A scientist at the University of California San Diego is telling surfers to stop shredding to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Kim Prather, who researches how the ocean sprays bacteria and viruses into the air, told the paper that ocean breezes may carry the drops of saliva and other fluids far: “Surfers are saying that they’re safe if they stay six feet away from other people, but that’s only true if the air isn’t moving...Most of the time, there’s wind or a breeze at the coast. Tiny drops of virus can float in the air and get blown around.” She advised other would-be beachgoers to refrain as well. “If you don’t care about your own life, that’s one thing. But this can be a matter of life or death to other people,” she said.
Vào hôm thứ Sáu (1/11), cảnh sát tại Việt Nam bắt giữ hai người và triệu tập những người khác để thẩm vấn vì nghi ngờ liên quan đến cái chết của 39 người ở phía sau xe tải ở Anh Quốc hồi tuần trước. Theo tuyên bố được đăng trên trang web của cảnh sát Hà Tĩnh, sau khi 10 gia đình Việt Nam báo cáo người thân của họ mất tích, vì sợ họ nằm trong số 39 nạn nhân, cảnh sát khu vực Hà Tĩnh mở một cuộc điều tra hình sự về nghi vấn buôn người.
Theo Reuters, hai người bị bắt và nhiều người khác bị đưa vào để thẩm vấn. Cuộc điều tra cũng sẽ xem xét các sự việc tương tự xảy ra trong năm năm qua. Cùng lúc đó, cảnh sát Anh Quốc đưa ra lời kêu gọi trực tiếp yêu cầu hai anh em từ Bắc Ireland tự ra đầu thú. Cảnh sát Anh cho biết hai anh em Christopher và Ronan Hughes rất quan trọng đối với việc điều tra của họ về vụ phát hiện thi thể của 31 người đàn ông và tám phụ nữ trong container trên một khu công nghiệp ở Grays, phía đông thủ đô của Anh Quốc. Hai anh em này bị truy nã vì bị tình nghi ngộ sát và buôn người. Ông Daniel Stoten, sĩ quan dẫn đầu cuộc điều tra của cảnh sát, cho biết họ từng trò chuyện qua điện thoại với anh Ronan Hughes gần đây nhưng họ cần thẩm vấn trực tiếp.
Tin Vietnam.- Nhà cầm quyền Cộng sản Việt Nam vừa có bản báo cáo nợ công năm 2020. Trong thời gian qua, mặc dù nhà cầm quyền liên tục tăng thu các loại thuế, lệ phí trong dân nhưng vẫn không kịp bù đắp cho các khoản bội chi của nhà cầm quyền. Vì vậy, theo dự trù, vào năm 2020, nhà cầm quyền Cộng sản sẽ vay nợ 459 ngàn tỷ đồng.
Số tiền này nếu vay được sẽ được nhà cầm quyền dùng như sau: 217 ngàn tỷ đồng sẽ được dùng vào bù đắp bội chi ngân sách trung ương; 217 ngàn tỷ đồng sẽ được dùng để trả nợ gốc của ngân sách trung ương; số còn lại là 9.1 ngàn tỷ đồng sẽ được dùng để nhận nợ bảo hiểm xã hội. Báo Vietnamnet ngày 21 tháng 10 năm 2019 giải thích, việc đi vay tiền này để bù đắp bội chi có nghĩa là do tiền thuế, lệ phí của người dân nộp vào ngân sách vẫn chưa đáp ứng được nhu cầu chi tiêu của nhà cầm quyền, nên họ phải đi vay để bù đắp vào khoản thiếu hụt, đồng thời là vay nợ mới để trả nợ cũ. Theo dự trù, năm 2020, nhà cầm quyền Cộng sản phải trả 379 ngàn tỷ đồng tiền nợ công. Phía nhà cầm quyền dự báo, đến cuối năm 2020, nợ công Việt Nam bằng khoảng 54.3% GDP, nợ Chính phủ khoảng 48.5% GDP, nợ ngoại quốc của quốc gia so với GDP là khoảng 45.5%.
Tuy nhiên, nhiều chuyên gia ở Việt Nam đã từng lên tiếng, thực tế nợ công ở Việt Nam nếu tính cả nợ của các công ty của nhà cầm quyền vay thì lớn hơn nhiều so với báo cáo trên. Báo Vietnamnet cho biết, trong thời gian tới việc đi vay nợ của nhà cầm quyền Vietnam sẽ khó hơn, và trách nhiệm trả nợ cho ngoại quốc cũng sẽ tăng lên theo.
The list is disconcertingly clinical, a catalogue of suffering.
“One or more incidents of fondling or kissing.” Five to 10 points.
For physical assaults, including “severe beating, whipping and second-degree burning” — 11 to 25 points.
And at the top of the list: “Repeated, persistent incidents of anal or vaginal intercourse ” — 45 to 60 points.
Through tens of thousands of private hearings, this is how Canada has assigned dollar figures for the abuse of former students at residential schools. The assessments are part of the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, indeed, one of largest in the world.
Girls Dormitory in Ermineskin Indian Residential School, Alberta, 1938
But if justice takes time, a decade and 38,000 claimants later, the assessment process for the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement has yet to wrap up, and may take until 2023. That’s left some claimants in painful, years-long limbo. And the cost, originally estimated at $960 million, is so far more than triple that amount, with an added $700 million in administration fees alone – including payments to lawyers who have been allowed to charge both the government and the victims they represent.
How did such a dramatic miscalculation happen?
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. This became an industry for everyone involved, including for government,” said Steven Cooper, a lawyer who helped negotiate the settlement and represented survivors.
Even many claimants who have received money – 89 per cent of those who’ve been heard – have criticisms of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP).
One of the classrooms at Cross Lake, in Manitoba, 1940
Angela White, program supervisor at the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, said only a small percentage of the people she works with had a positive experience of the IAP. Many survivors, she said, found it “emotionally draining” to have to relive their abuse in such detail.
Some claimants dropped out of contact entirely. According to the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat, which oversees the IAP, 743 survivors became so-called “lost claimants.”
“Some survivors went into the Independent Assessment Process thinking that it was going to be easier, that they were going to be listened to and heard and be compensated. And many were, which was a good thing,” said Garnet Angeconeb, who attended Pelican Lake Indian Residential School near Sioux Lookout, Ont., from 1963 to 1969. “However, many also fell through the cracks.”
The secretariat has tried to tackle the problem. In 2014, it developed a protocol for staff, who now search online, use government databases at Health Canada and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and even approach band offices, RCMP detachments and other local organizations to try to find claimants. To date, they’ve located 478 survivors who fell out of touch.
“I’m not aware of any tribunal anywhere that goes to that kind of effort,” said chief adjudicator Dan Shapiro.
Nobody seems to have predicted how vast this process would become.
The original settlement, negotiated back in 2005, projected 2,500 hearings a year over five years – roughly 12,500 in total. Instead, triple the number of survivors have come forward, with claims totaling $3.137 billion.
“(They) turned out to be abysmally off the mark,” said Warren Winkler, former chief justice of Ontario, who oversaw the negotiations. “They couldn’t have been more wrong.”
Officials and school children outside the Fort Providence Indian Residential School, Fort Providence, N.W.T.
It’s hard to get a straight answer, in fact, as to how anybody came up with those original estimates.
“It’s tough to get good data about Indigenous people,” said Wayne Spear, former communications director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Spear’s grandfather attended residential school, and Spear has co-authored two books on the residential school system. “People don’t want to tell the government too much … ‘Why do you want to know these things? What are you going to do with it?’”
Certainly, there were no exact numbers to be had back in 2005, during the negotiations that took place under Paul Martin’s Liberal government. Records from residential schools are spotty, and many who were abused didn’t speak openly about it. There are also cases where children or grandchildren of deceased survivors are pursuing claims on their behalf.
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada says a consultant was hired to come up with a number based partly on similar settlements from around the world.
It’s also possible the number was derived from the estimated 18,000 lawsuits filed by former residential school students as of 2005, minus those already settled. That’s the explanation offered by the website of the secretariat.
But if that’s the case, it’s unclear why the government didn’t think more survivors would come forward once a settlement was reached. Roughly 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools between 1883 and 1996.
Ronald Niezen, an anthropologist at McGill University who has studied the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) since 2009, said there was “absolutely no way” to guess how many survivors to expect beforehand.
“These figures often come together with people sitting around a table and saying, ‘Well, how many do you think?’” he said. “So it’s just a number pulled out of a hat.”
Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, South west end, Sioux Lookout, Ontario, September 26, 1948
Not everyone agrees there was no way to know, however. There was at least one other estimate out there at the time.
“The government came up with that number. We disagreed with that,” said Kathleen Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Calgary who was chief negotiator for the Assembly of First Nations. “They didn’t believe us, I guess.”
Mahoney claims the AFN predicted there would be 25,000 claimants – still low, but much closer to the mark. “We had many, many meetings from coast to coast to coast with survivors, and hundreds of them would show up,” she said. “You just have to do some fairly simple math.”
Matt James, an associate professor of political science at the University of Victoria who has studied the TRC, said the government’s extraordinarily low estimate shows that no one understood how bad the abuse was — or cared to.
James pointed to an early AFN report from 1994 that detailed residential school abuses. At the time, the document was criticized in Alberta Report, an Edmonton-based newsmagazine, as being “notably bereft of any substantiation of its more lurid charges.” The article claimed “native militants” were using the report as a pretext to demand compensation from Ottawa.
Before their stories came to light through the TRC, James said in an email, survivors lived in a “climate of disadvantage, disrespect and disbelief.”
This isn’t the only underestimate of its kind. Ireland’s child abuse inquiry for former students of schools run by the Catholic Church, which served as one model for the Canadian settlement, also got it very wrong. The final cost was about five times more than originally forecast, largely because so many survivors came forward.
“Underestimating both the scale and the severity of the abuse is the main driving factor here,” Conor O’Mahony, a senior lecturer in the School of Law at University College Cork in Ireland, said in an email. “It was happening on an enormous scale but no one dared to speak about it until relatively recently.”
***
There were no caps on the IAP when it was negotiated. No final deadlines, no point when the money would stop flowing. Winkler wouldn’t have bought into it any other way. “I didn’t want anybody to be harmed because somebody was trying to rush them through,” he said.
To give all of those involved in this grim chapter of Canadian history a chance to be heard, the government also mandated that alleged abusers – who face no criminal charges as part of the IAP – be given the chance to appear at their own hearings. To date, the government has issued 5,300 locate requests with private investigation firms, at a cost of $2.3 million.
Many alleged perpetrators have died or refused to attend, but as of late July they had appeared at 822 hearings. The government pays their costs, including up to $2,500 for legal advice.
Residential schools were built across the country
But it isn’t the tracking of lost claimants or even abusers that has slowed down the process, said Cooper, it’s the paperwork.
“It was dizzying, the amount of bureaucracy that was generated by this process,” said the lawyer. “It took years and incredible delving into somebody’s past to get everything they needed.”
He said the IAP required too much documentation from claimants – a misguided effort, he suspects, to thwart any false claims.
“Why were they asking for tax records? Why were they asking for employment records? Why were they asking for criminal records?” he said. He recalled one claimant for whom he had to make 31 separate document requests, and others with more than 20 requests. “It was a mountain of paperwork, of which we used a molehill.”
Cooper also represented residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador, who reached their own settlement last fall. There, survivors submit written claims and mostly don’t go to hearings. They don’t get the chance to tell their stories out loud, Cooper said, but the process was faster.
“It is almost complete and it was almost without issue,” he said. “I still have cases (under the IAP) that are not resolved for a process that started in 2007.”
For his part, McGill’s Niezen thinks the federal government underestimated the zeal with which lawyers would seek out claimants. The government pays lawyers an amount equal to 15 per cent of the award paid to claimants, and lawyers can charge their clients up to 15 per cent more of those awards.
With the average award coming in just under $92,000, this has proven controversial – some lawyers have charged clients so much more than was warranted based on the amount of time they spent on each claim they’ve been ordered to pay back fees. One had to pay back more than $2 million.
Winkler said if he could make one change to the IAP, it would be to impose more control over lawyers. “We knew it was an area of risk, but it turns out that the problems were more extreme than anyone had imagined,” he said.
***
Ten years in, the IAP is nearly done. More than 97 per cent of the 38,099 claims filed to date have been resolved.
But it will likely be another few years before the secretariat closes its doors. There are various issues to be resolved, including several institutions that could still be designated residential schools, pending court decisions.
Not everyone sees it as a problem that the process has gone on so long. Some say this is what it takes to give survivors of horrific abuse some measure of justice. “This was a long history,” Spear said. “Don’t expect it to be all wrapped up in five years, seven years. That’s not a reasonable expectation.”
St. Michael’s Indian Residential School entrance, with two students on the driveway, Alert Bay, British Columbia, ca. 1970
White said the figure of 38,000 survivors is “still low” compared with the true number of abuse survivors out there. Some people refused to participate, she said – her grandmother was one of them. Others didn’t realize there were deadlines. Ten years doesn’t seem like a long time to her.
“To many, I think it was very understated about how big this actually was,” she said. “They thought it would be just a very simple, quick fix, and it wasn’t.”
Indeed, the fact that so many claimants came forward is a testament to the strength of the IAP, said Mahoney. “Generally speaking, it’s been an incredibly successful process,” she said. “And there’s no doubt it’s expensive, because when you hurt somebody, it’s expensive.
It’s finally here! Our 2017 Restaurant Awards celebrate the hottest new rooms, the top chefs and most creative menus in the city. Plus, the coveted title of Restaurant of the Year. Hope you’re hungry.
Café Medina (Photo: Ariana Gillrie).
Best Brunch
Vancouverites are nuts for brunch, a fact celebrated by this new category. We won’t cross the street to see George Clooney save a child from a speeding bus, but for CaféMedina’s legendary tagine—we’re happy as a clam to stand in the rain for an hour. Ditto dishes like silver winner Burdock and Co.’s crispy fried chicken or Au Comptoir’s (Bronze) authentic omelette aux fines herbes.
Kingyo bounces back to its previous Gold status after last year’s Silver (for Casual Japanese), thanks to the perennial excellence of dishes like its stone-grilled beef tongue. “It introduced izakaya in an elevated setting that hadn’t been seen in Vancouver before,” says one judge. “The subtle nuances in their dishes took izakaya from cheap and cheerful to elegant and refined.” Guu (Silver) has always impressed our judges with inventive dishes like deep-fried chicken knee cartilage, and Rajio’s heavenly skewers and hot stone crab bibimbap are only a few of the many dishes that have earned this hip pub a Bronze.
We have such a high concentration of exceptional, multifaceted Japanese restaurants, we thought it was time to break the genre down to its component parts. But it turns out, for the most part, our judges think the Best Japanese restaurants are also the Best Sushi spots: with the now-dominant Zest taking Gold in both categories for its elegantly classical approach, and Fraser Street’s small and zoned-in Masayoshi nabbing both Silver medals. The Bronze goes to Davie’s tiny (10 seats) sushi-only Bar Maumi.
This new category taps into one of the big trends grabbing the city right now. The winner is scant surprise: since it opened in 2012, Shira Blustein’s The Acorn has not only defined the category in Vancouver, but also across the entire country. And a city of hungry vegetarians and non-vegetarians agree—a line snakes out of this spot almost every night of the week. More surprising is the Silver medal winner—but Richmond’s Spicy Vegetarian Cuisine underscores the fact that our Chinese restaurants nailed no-meat cooking long before it became fashionable. Bronze goes to Victoria Drive’s Chau Veggie Express, which is bringing them in in droves with its Vietnamese take on (mostly) vegan cuisine.
Notwithstanding this is a new category, it’s a familiar face that topped our judges’ ballots. Whether we call it best pastry chef or best bakery, Thomas Haas, he of the double-baked almond croissants, quark danish and sparkle cookies, remains on the top of the bread basket for all things leavened. Grabbing the Silver is Fraser Street’s paean to a classic boulangerie, Bâtard, while Bronze goes to the exquisite chocolates and viennoiserie of Burnaby’s Chez Christophe.
In its second year, Royal Dinette earns top marks from our judges as “a place of real, quiet creativity.” Chef Jack Chen (now relocated to L’Abattoir) cooks with a “true sense of fun and purpose, articulating local ingredients with confident clarity.” Lunch and dinner services “successfully balance the tricky tightrope between more mainstream midday diners and adventurous foodies in the evening.” At Farmer’s Apprentice (Silver), David Gunawan has “taken a reductive path” with his dishes, “delving into ingredients with more depth and honesty and stripping them away to express the core of their true flavours.” Chef Andrea Carlson “cooks good food with honesty and integrity” at Burdock and Co. (Bronze), creating “comforting dishes that are rooted in the classics with flavours that are luscious, rounded and balanced.”
The judges were unanimous in their love for gold winner Kissa Tanto. This 80-seat Japanese-Italian restaurant, designed by Ste. Marie Art and Design, is atmospheric perfection: a glossy domed ceiling pearls with light; pink vinyl banquettes invite tête-à-têtes; and modernist tilework is inspired by the cover of a Haruki Murakami novel. READ MORE ▸▸▸
Two things are true: for an oceanfront city, Vancouver doesn’t have nearly enough seafood restaurants…but the ones we do have are amazing. To wit, Blue Water Cafe, which has owned this category since 2008, again tops the judges’ ballots for its blend of consistency and creativity, typified by chef Frank Pabst’s continual pushing of the seafood boundaries with his use of limpets and jellyfish. But hot on its heels is Silver winner Ancora, led by chef Ricardo Valverde, who blends his native Peruvian cuisine and Japanese influences with local B.C. ingredients to great effect. Taking Bronze is the elegant Boulevard, with its ever-present seafood towers and oysters galore.
Not that long ago we were expecting food trucks on every block, but the realities of licensing, maintenance and having to make hay, mostly at lunch, mean that our three winners are the forebears of the business and all have bricks-and-mortar establishments to help defray the costs of the truck. Taking gold is our paragon of trucks—the born-in-Tofino legend that is Tacofino, where their take on fish tacos continues to set the standard. Close behind is Le Tigre, with its Chinese and West Coast mash-up typified by the legendary crack salad which hasn’t slipped despite their growth into a restaurant (Torafuku). Bronze is Vij’s Railway Express, where the high prices are offset by attention to detail and high-end ingredients uncommon on four wheels.
The mountain version of the Hatfields and the McCoys is again the theme of this year’s Whistler category, with Araxi (winner of the award every time but once since 2000) and Bearfoot Bistro (the “but once”) presenting their different takes on high-alpine fine dining. Gold is Araxi: its supreme consistency and flawless presentation continue to impress our judges. But there’s also love for the controlled excess of silver winner Bearfoot, where the steady hand of chef Melissa Craig keeps the high-wire operation in check. Bronze was snagged by newcomer (and Top Table stablemate to Araxi) Bar Oso, where authentic Spanish tapas, a vibe-y room and a much lower price point than the other medallists make it the hardest table to get right now.
The Okanagan food scene has exploded in the past few years, but, in the eyes of our judges, no one has yet ascended to the level of unseating chef Mark Filatow as the Valley’s top dog—this is Waterfront Wines’ eighth consecutive win in this category, but it remains perhaps the most unpretentious fine-dining spot in the province. Nudging in second is chef Jeff Van Geest’s beautiful room Miradoro, attached to Oliver’s Tinhorn Creek winery, where the former Aurora Bistro owner serves up his take on the local bounty of the Okanagan. Nabbing Bronze is the stunning Old Vines located at Quails’ Gate.
It’s a wholesale changing of the guards in Victoria as an entire new slate of young’uns captures the podium this year. First up is the tiny Agrius, where Cliff Leir presides over a jewel box of a room. In the words of one judge: “A young, unpretentious, ingredients-focused team sources local and focuses on flavourful, and is also home to the best bakery in the capital city (oh, the breads). Cocktails are sharp, and the wine list is naturalist; this is the hippest room in town.” Silver goes to Part and Parcel, an ultra-low-key, supremely wallet-friendly Quadra Street spot that also zones in on the local, while bronze sees the Island’s reigning whole- food champ Nourish show its leafy chops.
There’s no corner of this city where you can’t find some good eats, and these winners took home the trophies in their ’hoods. READ MORE ▸▸▸
Lifetime Achievement Award
Together, Sid and Joan Cross have raised the bar for what was possible for B.C.’s hospitality industry. READ MORE ▸▸▸
★★★
Sid and Joan Cross
Sommelier of the Year
Lisa Haley brings a passion for natural and authentic wines, a scholarly bent and some Montreal savoir faire to Vancouver’s wine scene. READ MORE ▸▸▸
★★★
Lisa Haley
Bartender of the Year
Our Bartender of the Year brings an elegant sense of balance to her libations. READ MORE ▸▸▸
★★★
Sabrine Dhaliwal
Hawksworth (Photo: Martin Tessler).
Best Upscale
One might imagine that in a year that saw many key individuals spending time at chef David Hawksworth’s upstart Nightingale, the chef’s namesake restaurant might slip just a bit. Not a chance. Hawksworth, this category’s reigning champ (it’s won Best Upscale every year since it opened in 2011) continues to perfect a mélange of imaginative food, an amazing wine list and note-perfect service that make it the obvious choice when the occasion—be it a 50th wedding anniversary or an impromptu Tuesday night—demands that everything be just so. Silver goes to the resurgent CinCin, which proves that a dedicated team can turn any room around, while bronze goes to the often-overlooked Bauhaus, a restaurant that’s working hard to bring an elevated experience to uber-casual Gastown.
Our chains are better than their chains. If we needed any proof of this, look no further than gold winner Cactus Club Cafe, who spent last year absolutely schooling our Toronto friends on how to run a hopping restaurant in the heart of the Big Smoke’s downtown. (They’re opening another T.O. outpost later this year.) The judges praised the chain’s infallible consistency, be it at the swanky Coal Harbour flagship or the Kamloops branch. Silver goes to the too-elegant-to-be-a-chain Kirin, whose four rooms never fail to disappoint, while Bronze belongs to the too-fun-to-be-a-chain team at Guu, who are likewise doing the turning-Toronto-on-its-head routine with their new Guu Izakaya location on Queen Street.
Vikram Vij’s shimmering My Shanti takes this year’s golden crown in true “over-the-top Bollywood style.” Judges lauded it as “fearlessly offering authentic flavours true to the subcontinent” with dishes ranging from reinvented Udaipur chaat to Kerala duck biryani. Now in its new Cambie Street outpost, Vij’s (Silver) returns to deliver “the combined vision of Vikram, host par excellence, and Meeru Dhalwala, the perfectionist in the kitchen.” A significant size-up from its previous digs, oftentimes with lineups to match, it’s still grounded in “brilliantly reimagined Indian food that pays tribute to its roots.” Rangoli (Bronze) continues to hold court (still in its original location at the time of these awards) as the Vij triumvirate’s remaining South Granville stalwart, its “intricately spiced,” smartly priced dishes especially popular with lunchtime diners.
When you look at Japanese and Italian cuisine, there is a common sensibility between them that focuses on seasonality, incredible technique and balance. The seamlessness and finesse with which Kissa Tanto has integrated techniques and ingredients made it an easy choice for gold. The bold playfulness of the menu at Torafuku (Silver) has our judges lusting over the deep-fried mochi and “kickass rice.” It may focus only on one thing (Asian-style rotisserie chicken), but Freebird (Bronze) got multiple slow claps for its Hainanese poached chicken and umami-rich dipping sauces.
The Chef’s Table Society of B.C. helps with this award and member Chris Whittaker of Forage couldn’t stop in his love of bison. “ I have witnessed how they can transform fallow land into lush pastures and a much more diverse ecosystem than they began with, with increases in insects, birds and small mammal populations. They have restored the soil to a biodiverse state that allows the photosynthesis process to flourish, creating much more water retention and thus massive amounts of carbon capture. Beyond this, healthy pastures create less unwanted runoff into our salmon-bearing rivers and streams and, with proper plant forage diversity, eliminate the need for grain finishing in just four years. Bison, ounce for ounce, is the most nutrient-dense red meat, and with our new program with Thompson Rivers University, we will be getting it tested, anticipating to find it has more Omega-3s than most fish available to market.”
★★★
Bison
Producer of the Year
Ask even dedicated Vancouver diners to name a local vegetable, and dollars to doughnuts you’ll get either silence or something from Pemberton’s North Arm Farm. Founded in 1995 by Trish and Jordan Sturdy (the latter now an MLA), North Arm, with its 60 acres, wasn’t the first to take advantage of the fertile ground north of Whistler, but it was the first to trumpet the location and to throw open its doors so average urban diners on a day trip could really understand where their food was coming from (and maybe pick a few berries or pumpkins while they’re there). These days, the entire Pemberton Valley has become sort of a mountain Provence, with distillers and winemakers and lots of farmers drawing crowds to the experience—all of which started with the Sturdy clan and the amazing dirt of North Arm Farm.
Chefs get accolades, owners (hopefully) get profits, but it’s the front-of-house team who makes sure that the diner experience is just so. And so here, they get some of our love. READ MORE ▸▸▸
★★★
Sherry Diggle
Chen-Wei Lee Lindsay Otto Patrick Patterson Jaier Vlessing
Best Dim Sum
For many non-Chinese people, their first experience with the lure of Chinese cuisine came at dim sum while a steam cart navigated through the tables, piled high with bamboo baskets. Proof that Vancouver has come a long way since those days is exemplified in the elegant menu that dim sum chef Garley Leung creates at Gold winner Dynasty Seafood. It’s more akin to a tasting menu, with recognizable classics like pan-fried pork buns elevated to heights beyond their steam-table past. Silver goes to Richmond’s Golden Paramount, whose outward old-school signs—bamboo baskets, banquet chairs, strip mall location—belie the sophisticated take on Cantonese cuisine. Taking Bronze is Yue Delicacy, with its muted posh interior and legendary har gow (shrimp dumplings).
Our judges covered a lot of culinary ground this year, and the category winners reflect a broad spectrum of price points and approaches. Gold winner Zest has “a classic Tokyo vibe.” Its “understated modern serenity is an elegant backdrop for chef Yoshiaki Maniwa and Tatsuya Katagiri’s sharply executed dishes,” says one judge. Their menu reflects “a sense of elevated rigour in which all the details matter,” adding up to a “singular dining experience.” At Masayoshi (Silver), the focus is on omakase; in the words of one judge, “it’s all about surrendering yourself to chef Masayoshi Baba’s meticulous, mindful culinary journey.” Kinome (Bronze) has fun with sushi and izakaya dishes, but judges unanimously praised “the serious passion that’s poured into their handmade soba noodles and dashi.”
Royal Seoul House proves its staying power after almost 30 years in operation with its repeat gold this year. The service here isn’t notable, but “it executes traditional Korean food with a level of sophistication and consistency that surpasses others in this category,” says one judge. Its location might not be the most welcoming, but Hanwoori (Silver) continues to deliver “consistently excellent value and quality,” and newcomer Maru Korean Bistro (Bronze) wowed our judges with its crispy rice rolls, friendly service and stone bowls.
Mr. Red Café (Gold) continues its winning streak from last year, thanks to its stellar Northern Vietnamese menu that our judges say “delights the palate with its crisp, clean and aromatic flavours,” along with the warm hospitality of owner Rose Nguyen. The vegan “fish” sauce and heady broths helped Chau Veggie Express (Silver) jump up from its honourable mention last year. And newcomer Anh and Chi (Bronze) shows that families who cook together, rock together.
A surprising tie for Gold between newcomer El Santo and La Mezcaleria shows the growing presence of Latin cuisine on Vancouver’s restaurant scene. El Santo’s hibiscus and jicama enchiladas and serious bar program kept our judges coming back time and again, while La Mezcaleria’s queso fundido and mezcal-based cocktails make for what one judge describes as “the best Friday night on the Drive.” Casual lunch spot MolliCafe nabs the Bronze, thanks to its deeply earthy pulled lamb tacos and two-fister tortas.
★★★
El Santo 680 Columbia St., New Westminster elsanto.ca
French food was once the forgotten cuisine in our town, but the last few years have seen a great resurgence in a more casual take on Gallic fare. Yet when push comes to shove, the judges still bow to the classical perfection practised by Michel Jacob and his team at the superlative Le Crocodile. Silver goes to L’Abattoir’s decidedly more modern take on French, whereas the bronze will go nicely with Au Comptoir’s zinc-topped bar in the excellent brasserie.
Our Restaurant of the Year, Dynasty Seafood (Gold) reached out to new diners and embraced innovation while staying wonderfully true to the clean, light, elegant ideals of upscale Cantonese cooking. “A perfect match for wine geeks,” said one judge. Others applauded “meaty” steamed eggplant that “turns a traditional dish on its head” and the “many pleasure points” of spicy-garlic Dungeness crab over sticky rice. Chef Tony Seafood (Silver) “toned down” its reputation for ostentatious luxury (though we still love the black truffle-gilded roast chicken), offering more sophisticated comfort foods like steamed pork belly with house-salted lemons and local ling-cod-tail hot pot. The Jade Seafood’s (Bronze) “exceptionally suave service” continues to impress, along with exemplary cooking skill, evidenced in “smooth and wobbly, clean and pure” steamed savoury custard with seafood.
Well, this is a surprise. This year we combined the best upscale Italian and best casual Italian categories, and the end result is that neither defending champion triumphed. Instead it’s CinCin, a Vancouver institution that most judges agreed was only a few years ago verging on tourist-trap territory. Chef Andrew Richardson has reinvigorated the Robson Street room with a combo of open flame and attention to detail. Runner-up Cioppino’s still for many sets the standard for classically prepared Italian dishes, while the regional La Quercia (Bronze) continues to rule the west side with its mixture of rustic and refined.
If you were the betting type, there was probably no more sure a thing than Angus An’s Maenam winning this category. Last year’s Restaurant of the Year continues to impress the judges with its seamless and modern take on Thai fare. And proof of An’s mastery is reinforced with the Silver winner, Longtail Kitchen—his more casual outpost in New Westminster’s River Market. Bronze goes to the trailblazing Montri, where Montri Rattanaraj pioneered modern Thai in Vancouver in the 1980s and is still very much on the top of his game.
Drive to Port Moody this weekend—go on, we dare you. Where you might have expected nothing but burbs—and you’ll pass through a few to get there— you could be surprised at what awaits you: exposed brick, high ceilings and open-plan industrial rooms are coming into their own in a spot that has morphed from peripheral town to hipster haven.
Gabi and Jules Handmade Pies and Baked GoodnessCaffé DivanoMoody Ales
Caffeine and Cake
For prime evidence of just how Instagrammable Port Moody has become, make newly opened Gabi and Jules Handmade Pies and Baked Goodness (2302B Clarke St.) the first stop on your route. From house-made granola (served in Mason jars, of course) to pies that seem fresh from your grandma’s oven, this bakery has brought a new flavour to the old town. If you’re looking for a good coffee and a savoury snack, head to the pie shop’s sister location, Caffé Divano (101–101 Klahanie Dr.), where owners Patrick and Lisa have been serving locals for nearly a decade.
The Parkside Brewery
Afternoon Brew
If there’s ever been one thing to tempt a Vancouverite out of the city, it’s four industrial-style craft breweries on one block adjacent to the water—aptly titled Brewer’s Row. If you’re looking for a tried-and-tested bevvy, try the Moody Brown at local stalwart Moody Ales (2601 Murray St.) at the end of the street. The Parkside Brewery (2731 Murray St.) offers a larger, busier room with a good nighttime vibe, whereas Twin Sails Brewing’s (2821 Murray St.) dark room and red-brick-lined walls are perfect for a quiet drink. For VanMag-award-winning beer, head to Yellow Dog Brewing Co. (2817 Murray St.) and try the Chase My Tail Pale Ale. The town’s food trucks have cottoned on to this gem of a block, so don’t be surprised to see Cheese Crust or Island Time parked outside.
Twin Sails BrewingMeat Craft Urban Butchery Spacca Napoli
The Meat Scene
If you asked Port Moody locals 10 years ago what an “urban butchery” was, you might have received some strange looks and quickly been steered back onto Barnet Highway. Now Meat Craft Urban Butchery (114 Moody St.) offers free-range and ethically raised meat alongside shelves full of delicious treats worthy of a Friday-night charcuterie board. Just a few blocks away, Salumist (2723 Murray St.) offers cured meat bento boxes from its position conveniently smack bang in the middle of Brewer’s Row.
Yellow Dog Brewing Co.Original’s Café MexicanoRocky Point Ice Cream Store
Dinner Time
Spacca Napoli (2801 Saint Johns St.) might have been around for only six months, but it has some real wood-fired pizza chops, and a swell decor, with subway tiles and a bright-red oval-shaped pizza oven decor that pops even the greyest day. Ask for oregano and basil underneath the cheese on your order—trust us. Original’s Café Mexicano (2231 Clarke St.) serves up good coffee, cake and solid Mexican food from a character-style home, and Pajo’s (2800 Murray St.) is the local go-to shack for fish and chips (though it closes in the winter). Head to Rocky Point Ice Cream Store (2800 Murray St.) for a scoop of blueberry-lemon-Greek-yogurt ice cream to cleanse your palate.
St. James’s WellBrew Street Craft and Kitchen
Late Night
If you’ve decided to make a weekend of it, then stop by St. James’s Well (248 Newport Dr.) for standard pub grub and a good pint of Guinness. Brew Street Craft and Kitchen (3224 Saint Johns St.) has everything you would expect from a pub with “craft” in the title, including a cutesy fairy light-adorned beer garden, though locals miss the dingy interior of the spot’s previous iteration, the Golden Spike, where you could get a $1 sleeve of beer every time the Canucks scored. Rocky Point Taphouse (2524 Saint Johns St.) has live music and a good tap selection, but rumours around town say the place has been bought by the owners of Brew Street, who have plans to turn it into an oyster bar.
Jesus Alfredo Guzmán was among a group of men kidnapped from the La Leche restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images
Six men were abducted from an upscale restaurant in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta on Monday — including the son of imprisoned drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, officials say.
The kidnapping was a brazen crime, one that might signal a major drug cartel rivalry, NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
"Jalisco state's attorney general confirmed that 29-year-old Jesus Alfredo Guzmán, a son of Chapo Guzmán, was one of six men abducted by armed assailants in Puerto Vallarta," Carrie says.
"The lead prosecutor also said the kidnappers are members of the New Jalisco Generation cartel, the dominant organized crime gang in the state."
It's not clear to authorities if another son of Guzmán's, Ivan, was also kidnapped, Carrie reports.
"This is the latest attack on the family of the imprisoned kingpin and may signal an open challenge to Chapo Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel from the upstart Jalisco New Generation gang," she says.
The Associated Press has more details on the abduction, which was carried out by seven heavily armed men:
"After reviewing security camera footage, [Jalisco state Attorney General Eduardo] Almaguer said that besides the restaurant's staff, there were nine women and seven men dining together when the gunmen burst in early Monday.
" 'The subjects enter, control the diners, separate the women to a side and violently take them (the men),' he said in an interview with The Associated Press prior to the news conference. 'They resisted; however, these criminals who arrived did it with a certain violence with long guns.'
"Almaguer said one of the men managed to escape. He said authorities also had not located any of the women who were left behind."
Authorities have not heard of a ransom demand or any tips about where the kidnapped men might be located, the AP writes.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this stunning collection of travel photos could fill an entire library. The following is a series of finalists from the annual photography competition hosted by Intrepid Travel. With a new theme each month, travelers from around the globe were invited to submit their best shots, both professional and amateur, resulting in an album of spectacular international imagery.
Have a glance through these breathtaking shots from all over the world, and let your wanderlust be piqued.
Image Above: The winning photograph by Sujan Sarkar—Cooch Behar, India
Bull Racing by Chee Keong Lim—Padang, Indonesia
Cold Little Monkey by Michael Haikal—Jigokudani, Japan
Photo by Scott Laird—Mingun Temple, Cambodia
Temple through Hot Air Balloon by Xiuzhi Pham—Bagan, Myanmar
The Taj Mahal by Matt Sims—Agra, India
Photo by Genevieve Schneider—Bachalpsee Lake, Switzerland
Photo by Larissa Grieves—Venice, Italy
Brazilian Woman byAna Caroline de Lima—Lima, Peru
Cow Herd at Sunrise by Pradeep Raja—Bagan, Myanmar
Barred Door by Richard Misquitta—Angkor, Cambodia
Prayers in the Mosque by Alister Munro—Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Land Diving by Sam Creek—Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
Child Monks in the Morning by Scott Laird—Bagan, Myanmar
Like many people of my generation, I got my first electric guitar as a teenage birthday gift, took a few lessons and learned a few chords, and immediately started a band that bashed out angry punk rock at breakneck speeds. Some of my favorite bands made it seem accessible, and I didn’t have much patience for real musical training on the instrument anyway. Though I’d played brass and strings in school, the guitar had an entirely different mojo. It stood alone, even in a group—primal, wild, and uncomplicated; as Radiohead once observed, anyone can play it.
Well, anyone can play it badly. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the way I learned—it was great fun. But as my musical tastes broadened, so did my desire to play different styles, and years of playing with little formal training meant I had to un- and re-learn a lot of technique, no easy feat without access to a good teacher. Private instruction, however, can be costly and good teachers difficult to come by. Pre-Youtube, that is. These days, anyone can learn to play guitar, from scratch, the right (fun) way, and the wrong (also fun) way, with great teachers, innumerable online mini-tutorials, and some very thorough beginner lessons.
We’ve highlighted a few celebrity lessons here and there, and as far as they go, they’re great ways to pick up some tricks from your favorite musicians. But while people like Paul McCartney and Brian May don’t have a whole lot of time on their hands to make free guitar videos, a number of high quality teachers do, at least as promotional tools for paying gigs. At the top of the post, an instructor named Ravi presents the first ten lessons of his 21-day beginner course, offered on Truefire, an online guitar course service featuring for-pay lessons from such greats as Frank Vignola, David Grissom, and Dweezil Zappa.
This hour-long video functions in and of itself as a complete introductory course that’ll definitely get you started on the instrument. To further help you get the basics down, you can spend hours working through the other free videos here, a “quick start” series offered by Guitarlessons.com and taught by an instructor named Nate Savage. These short videos take you from rudiments like “How to Strum on a Guitar” and “8 Guitar Chords You Must Know” to the slightly more sophisticated but still beginner-worthy “Dominant 7th Blues Chords.” You’ll learn scales and power chords, the bricks and mortar of lead and rhythm playing. You’ll even get a corrective like “7 Mistakes Guitar Players Make,” if, like me, you learned a few things the wrong way, on purpose or otherwise.
Of course mistakes are a necessary part of learning, and often the keys to innovation, so don’t be afraid to make ‘em. But with so much quality, free guitar instruction online, you can also learn techniques that will set you up for success in a variety of different styles. The key, as with any skill, is practice. As another, very patient instructor—the host of series “Metal Method”—explains, “learning guitar doesn’t need to be complicated. You don’t need to understand how an internal combustion engine works to drive a car, and you don’t need to understand complex music theory to become an incredible guitarist.” So get to work, guitarists out there, beginners and lifelong students. And please share with us your favorite free online guitar resources in the comments.
Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2014 have just been announced! Out of more than 9,000 entries, the photo titled A Node Glows in the Dark nabbed the top spot. An eerie glow comes over the girl in the center of the photo, who's consumed by her smartphone. It's the sign of the times. The photographer of that image, Ben Yen of Hong Kong, told National Geographic, "I feel a certain contradiction when I look at the picture. On the one hand, I feel the liberating gift of technology. On the other hand, I feel people don’t even try to be neighborly anymore, because they don’t have to."
Photographers from more than 150 countries submitted their photos into three categories: people, places and nature. The grand prize winner, Ben Yen, receives $10,000 and a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in their annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2015. The first place winner in each category takes home $2,500 and his or her winning photograph will be published in the prestigious National Geographic magazine.
Our favorite category, above and beyond, was Nature. From National Geographic's Honorable Mentions, here are our favorites. Congrats to all the winners!
Above: Honorable Mention People The Storm
During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment.
Location: Kocaeli, Turky Photo and caption by Aytül AKBAŞ/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention NatureStag Deer Bellowing
Stag Deer Bellowing in Richmond Park
Location: Richmond Park, London, UK Photo and caption by Prashant Meswani/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention Nature On a windy day right after a Cyclone passed the far northern Great Barrier Reef I took some friends out to the reef. Never before I saw that many glass fish on this particular coral 'bommie'.Just when I setup my camera, this Napoleon Wrasse swam right through the school of fish building a living frame.
Location: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, Flynn Reef, Australia Photo and caption by Christian Miller/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention NatureShoulder Creek
A wild short-eared owl completes a shoulder check in case something was missed. Northern harriers were also hunting in the field and these raptors will often steal a kill from the owls.
Location: Boundary Bay, BC, Canada. Photo and caption by Henrik Nilsson/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention NatureDragon
Ice art on the window.
Location: Estonia Tabasalu Photo and caption by Maie Kirnmann/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention NatureMuscle Power
This playful fight amongst two young sub adult Tigers was indeed a brilliant life time opportunity that lasted exactly 4-5 seconds. The cubs were sitting in the grass as dusk approached when suddenly one of them sneaked up behind the other and what happened next is captured in this image.
Location: Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India Photo and caption by Archna Singh/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention People Tokyo – Shinagawa Station
I was up at an ungodly hour to make it to the Tsukiji Fish Market, in Tokyo. With so many amazing things to see in the city, I had hardly slept, and managed to get off at the wrong station. Wave after wave of people kept coming through the station passageway. I spied a coffee shop with a vantage point and managed to snap a free shots, camera resting on the ledge. After the caffeine kicked in, i was ready to brave the river of people...
Location: Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, Japan Photo and caption by Peter Franc/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Honorable Mention PeopleTemper
A young girl throws a temper tantrum in a Bangkok shopping mall. June, 2014
Location: Bangkok, Thailand, Southeast Asia Photo and caption by Adam Birkan/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Places WinnerBathing in Budapest
The Thermal Spa in Budapest is one of the favorite activities of the Hungarian especially in winter. We were fortunate to gain special access to shoot in the Thermal Spa thanks to our tour guide, Gabor. I love how the mist caused by the great difference in temperature between the hot spa water and the atmosphere. It makes the entire spa experience more surreal and mystical.
Location: Budapest, Hungary Photo and caption by Triston Yeo/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Nature WinnerThe Great Migration
Jump of the wildebeest at the Mara river.
Location: North Serengeti, Tanzania Photo and caption by Nicole Cambré/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Grand Prize and People WinnerA Node Glows in the Dark...
In the last 10 years, mobile data, smart phones and social networks have forever changed our existence. Although this woman stood at the center of a jam packed train, but the warm glow from her phone tells the strangers around her that she's not really here. She managed to slip away from here, for a short moment, she's a node flickering on the social web, roaming the earth, free as a butterfly. Our existence is no longer stuck to the physical here, we're free to run away, and run we will.
Location: Hong Kong Photo and caption by Brian Yen/National Geographic 2014 Photo Contest
Rio de Janeiro-based illustrator and graphic designer Marina Papi (@marinapapi) enhances photographs with her colorful, imaginative illustrations. They transform the images into a combination of reality and fantasy, and she pairs scenes from everyday life with things we’ve never seen before. “This is my attempt to write poetry without words,” Papi tells Instagram.
Papi uses rainbow-colored hues to paint her characters and enhance landscapes with gorgeous textures. We see that she has reimagined a parachute as a bird’s wings, a boy’s ball as the planet Saturn, and also included a group of jellyfishes flying in the sky. The splashes of ink and vibrant washes give the illustrative elements an energetic feel. It’s a nice visual contrast to the photographs and evokes something out of a dream.
A Vietnamese boat nearly under water is being towed after it was reportedly rammed by Chinese vessels near disputed Paracel Islands, late last month.
Reuters/Landov
China is calling a friendly get-together between soldiers of Vietnam and the Philippines on islands in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing "a clumsy farce," demanding that the two countries cease-and-desist.
The gathering occurred Sunday on the Vietnamese-held island of Southwest Cay in the Spratly Islands. The two sides reportedly played soccer and volleyball in what Philippine naval officials described as a "chance to show there can be harmony despite a web of overlapping claims to the potentially energy-rich waters," Reuters writes.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, quoted by Reuters during a daily briefing Monday, emphasized that Beijing has "irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and the seas nearby."
"Don't you think this small move together by Vietnam and the Philippines is at most a clumsy farce?" Hua said.
"We demand that Vietnam and the Philippines stop any behavior that picks quarrels and causes trouble ... and not do anything to complicate or magnify the dispute," she said.
The Spratly Islands are claimed by not only Vietnam, China and the Philippines, but also Taiwan, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei. The incident is the latest in a number of provocations over several small island chains in the South China Sea and East China Sea that have put China at odds with many of its smaller maritime neighbors.
“The agony of Vietnam looms over all of us,” said Luci Baines Johnson, who argues that the war overshadowed the domestic achievements of her father, President Lyndon B. Johnson.
As the 50th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential milestones approaches, his allies are highlighting domestic successes they say were overshadowed by the Vietnam War.
“Niềm tin mà phải dựa vào quyền lực thì không phải là niềm tin” ( The faith that stands on authority is not faith – Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Tôi đáp xuống Tân Sân Nhất nghĩ là sẽ bước váo một vúng ánh sáng chói loà trong cái nóng nung người của nhiệt đới vào những buổi trưa. Thật ngạc nhiên khi thành phố còn ướt đẫm màn sương của một cơn mưa lớn vừa đi qua. Cây cối dường như tươi mát sạch sẽ hơn, nhưng các con đường vẫn ngập lụt như chuyện hàng ngày của huyện từ vài chục năm qua. Người dân vẫn vất vả kéo lê những chiếc xe máy không chạy, mệt nhọc với cuộc sống nặng nề không thay đổi .
Không có thì giờ trên máy bay, tôi surf Net trong chiếc taxi và liếc qua những tít lớn của hơn chục tờ báo online của lề phải.
Wow. Vậy mà các bạn cứ hay chê bài của Alan là tiêu cực và bi quan.
Tuy nhiên, tôi đoán là trong một xã hội vô cảm lạnh lùng thì tất cả những sự kiện nói trên cũng chẳng có gì để thắc mắc hay bàn luận. Những cú phone hay emails thường hỏi thăm tôi về vụ chánh phủ Mỹ đóng cửa (đây mới là lạ?). Một vài cú phone khác hỏi bao giờ thì nền kinh tế mới thay đổi?
Khoảng 2006, khi về Việt Nam thường xuyên hơn, tôi và các chuyên gia hay dự đoán những khó khăn sẽ phải gặp nếu thể chế vận hành không thay đổi. Phần lớn các bạn hiểu những nghịch lý của “thị trường khi đụng vào định hướng xã hội”. Nhiều phương án tái cấu trúc và đề án mới được đề nghị. 7 năm đã trôi qua và lời nói vẫn là lời nói. Tôi nghĩ 7 năm sắp đến cũng chẳng khác gì.
Có khác là các quan chức và chuyên gia lề phải bắt đầu dùng nhiều cụm từ về “niềm tin” sau khi các số liệu thống kê bị vạch trần là dối trá. Tôi nhất trí về sức mạnh của niềm tin trong bất cứ tình huống nào. Nó cũng nhắc tôi đến một chuyện ngắn của nhà văn O Henry về niềm tin.
Một bệnh nhân vào thời kỳ cuối của bệnh sưng phổi. Cô ta hay nhìn ra cây sồi bên cửa sổ và thích đếm những chiếc lá bắt đầu rơi rụng, mỗi đêm khi cơn gió rét buốt của mùa đông thổi qua. Cô tâm sự với người bạn cùng phòng, “mấy đêm trước cây còn cả ngàn, rồi trăm lá. Hôm nay chỉ còn đúng 6 lá. Tôi nghĩ khi chiếc lá cuối cùng rơi vào đêm nay, tôi cũng sẽ lìa đời như chiếc lá…”
Sáng hôm sau, cô thức dậy và ngạc nhiên vì một phép mầu nào đó, chiếc lá cuối cùng vẫn còn níu kéo vào cành cây khẳng khiu. Cô cho đó là một dấu hiệu của Thượng Đế về định mệnh của cô. Cô hồi phục nhanh chóng và xuất viện sau đó.
Khi rời bệnh viện, cô nghe chuyện một người hoạ sĩ già ở phòng kế bên chết vì rét lạnh trong đêm bão tuyết, khi ông bắt thang trèo lên cửa sổ để vẽ lại “chiếc lá cuối cùng” của cô. Ông đã nghe lời tâm sự của cô với bạn và muốn tặng lại cho cô một tuyệt phẩm về “niềm tin và đời sống”.
Tôi thầm nghĩ không biết trong nhóm lãnh đạo kinh tế của Việt Nam, có nhà hoạ sĩ đại tài nào vẽ được “chiếc lá cuối cùng” cho người dân khốn khổ? Có ai dám rời bỏ chăn êm nệm ấm để bước vào tuyết giá của đêm đông mà hành động vì tha nhân?
What would a united Ameri-Canada look like? In terms of acreage, it would be the largest country in world — surpassing Russia, even all of South America, in size. Its economy would be larger than the European Union’s. Since each country is the other’s largest trading partner, trade deficits would shrink. Canadian oversight at the Fed would bring stability to American banking. With all its energy needs met domestically, Ameri-Canada would be a lucrative petrostate, exporting oil to the developing world.
For all the benefits — energy self-sufficiency, secure borders, a cross-border maple syrup pipeline if we’re lucky — the merger would not be without consequences. Francis bets that the long-term economic incentives would outweigh the baggage Canada brings with it. But is that really the case? Would it be worth grappling with how to integrate U.S., Canadian, and Québécois laws, or trying to standardize health care across the two countries? Would Washington ever want to inherit First Nations land disputes, Quebec separatists, or Justin Bieber? And would Canadians want Washington, especially after such a case study in dysfunction this week?
Originally starting in London, photographer and writer Rob Lutter set off on an ambitious global journey, hoping to travel across 40,000km on his bicycle. Along the way, the goal has been to not only photograph the many sites he visits, finding inspiration from his travels and the people he meets, but to also repay his eye-opening experience by spreading the remarkable stories he comes across.
Lutter's personal project, titled The Lifecycle, ultimately seeks to get around the globe by bicycle in an indeterminate amount of time. while doing some good along the way. He has been working on raising awareness as well as funds for charity organizations concerning the global water crisis and mental health issues. As a man with OCD himself, Lutter has been sharing and seeking to overcome his own struggles through this adventure.
Currently in Hong Kong (15,000km into his journey) after over 18 months of cycling across Europe and Asia, Lutter has self-funded the project up to this point, though he has now sought help from the public through Kickstarter, offering several perks for those that donate to his endeavor including the very bike he's riding once his adventure is complete.
With 9 days left to the campaign, Lutter has reached his goal of £5,750 (a little over $9,000) to continue his journey, though he admits: "Kickstarter or not, I would love to get this journey out there. Get the photos and stories to more screens around the world and maybe inspire a few more people to explore, discover and seek out change in the world beyond our doorstep."
There's still time to donate to The Lifecycle's Kickstarter campaign and Lutter's international expedition can be followed through his online journals.
California-based artist Khoa Ho's poster series titled Superheroes - Past/Present features iconic superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman as creatively designed silhouettes revealing their former struggles and current strength. The series draws inspiration form the Batman Begins quote: "It's not who you are underneath. It's what you do that defines you."
The graphic designer's simple silhouettes are both wonderful to look at and a real treat for comic book lovers. Anyone who knows the stories behind each of these heroic characters will be able to identify the lower half of the image that alludes to past trials and tribulations that have helped form the brave vigilantes they are in the present day.
Though the country is seen as a trailblazer for gay rights in Asia, its government is getting increasingly Orwellian:
In the last month or so, three bloggers have been arrested for criticizing the communist government, or—as Vietnamese authorities deftly put it—”abusing democratic freedoms” by posting their opinions online. While that charge might seem like a bit of a paradox, their prospects post-arrest aren’t looking great. On May the 16th, another blogger, Dinh Nguyen Kha, was sentenced to ten years in jail for “distributing anti-State propaganda” and “deliberately causing injuries.” …
Alongside all that intimidation, there’s also the side issue of relentless propaganda to put up with as you go about your day. Whether you’re watching TV, surfing the internet, or simply walking down the street, Vietnam’s propaganda push is ubiquitous. In the capital city of Hanoi, the government rhetoric starts at around 6:45 AM, blasted out of loudspeakers once used to warn locals about impending American airstrikes. Today, messages range from the humdrum—”Don’t forget to pay your taxes,” for example—to the deification of the government and its leaders. It’s not quite 1984, but it’s not exactly normal, either—imagine being woken up every day with lectures on socialism and warnings of “social evils” rather than building work that seems designed specifically to fuck with you.
Previous Dish on Vietnam’s mixed record on human rights here and here. The above report from Al Jazeera was produced early this year.
Vietnam War veteran James Speed Hensinger has recently publicly released his incredible photos of US troops unleashing an endless stream of fire on a Viet Cong sniper. In April 1970, at the age of 22, Hensinger was nine months into his tour of duty as a paratrooper with the 173rd Airborne Brigade when an elusive sniper that had invaded the US base in Phu Tai at night was met with brute force in retaliation.
Having held onto these images for over 40 years, Hensinger recalls, "We were pissed off at taking Viet Cong sniper fire from the mountain above us several nights in a row. The guy would stand up from behind a rock and blow off a clip from his AK47 on full-auto. The sniper was shooting at such a high angle that most of his rounds came through the sheet metal roofs of our hooches. We decided to use a 'heavy' response the next time the sniper hit us."
It was on this fated night that Hensinger set up his camera (a Nikon FTN) to take long exposure shots that he was able to capture the massive, blind attack seeking to route out the sniper. The resulting images reveal spectacular beams and explosions of light that trace rounds that have been fired from M60 machine guns, 40mm Bofors auto-cannons, and a .50-caliber machine gun. After the massive attack, Hensinger says, "We sent out patrols during the day, and found a blood trail one morning. Otherwise, we never found him."
OTTAWA — Those who fail the citizenship test will soon get a one-time do-over according to new rules being introduced by the federal government, Postmedia News has learned.
With average wait times for processing citizenship applications about 23 months, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney wants to throw prospective Canadians a bone by giving them two chances to pass the test.
Now, those who fail must appear before a judge, which can result in even longer delays. B.C.-based immigration lawyer Richard Kurland released figures last month that suggested applicants in Montreal and Vancouver were having to wait as long as 29 months for their hearing to be scheduled.
Under the new rules, applicants who fail will be told so immediately and be given the opportunity to schedule a rewrite within four to eight weeks. Those who fail the test a second time, however, will have to get in the queue to be assessed by a citizenship judge. The new rules will be retroactive which means those already in the queue for a meeting will also be invited to take the test again.
The initial $200 citizenship application fee, which could as much as double thanks to a budget promise to increase fees to better reflect the cost of processing, will cover the second test and the assessment with a judge if necessary. Those who fail to convince a judge that they’re worthy of citizenship, however, will have to start the process over and pay again.
Also, the government will now approve family members on their own merit. Before, when one relative failed a knowledge or language test, all those listed on the same application were barred from moving to the next step until everyone could do so at the same time.
“We know that newcomers look forward to acquiring their Canadian citizenship and we are committed to helping qualified applicants acquire this privilege in a timely manner,” Kenney said. “Together, these improvements combined will result in faster processing of citizenship applications.”
Kenney will officially announce the changes on Monday.
He said demand for citizenship has increased by 30% since the Conservatives took office in 2006 and boosted overall immigration levels. About 200,000 permanent residents become citizens each year, he said.
“The government of Canada remains committed to maintaining Canada’s tradition of high numbers of permanent residents taking up full citizenship, and this is one of many recent improvements that have been made to the citizenship process to ensure the timely welcoming of new citizens,” he added.
Officials maintain more than 90% of those who apply for citizenship obtain it and that Canada has one of the highest naturalization rates in the world
According to Citizenship and Immigration, the citizenship application backlog stood at 349,249 by the end of last year. In 2011-12, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 13,811 citizenship applicants were referred for a hearing before a judge because they failed their written knowledge test, require a language assessment or were flagged for possible residency fraud.
Landed immigrants are eligible to apply for citizenship after living in Canada for three years. In the latest budget, the government committed to spend $44 million over two years to improve and speed up the processing of citizenship applications. The process, however, has become increasingly cumbersome, in part due to a government crackdown on fraud.
Many applicants are now being asked to fill out sweeping residency questionnaires to prove they’ve indeed resided in Canada, which has delayed the process. Between May and December 2012, the government issued about 22,000 residency questionnaires.
Officials have also raised concerns about test-takers who subsequently sell the answers. A former citizenship judge was also charged recently for allegedly passing the test on to a consultant. The government is now reviewing its files to determine whether the consultant’s clients obtained their citizenship fraudulently.
The half-hour, 20-question, multiple-choice test, which assesses one’s knowledge of Canada, is currently in paper form. While efforts are made to produce them in small batches and to rotate the questions, a computerized test set to come online in a few months is expected to go a long way toward fighting fraud.
Stringent new language requirements and a tough new citizenship test introduced in 2010, that set a pass at 75% instead of 60, are among the other barriers would-be citizens have faced in recent years. Failure rates skyrocketed to 30% from between four and eight% when the new test was introduced. The test has since been altered and pass rates now stand at about 80%.
Officials, however, maintain more than 90% of those who apply for citizenship obtain it and that Canada has one of the highest naturalization rates in the world.
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Stag Deer Bellowing
On a windy day right after a Cyclone passed the far northern Great Barrier Reef I took some friends out to the reef. Never before I saw that many glass fish on this particular coral 'bommie'.Just when I setup my camera, this Napoleon Wrasse swam right through the school of fish building a living frame.
Shoulder Creek
Dragon
Muscle Power
Temper
Bathing in Budapest
The Great Migration
A Node Glows in the Dark...
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