FEAST OR FAMINE

Icarus (2001) is a thriller is set around the fable of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death. Jack Keller, at 10 years of age, was fascinated by this tale, until his mother was viciously assaulted on the seventeenth floor of her workplace. She was a paralegal, working late in the evening, waiting for her partner to arrive. The assault by a madman, seeking revenge on a company of lawyers, sent Joan Keller plummeting through a window to her death. It occurred in front of Jack, who, though making a valiant attempt to save his mother, was left devastatingly helpless. Jack knew then that, for the rest of his life, this would be the worst thing that could ever happen to him. He knew this without a shadow of a doubt, with absolute certainty, and it was his only comfort. Never again would he feel this kind of suffering, pain or loss, or paralyzing terror. He is raised by his mother’s partner, marries Caroline and starts a small restaurant in New York that ...

The Australian Healthy Food Guide have publized its list of 5 of the healthiest fruit and 5 of the healthiest vegetables for everyone. TOP 5 FRUIT (1) Apples - protect against some cancers, heart disease, diabetes, colds, flu and arthritis (2) Strawberries - one of the richest sources of vitamin C - beneficial for heads and hearts (3) Kiwi fruit - decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration (that causes blindness) (4) Avocados - contain 20 essential vitamins and minerals & helps lower cholesterol (5) Bananas - slows the effects of sodium on blood pressure & keeps you regular TOP 5 VEGETABLES (1) Broccoli - contains anti-cancer benefits and fights cell damage (2) Mushrooms - the highest anti-oxidant containing food in the world! (3) Spinach - protects against eye damage & a good source of iron (especially if eaten with tomatoes) (4) Carrots - stablizes blood sugar, improves vision & fights against lung cancer (5) Red capsicum - contain...

In Life is So Good (2000) Glaubman, a high school teacher, has convinced Dawson, a 101-year-old Black American, to record his memoirs. Dawson was born in 1898 in Texas, in a time of slavery and segregation. He worked at a young age to support his family and missed out on schooling. He decides at 98 years of age to go to school every day to learn to read. Glaubman captures Dawson’s voice and his view of history and the world. It is his eyewitness account of wars, presidents, inventions, and freedom. He recalls the moment when Jackie Robinson became the first black professional baseball player: “when Jackie Robinson started with the Dodgers, it was as if life had changed, at least for the colored”. He recalls seeing his first car in 1913; it was a Model T Ford “all black and shiny” with “a big steering stick that came up out of the floor” instead of a steering wheel. When he drove it, he saw that the big cottonwood tree had “popped out” in front of him. He didn’t use the ...

The centre of Australia received the gift of rain. At the Ayers Rock Resort, close to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) intense rain for 30-45 minutes produced spectacular waterfalls on Kata Tjuta. One female tourist was so surprised by the streams of liquid running down the conglomerate rocks, appearing white against the blackened surface, that she had no clue what it was - "it looks like milk," she said. The region had recieved some rainfall in March and the surrounding area was quite green - with low shrubs and spinifex grasses. Against the red earth, it was a beautiful contrast of colours. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Recently I read about The Prison Library Project in California, established in 1973. The Prison Library Project is a volunteer organization that supplies books free of charge to any inmate who requests them. The PLP aims to provide an ongoing invitation to prisoners to embrace personal responsibility, growth, and a deeper appreciation for the world of books, ideas, and education. In 2009, the Project sent over 30,000 books to individuals in prisons all over the United States. Each week the Project receives about 200 letters, some from inmates who are writing for the first time and others who have written for several years. The books are for inmates to keep and are frequently passed on to other inmates or prison libraries.The Prison Library Project is a clearinghouse through which new, used, overstocked, or defective books are donated by publishers, bookstores, and individuals from all over the country. The prison Library Project continues to grow and gain attention world-wide. Th...

The Competitive Grant Programs, a three-and-a-half year program (2010 - June 2013) administered by the IBTCI Consortium (the Grant Administration Contractor) under the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Project in Mongolia has, during its first three-and-a-half months, initiated, developed and completed activities for the preparatory stage of the program. The Competitive Grants Program is the first of its kind in the TVET sector in Mongolia and therefore the processes and procedures are new concepts to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MECS) and to the TVET institutions across the country. Two different types of awards are offered under the Competitive Grant Programs – the Employers and Training Institutions Cooperation (ETIC) award that promotes industry, enterprise and training partnerships, and the Incubation and Dissemination of Best Practices (IDBP) award that promotes the successes of the country’s vocational sector. Together, these awards aim...

Mongolia’s Tourism Association named Mongolia’s nine wonders on March 20 under two classifications: (1) landscapes with beautiful natural formations, and (2) valuable hand-made works. The nine wonders are: 1. Mongolia’s Gobi Desert 2. Gurvan Tsenher Cave 3. Natural and historical memorial site in the Orkhon River Valley (Khoshoo Tsaidam, Khar Balgas ruins, Kultigen monument, and the Turkic memorials) 4. Hunnu grave in Noyon Mountain (Batsumber Soum of Tov Aimag) 5. Erdene Zuu Monastery 6. Hovsgol Lake 7. The 13th Century complex, the Chinggis Khaan Statue, and the the Golden Whip Complex 8. Uvs Lake, Great Lakes Depression 9. Burkhan Khaldan Mountain, historical places of Chinggis Khaan (Khentii Aimag). MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Cur...