundry that's in the dryer.
Meg: Yes Dad, why don't you do that.
Les: Do you remember what day this is today?
Eventually Dad will go and fold the laundry, but not until there's been several minutes worth of the above discussion. Now imagine being with him all day....

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

of course, that was a year ago. he's much worse now. here's a quick example of a recent conversation with my dad.

Les: I'd like to take your dog for a walk.
Meg: She's got 7 stitches in her foot, Dad. She can't go for a walk today.
Les: (looks down at dog. notices bandage.) Oh. yeah. Well, I'd like to take your dog for a walk.
Meg: She can't go for a walk dad. She's injured.
Les: (glances down at dog) Oh. Well, I'd like to take her for a walk.
(it goes on like this until i finally distract him by encouraging him to work on a puzzle. or until i remove the dog from sight in hopes that he might forget about her.)

Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation

http://www.ukrainiangenocide.com/

Ten million Ukrainians died during a purge by Stalin in 1932-33. Nearly 1 in 4 rural Ukrainians perished and, at the height of the genocide, Ukrainians were dying at a rate of 25,000 per day.

The famine was induced, in large part, to rid the Soviet Union of the capitalist Ukrainians (in other words, to force the farmers to give up their land). Though the farmers were able to produce plenty of grain to feed themselves, the government siezed most of what had been harvested.

My great grandparents all left before this time, though most of their relatives stayed behind. Some were sent to Siberia and barely survived. (They had to join the Communist Party or remain outcast.)

Thanks to Katya for the link.

Hmmm, while looking for the photo I also found this page on the famine.

Linguini and Clams Marinara

Description:
This is my friend Rick's recipe but he didn't want to post it for me, so he dictated it to me instead.

Edit: I've changed the recipe a bit after trying it out on my own. No pics yet. We ate it all up too fast. Maybe next time.

Ingredients:
1/3 c. olive oil
1 bell pepper (preferrably red)
1 c. mushrooms
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
1 can baby clams
1 can of crushed or diced tomatoes
keep some tomato puree on hand in case you decide you need it
1/3 bunch parsley (chopped fine)
salt and pepper (duh!)
cooking sherry
1/2 shot amaretto


Directions:
Pour about a 1/4 cup olive oil into a frying pan. Add chopped bell pepper (preferrably red) and sliced mushrooms. In a separate frying pan, sautee crushed (or chopped) garlic (4 or 5 cloves) in the rest of the olive oil.

Chop up parsley (about 1/2 of a bunch of curly, American parsley) while the peppers, shrooms and garlic are cooking. Don't add the parsley to the pan just yet, though.

Open can of baby clams, drain (save the water), and add the clams to the peppers and mushrooms (after they have cooked for at least 10 - 12 minutes). While the clams are cooking, you can add pepper but not salt. (Adding salt will make the clams harden.)

After you've browned the garlic to a light golden brown (no more or it will dry out) add it to the clams and vegetables.

(After the clams have cooked for about 5 minutes, then...) Add 1 can of diced or crushed tomatoes. (If you use diced, then add some puree in with it.)

Now you can add some salt, parsley, a little cooking sherry, and a 1/2 shot of amaretto (and some of the clam water).

Cook the pasta al dente (in furiously boiling water). (Put some salt and oilve oil in the water so that the pasta doesn't get sticky.)

Mix everything together (after having first rinsed the pasta off with hot tap water) and serve.

Eat with some pecorino romano cheese.

Back yard of the San Francisco house

"Aerial" view of the back yard. It might not look like much, but check out the next pic to see what it used to look like when we bought the place. (This was the text under the first photo in the album... back when it was on Multiply.)

We removed lots of junk as well as about 200 square feet of cement.

Lots of new plants will be going in soon.

When we first moved into this house, the backyard was pretty trashed. The people that lived here before us (renters who we knew) said they'd already done a great deal to improve the yard.

Once we were moved in, we threw away the miscellaneous dryer, the rotting gazebo, and lots of junk. Then we broke up most of the cement and planted a vegetable garden, an herb garden and some random flowers.

Unfortunately, once I had the twins I couldn't do much of anything back there and the yard fell back into disrepair.

Since we moved away, a friend of ours, Brett, has been hauling away more trash, laying grass, and preparing plant beds.

Dan Rather quotes

This month's issue of the Atlantic (hmmm, didn't it used to be the Atlantic Monthly?) includes a list of some classic Dan Ratherisms. I don't watch television news, so I don't really have any opinion on the man, but some of these quotes are hilarious.

"Well, we've said it many times--if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun." (uh, what?!!)

"Are your fingernails beginning to sweat?"

"Let's hit these biscuits with a dab of gravy."

"I know that you'd rather walk through a furnace in a gasoline suit than consider the possibility that John Kerry would lose Ohio."

"This [race] is as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Fort."

"...it's Spandex tight."

"... closer than Lassie and Timmy." (this is classic!)

"... shakier than cafeteria Jell-O."

"This race is as hot and tight as a too-small bathing suit on a too-long car ride home from the beach." (love it!)

"Frankly, we don't know whether to run, to watch, or to bark at the moon."

"Turn the lights down -- the party just got wilder."

"He swept through the South like a tornado through a trailer park."

"When the going gets weird, anchormen punt."

Only when we take human existence upon ourselves...

The Romero quote that I posted in the Christmas Thoughts thread sparked such great discussion that I thought I'd toss this one out and see what we come up with.

I'm not sure what I think of the quote yet. My initial reaction was to think that he's off his rocker. But Eberhard was a good guy and very thoughtful (I believe his dissertation was on Nietsze), so my second thought was that I shouldn't blow him off so quickly. Here's the quote:

"Only when we take human existence upon ourselves in its starkest and most humiliating misery--a misery in which nothing has meaning--can we win through to the only possible way to live. Only when we taste the lot of all, when we become involved deeply in world suffering, one in heart with the need of humanity, can we win through to our true vocation. Only when the conscience becomes active, only when love is born out of suffering, only when hardship leads to liberating action, is victory near." -- Eberhard Arnold

(I should add that Eberhard was around in the early 1900's. He was forced out of Germany by the Nazis during the second world war. He started a community called the Bruderhof that was an attemp to get back to anabaptist roots (away from the Lutheranism that ruled Germany at the time). The Bruderhof still exists. I've met people from it though I haven't been to one. Whether Eberhard would agree with where the Bruderhof is today would probably be fodder for another discussion.)

Now that you know where Ukraine is....

I'm half Ukrainian. For years I've told that to people when they ask what nationality I am and they've just looked at me and nodded and pretended to know what I was talking about. Then I'd explain that it's part of the Soviet Union (or was, depending upon when we're talking about) and they'd suddenly look quite on top of things and nod again saying, "Oh, Russia. Right."
But that's not at all what I wanted to write about.
Rather, I thought that perhaps I could start to compile some of the info. that I've found concerning the trafficking of Ukrainian women and the plight of orphans in Ukraine (tied together by the theme of severe poverty in Ukraine as well as in many other Eastern European countries).

About two years ago, missionaries to Ukraine came and spoke at our church, and though my dad has been to Ukraine several times, and though I identify fairly strongly with the fact that I'm of Ukrainian decent, it wasn't until I heard from these people first hand what it was like over there that I felt compelled to find a way to do something to help.

About a year ago, after reading an article by Kimberlee Acquaro in the New York Times magazine about the international sex slave trade I became not only incensed, but convinced that I should find out more, make sure others knew, and try to figure out what I could do to make a difference.
Within the past 6 months these two internal imperatives have been prompting me more and more frequently to study, to learn, and to do. So far, all I can say I've done is to tell others, and to support an orphanage organization that a friend (who has spent time getting to know several teens in a Ukrainian orphanage) recommended -- Orphans Hope. And here is some of what I've learned.

* * * * * "More than 120 million people in Eastern Europe earn less than US$4 per day. Where old Soviet economic systems have been disrupted or discarded, there has been economic contraction and hyperinflation, which has wiped out people's savings and security. In Ukraine, over 60 percent of the unemployed are women, and of those who have lost their job since 1991, more than 80 percent are women. The average salary in Ukraine is about US$30 a month, but in many small towns, it is only half that." -- Trafficking in Women from Ukraine, by Donna M. Hughes and Tatyana Denisova (Dec. 2003) -- link to pdf file here

"Sixty five percent of cases of trafficking of women from Ukraine was carried out by organized crime networks. They traffic women because it is a high profit business with low investment. The networks are highly organized, have large-scale operations, and are connected to corrup officials. ...The size of the groups varies throughout Ukraine. The largest criminal groups in Ukraine with 20 to 30 members are in Odessa. In other regions, the groups are smaller, with five to six members. The criminal groups have territories they operate in, and are known to collaborate with officials who provide them with protection and authentic documents for travel. Organized crime groups have databases of potential victims for trafficking from sources such as applications from women for beauty contests or marriage agencies. The databases include photographs of the women, height, weight, and personality traits. Traffickers in Ukraine receive from US$800 to $2,000 per woman they deliver to pimps abroad. The value of the woman depends on her appearance and the destination country. The higher the development of the destination country, the higher the price that will be paid for her." -- "The Transnational Political Criminal Nexus of Trafficking in Women from Ukraine," Trends in Organized Crime, Vol. 6, No. 3-4: Spr.-Sum. 2001, Donna M. Hughes and Tatyana Denisova (link to pdf here)
"Can people really buy and sell women and get away with it? Sometimes I sit here and ask myself if that really happened to me, if it can really happen at all." - A Ukrainian woman who was trafficked, beaten, raped and used in the sex industry in Israel. After a police raid, she was put in prison, awaiting deportation.

"Tragic statistics show that within two years of leaving the orphanage at age fifteen or sixteen, 60% of orphan girls turn to prostitution, 70% of boys fall into crime, and over 10% take their own lives." -- taken from Orphans' Hope literature

Ganache

Description:
Ganache is basically chocolate butter. I know, that doesn't sound at all appetizing, which is fine. It just means there will be more for me. Ganache is often used to ice cakes, though it can also be cut into squares or rolled into balls and then dusted with cocoa or sugar to make chocolate truffles. (Yes, that's what a truffle is, ganache.)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream
8 ounces (227 grams) chocolate (pick a chocolate that you like the flavor of, but it should lean toward semisweet or bittersweet)

optional:
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cognac or brandy

Directions:
First break the chocolate into small pieces in the bottom of a bowl. Then bring the whipping cream (and butter if you choose to use it. apparently it makes the ganache shiny, though i make my ganache to eat, not to look pretty) to a boil.
Pour the whipping cream over the chocolate and (here comes the hard part) let it sit for about 5 minutes. (I'm always so tempted to start stirring, but when you stir too soon, you end up with a lumpier mixture.)

You can then use the ganache to ice a room temperature (or colder) cake or torte. (This recipe should cover one 9 inch cake.) Once the cake is iced, put it in the fridge for the ganache to harden.

Or, you can do what I do, pour the ganach into little bowls, set them in the fridge and pull them out to each straight later. :-)

If you'd like to make truffles, roll the cold ganache into balls (or cut it into squares) and dust cocoa (or some such) over them. Viola! That's all there is to it.

Christmas thoughts

"Ask Umbra" recently tackled the age old question, "Which is better for the environment? a once-live tree or a reusable plastic one?"

Personally, I'm hoping to find a way to make a larger than usual nativity set that we can place our gifts around and just skip the tree altogether. It seems a little crazy to me to celebrate the birth of God incarnate by killing a tree.

Do you feel like you're already drowning under a sea of STUFF? Are you worried that for Christmas you'll end up with a bunch more STUFF that you don't need or want? Why don't you suggest to your friends and fam. that they give donations in your name this year -- Gift ideas that may just make a difference .

I lost my dad today

Now before you start sending your condolences, I should tell you that we found him again. He was at the Salvation Army.

Let me back up. My dad has Picks disease. It's a bit like Alzheimers (they're both forms of dementia). In the beginning my dad just started to behave differently.

He was fixated on Ukraine. (His grandparents came over to the States from Ukraine.) Everything revolved around Ukraine in his mind. If he saw a homeless man, that reminded him of the homeless men in Ukraine. If he went into a post office, somehow that reminded him of Ukraine. He'd dance Ukrainian dances in the middle of large crowds. He speak Ukrainian (or, more often, a blend of Ukrainian and Russian, to people who had no clue what he was saying.

After getting him diagnosed, my parents moved to Colorado to be near my sis. Then we joined them so that we could help out as well. Physically, dad's pretty much fine. If you were to meet him, you'd think he was a healthy gent who had a few decades left in him. But once you start talking to him, it's suddenly quite clear that no one is home.

Dad has always had a good sense of direction. Even with the disease, he has been able to take my dog out for walks to the park and back without incident. Lately, the walks have been taking longer as he takes detours to search for coins in parking lots (his latest fixation). Sometimes a one hour walk stretches out to two or two and a half hours. But he has a good sense of direction. He always makes it back home.

Today I sent dad out at 9 to walk the dog. At 11 I noticed that he still wasn't back, but that wasn't incredibly worrisome. By 12 I thought that perhaps I should call his cell phone and call him home for lunch. Unfortunately, it turns out that my mom didn't get his cell phone attached to him before his ride came to get him. Dad was officially lost.

After driving around for an hour, Mom finally got a call from the Salvation Army. Apparently dad had shown up at their door saying that Mom was inside shopping and he was waiting for her. He waited a couple of hours before they finally figured out that he wasn't all there. They managed to procure a phone number from him and got ahold of my mom who then called me to the rescue.

When I picked him up, 5 hours after he had first left my house on his walk, the first thing he asked me was, "Meg, can I take your dog on a walk?" !!!

Abortion vs. other forms of murder

I just received an email from an old college friend urging me to vote for Bush. He said that the defining reason to vote for the man was abortion. (My husband finds this to be his defining reason for voting for Bush as well.)

It has mystified me that abortion can be so decisive to these people. But as I got thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that what I need to convince these people that President's can affect the lives and deaths of people in ways other than just abortion is statistics. I need some solid statistics that will show:

- how many people will die due to respiratory problems (or skin cancer, or ...) because the US did not sign the Kyoto Environment Treaty.
- how many people (not just Americans) have died in Afghanistan and Iraq due to American military actions?
- how many people (world wide) have died because of American consumption and waste? how many of these people, before dying, were forced to live their lives as slaves?
- how many people (world wide) have died or given birth to children with birth defects because Americans have chosen to eat food that has been sprayed with pesticides.

it's not as easy to track statistics like that. when a woman gets an abortion, two go in, one comes out. it's clear what happened. the cause and effect doesn't require much thought. the casualities are fairly easy to count.

but when a small baby dies because her mother had to work in fields sprayed with chemicals before she was born, there are a few more steps to make between my eating that food and that baby's death. the death is just as real. the child was just as innocent. but the ties between the cause and effect remain invisible to those who refuse to look.

Quotes

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, "In every life there is a terrible fight - a fight between two wolves. One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit. The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion." A child asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?" The elder looked him in the eye. "The one you feed."

* * * * * * *
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * * * * * *
Men pray to the Almighty to relieve poverty. But poverty comes not from God's laws; it is blasphemy of the worst kind to say that. Poverty comes from man's injustice to his fellow man. -- Leo Tolstoy

* * * * * * *
Without the knowledge of our wretchedness, the knowledge of God creates pride. With it, the knowledge of God creates despair. The knowledge of Christ offers a third way, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness. -- Blaise Pascal

* * * * * * *
If we could read
the secret history of our enemies,
we would find in each person's life
sorrow and suffering enough
to disarm all hostility.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

* * * * * * *
How can you say, I have fulfilled the law and prophets, since it is written in the law: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself? Look, many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth and dying of hunger while your house is filled with many goods and not a thing goes out of it to them. -- Origen

* * * * * * *
Francis of Assisi taught me that there is a wound in the Creation and that the greatest use we could make of our lives was to ask to be made the healer of it. -- Alan Paton

* * * * * * *
It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation system. Clearly there is more certainty in the recognition of wrongs than there is in the prescription for their cure. -- William Sloane Coffin

* * * * * * *
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

* * * * * * *
After the Western ideal of unlimited freedom, after the Marxist concept of freedom as acceptance of the yoke of necessity; here is the true Christian definition of freedom. Freedom is self-restriction! Restriction of the self for the sake of others! -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

* * * * * * *

Made in America: My Story

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Biographies & Memoirs
Author:	Sam Walton with John Huey

Made in America: My Story is an autobiography of Sam Walton as well as the story of Wal-Mart. As Sam himself admits in his foreword, "I'm really the best person to tell the Wal-Mart tale, and ... --like it or not--my life is all wrapped up in Wal-Mart...."

Sam Walton and Wal-Mart Sam was a consummate competitor. He loved the challenge of the fight. As Charlie Baum (an early Wal-Mart partner) said of him, "What motivates the man is the desire to absolutely be on top of the heap." He was voted Most Versatile Boy in speech club in high school. He was a guard on the basketball team his senior year when the team went undefeated and won the state championship. He was also the quarterback on the football team that also went undefeated and won the state championship. In college he was elected president of the senior men's honor society, he was an officer in his fraternity (Beta Theta Pi) and he was president of the senior class. He was also the captain and president of Scabbard and Blade (a part of ROTC). The list goes on, but I think you get the picture. There is nothing that Sam Walton set his mind to that he didn't achieve.

Though competition is what drove him, it was Sam's ability to take other people's ideas and refine them (or mix and match them) that really gave Wal-Mart a cutting edge. Sam wasn't afraid to try new things. If they failed, he backed out quick. If they worked, he continued to improve them even more. Some of the ideas that he lifted from others and which propelled Wal-Mart wildly forward were:

Discounting: a growing trend among stores in the 60's, Sam reduced the store markup in order to sell more product, what Sam called, "blowing an item out the door." (Target, Kmart and Woolco also started with this same idea in mind.)
Building a corporate culture: inspired by the Japanese, Sam introduced meetings that included a Wal-Mart cheer as well as crazy antics by management.
Profit-sharing: inspired by a sign in England, Sam started calling his employees "associates" and he gave them the ability to share Wal-Mart's profit either by receiving a cash pay out or stock when they left the company.

Sam was also a real people person. He was able to run people through the ringer and they came out singing his praises on the other end. Bill Fields, one of Wal-Mart's early managers who later became the Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Sales, described his first two weeks on the job, "I had been with the company about five days, and we were opening a store in Idabel, Oklahoma. We had thirteen days to open it, which is still a record. They worked me about 125 hours or more the first week. The second week it was getting worse."

When Sam went on buying trips with his purchasers, he'd make as many of them stay in a hotel room as possible. Once he even had 8 grown men share a room together. Keeping expenses down was a critical component to his competitive retailing vision and he was just as hard on himself as he was on his employees. (He was one of those 8 men that shared the hotel room.)
Sam's heart was so thoroughly invested in his retailing obsession that even family took second place. On vacations, it was a given that if they drove past a retail store (any retail store) they were going to have to stop so that dad could go in and investigate. Sam was constantly checking out the competition, searching out what they were doing right, and then adding that new found idea to his repertoire. In fact, when Sam found an employee working for his competition that he thought was particularly competent, he'd offer them a job in his own store.

Though Sam Walton went to church (and was even a deacon at one point), the true driving spirit within him was Free Enterprise. While wistfully considering possible futures for his grandchildren he lists: 1) finding a cure for cancer, 2) bringing culture and education to the underprivileged and 3) becoming missionaries for free enterprise to 3rd world countries. And near the end of the book, as he looks back contemplatively on his life, he says, "I am absolutely convinced that the only way we can improve one another's quality of life, ... is through what we call free enterprise -- practiced correctly and morally."
Unfortunately, though Sam seemed to have the best of intentions, many have called into doubt whether his version of free enterprise is indeed correct and moral. (But that is the topic of many other books.)
All in all, I was left with the impression that Sam Walton was an incredibly dynamic guy with a great ability to motivate people and to execute ideas. I think he honestly cared about his employees even though he ran them ragged. I think that he wanted to be the best at what he did, but that he also earnestly believed that by doing his best, he would be doing something special for his community and every community that Wal-Mart went in to.

Made in America The tone of this book is akin to sitting down and chatting with Sam at a BBQ. I wouldn't doubt that he dictated his thoughts into a tape recorder and John Huey set them to paper. The book is replete with quotes from former (and current) employees, friends, competitors and family members. They round out the story well and give additional perspectives of what took place during the formation of Wal-Mart. It definitely gives the sense that Sam Walton was at heart a country boy.

Having heard of court cases that Wal-Mart is currently, or has been recently, involved in as well as looking through the literature of Wal-Mart's detractors, it is interesting to find points at which Sam betrays himself. A statement here or admission there gives away a sense that perhaps those detractors are on to something. And yet Sam is far too confident in himself, and so transparent in his portrayal of his life, that I am sure he was completely unaware of having opened himself up in that way. And though I am personally convinced that Wal-Mart has contributed to the economic bubble that America is now precariously perched atop, it is a problem that I don't think Sam Walton ever had any inkling of. In his mind he was a hero. He achieved vast savings for billions of people, giving them an improved quality of life, and he did it by the sweat of his brow; he gave his life up for the good of many.

If you're interested in stories of brave and creative entrepreneurs, in stories of apple pie and pig calls, in stories of people who make it big through incredible toil, then you will definitely appreciate this book. But I also think that Wal-Mart detractors can find this book helpful. Wal-Mart is the only big retail chain that was started by a single man. (Target, Kmart and Woolco were all started by corporations.) It is easy to lay blame on Sam Walton that might be more rightly placed on the corporation that is Wal-Mart. Reading the book helps to see Sam as the eager but fallible man that he was. Wal-Mart may be a global giant that is threatening to change the world as we know it, but Sam Walton was just a competitive country hick who put some clever ideas together to form a retail chain that has taken the world by storm.

Dollar Coins in the U.S.A.

While shopping at Trader Joe's in San Francisco the cashier asked me if I had kids. Confused but thinking that I was going to be offered some stickers to take to the kids I said yes. Instead of stickers, I was offered two dollars of my change in coins rather than bills.

Dollar coins are treated not as the currency that they are, but rather as novelty items. They're a treat for children, not a coin for every day use. At least, that is what the American public seems to think on the matter.

One paper dollar bill costs the government 4.2 cents to make and has a life span of about 20 months. One dollar coin costs the government almost three times as much to make at 12 cents per coin, but the life span of a dollar coin is 30 years. In other words, for the government to keep one paper dollar bill in circulation for the same length of time as a dollar coin, it would cost the government about 76 cents. Considering the number of dollar bills that are in circulation, Americans could save their government (and thereby themselves in taxes) quite a bit of money every year simply by using dollar coins instead of paper bills.

The vending machines that sell stamps in most post offices give dollar coins as change (though they don't accept them in payment, oddly enough). You can also get dollar coins simply by going to the bank and asking for them. (Granted, you'll have to exchange some paper money for them. Rob, my husband, usually buys $80 worth of dollar coins at a time.)

Simply by using dollar coins, you can expose others to them. The more people become comfortable with dollar coins, the more they may be willing to use them.

Come on, you reticent Americans. The Canadians have not only dollar coins, but two dollar coins as well! If they can do it then we bloody well can too.

Zucchini Flan with Tomato Coulis

Description:
This recipe is from the New York Times "Dining In" Section, September 3, 2003.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, more as needed
2 to 3 pounds zucchini, washed and thinly sliced (i use the side of my grater)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic (i don't measure. i just use lots)
5 eggs
1/4 cup cream or milk
4 medium tomatoes, preferably very ripe, cored and roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon sugar (i use brown sugar or sucanut)

Directions:
1. Put half the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini, a large pinch of salt and some pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini wilts and gives up its liquid; add 1 tablespoon garlic. Continue to cook until zucchini browns slightly. (mine never really browns, but it gets pretty wilty.)

2. Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees and set a kettle of water to boil. Beat together the eggs, cream and more salt and pepper. When zucchini is done, let it cool slightly, then scoop slices into egg mixture, using a slotted spoon. Stir. LIghtly grease an 8 by 4 inch nonstick loaf pan in a baking dish and put in oven; add water to come as far up sides of loaf pan as is practical. Bake until flan is set, but still slightly jiggly in middle, about 30 minutes.

3. While flan cooks, make tomato coulis: Put remaining oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add tomatoes, remaining garlic, salt and pepper, Basil and sugar. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer about 15 minutes.

4. When flan is done, cool it on a rack for a few minutes. Invert over a plate and unmold. (I don't bother. I just scoop it out for everyone.) Cool until warm, then slice and serve with tomato coulis.

The recipe says "8 servings as a first course or light lunch" but my husband and I will pretty easily split this between us as our entire dinner.