FEAST OR FAMINE

At Nangarhar University in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, the Professional Development Centre, opened in February 2009, provides computer facilities and training to university professors in the Faculty of Education. Forty-nine professors (44 males and 5 females), who lectured 1,248 students in 2009 (54 of whom were females) also received English language training. While five female professors don't seem a large number, this is the highest number of females in any faculty in the university. There were only two additional female professors in the medical faculty. As more female students enrol in universities, the aim is to encourage more female lecturers. The Professional Development Centre (PDC) has two rooms: a computer laboratory and an English language laboratory. The computer lab has 14 computers with mounted projectors and screens. There is a dedicated PDC Coordinator/Computer Trainer and one English Language Trainer. The PDC is open from 8:00am to 4:30pm daily. T...

The House Guest (1997) is an alarmingly compelling story of 36-year-old Alice, living alone in Sydney, when a market researcher calls to ask a few survey questions. Max, a dispassionate man, holds Alice hostage for 48 hours while relentlessly asking her disturbingly personal questions, exploring her past, her emotions and her actions. Throughout the survey, he remains uncritical, non-judgmental and neutral. Never touching her, he is the ultimate voyeuristic mental prowler. He watches her eat, he watches her sleep, he watches every move, noting everything with mechanical precision. Alice is furious, resentful, fearful, vulnerable and humiliated. She is ashamed of her acquiescence. She is ashamed of her contradictory answers. But, once the questioning begins, it triggers an unstoppable flow of repressed emotions. His quest for answers becomes her quest for self-knowledge, truth and the release of her inner fears. Half an hour short of the announced 48-hour detainm...

Next week Australians will celebrate their national day. Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 each year. This year marks 223 years of European settlement and 110 years of Federation. The name of the day has undergone several changes: from Foundation Day to Anniversary Day to Australia Day. Captain Arthur Phillip from Britain Captain Arthur Phillip, from Britain, took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales (on the east coast of Australia) on January 26, 1788 and became its first Governor. The first official celebrations were held in 1818 to mark the 30th anniversary of European settlement. In the early nineteenth century, the anniversary was called Foundation Day. On the 50th anniversary, a public holiday was declared in New South Wales and it became an annual event. By 1888, all colonial capitals of Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin and Hobart), except Adelaide, proclaimed Anniversary Day a public holiday. In 1946, the Commonwealth Governme...

Goodwill is the high-end wide-variety food store in Tbilisi. However, most Georgians buy their food at street stalls and the smaller Populi supermarkets (which really aren’t “super” at all, but they are improving). The variety of goods and the extent to which shelves are continuously stocked have greatly improved in six months, considering they are really just the size of a corner store. Current grocery prices are as follows (in Australian dollars, but US dollars are currently almost 1:1). Loaf of wholegrain bread $1.03 Milk (1 litre) $1.49 Rice (1 kg) $0.89 Basmati rice (500g) $5.74 Macaroni pasta (500g) $1.32 Butter (250g) $3.74 Cooking sunflower oil (1 litre) $2.61 Virgin olive oil (500 ml) $9.66 Tub plain or fruit yoghurt (150g) $0.45 Frozen prawns (250g) $25.43 Tomato paste (250g) $1.86 Large jar of jam (340g) $4.33 Small jars of jam (200g) $2.58 Jar honey (500g) $10.00 Lipton Tea Bags (100) $5.51 Jar Nescafe coffee (50g) $3.13 6 green...

Blonde is the work of an author “re-imagining” the life of Norma Jeane Baker and her evolution into Marilyn Monroe, the iconic American actress. The 2009 novel by Joyce Carol Oates, is a work of fiction, not a biography. The epic novel structures Marilyn’s life into five parts: The Child (1932-1938); The Girl (1942-1947); The Woman (1949-1953); “Marilyn” (1953-1958); and The Afterlife (1959-1962). Written in the third person, it is interspersed with the voice of Marilyn: “But they don’t know me really. They didn’t recognize me.” It is a detailed story of her stammer, abandonment, life in an orphanage, barbiturates, her mother’s unbalanced mental state, modeling, miscarriages, and of her lovers, marriages, and movies. It details how she met and married each of her three husbands: marine James Dougherty; baseball player Joe DiMaggio; and playwright Arthur Miller. It also details her affairs, especially the alleged affairs with President John F. Kennedy and his brother Sen...

Pelamushi is a traditional Georgian dessert that can be enjoyed in summer or winter.  It is exceptionally easy to make – if I can do it, you can too! And it requires only 3 ingredients. The first ingredient is pressed grape juice—from white or red grapes (sweet grapes are best). Georgians typically use Odessa grapes. Press grapes to extract the juice and strain to ensure that the skins, seeds and stems are excluded. The second ingredient is plain wheat flour and the third ingredient is cornflour. Step 1: in a large pan, add 2 litres of pressed grape juice. Add 1 cup of wheat flour and one cup of cornflour, stirring until the flour is well blended. Step 2: Over a low heat, stir and stir and stir, constantly—to ensure that there are no lumps (a wooden spoon is best). Stir for about 40-45 minutes until the liquid reduces and forms a thickened paste. Add sugar to your own taste. Generally, the sweeter the grapes, the less sugar you may need to add. Step 3: Pour in...

As the Southern Sudanese now vote for separation or unity from northern Sudan, this is not for the first time in the lives. They once, even at a young age, had to make the decision whether to flee (separate from their families) or to be united which often meant remaining in Southern Sudan during the conflict. As the world focused on the lost boys of Sudan – those that walked for days and months and for many miles to reach freedom – not knowing what their future would hold – there was less, much less, focus on the families that remained. Families remaining during the war faced incredible hardship and constant tension, never knowing when conflict might return. Food was scarce, conditions were below standard, schools were closed (or those that were open were often too far to attend), and health equipment and medicines were in scarce supply. In remote areas, whole villages were razed to the ground and had to be re-built, even in a temporary way. When I travelled to remote area...

The referendum in Southern Sudan, commencing on Sunday January 9, 2011 will determine whether Southern Sudan will secede from northern Sudan (to form a new country) or whether unity (one country) will remain. It is the most important decision eligible voting Sudanese will make in their life time. The lost boys of Sudan - those that walked to escape the civil war (the 20 year civil war between the north and the south which ended in January 2005 with a Comprehensive Peace Agreement) - escaped on foot, walking to neighbouring countries, such as Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya - and even to northern Sudan and Egypt. Many started a new life in new countries, most in African countries, but also many to the United Kingdom, Canada, America, Australia and Europe. In their new countries, they faced many challenges - fitting into a new culture with new experiences - and deciding whether to study or work. Most combining the two knowing that one day they could return to assist their hom...

The autonomous region of Southern Sudan came about in January 2005 after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and the south. By October, ministries were emerging and key positions had been appointed. Six years later, Southern Sudan has found a new development path and if the region secedes from the north to become another country, economic development and state systems challenges lie ahead. But Southern Sudan is still a developing country. That is why maintaining a long-term peaceful and stable international environment is so important. It is clear for both domestic needs and international responsibility, Sudan (both north and south) will need to work toward development and cooperation, an independent foreign policy, and a diplomatic vision of upholding world peace. All countries, existing and new, strong and weak, rich and poor, should respect the rights of their people to independently choose their own development path. All should strive for international and r...

A condition of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005 between the northern central government of Sudan (in Khartoum) and the newly autonomous Southern Sudan (the government ministries and parliament located in Juba) was that a referendum will be held in 2011 to vote for separation or unity. In other words, the referendum is a vote on whether Southern Sudan government should secede from the north –giving Southern Sudan independence and a new country. It’s the most important vote every Sudanese (whether from the north or the south) will have in their lifetime. That time is now. The referendum will be held on Sunday, January 9, 2011. When I interviewed Khartoum government representatives in 2006 and 2009—the Government of Sudan (GOS)—they acknowledged that they would need to put incentives in place for the vote to maintain one country. These incentives include government support, particularly through government funds to assist the emerging ministries in the South. T...

Travels in the interior of Africa is an exquisite travelogue written in 1799, four years after Scottish-born Mungo Park embarked on a solitary exploration of northwest Africa, along the River Niger to the great object of European research, Timbuktu. He was described by his peers as tall but not impressive, ambitious but not arrogant, serious but not humourless and an extraordinarily unremarkable man. Nevertheless, this 23-year-old made an extraordinarily remarkable journey at the height of the slave trade and the dominance of the Victorian English Empire. He writes without racial superiority, pompousness, exaggeration or embellishment. There is no bravado or heroics. It is a factual account and observance of customs, laws, food, nature, wars, heat, illness, wrong turns and strange sights during the two-year trek. It is a travelogue that has endured the test of time. On his return to Scotland, he resumed his career as a surgeon. He rejected an offer from Joseph ...