My Prairie Gazette

Since the wife has 4 days off during this Easter long weekend, we decided to make a visit to our neighbouring state and its Twin Cities: Minneapolis/St Paul in Minnesota. To gain some more time we left today (Thursday) late afternoon-evening, and now I am writing this in a room …

From my favourite daytime radio talk show to newspapers and TV stations - everybody tries to make people to remember where they were and what they did on that tragic 9/11 day.

As long as I have this website, for me it will always be very easy to remember. That’s …

Did it ever happen to you that you were at home the whole day, quietly writing something on your computer, no radio, no TV on… and then you go out to check the mailbox and there is a printed message paper stating that they tried to deliver a letter or …

We are going to live a month in Montréal. This is the first morning in our rented apartment as we arrived late last night. We opted for a place at LaCité, a cozy little studio. Everything seems to be fine except the internet: Sunday morning at 11:24 (Eastern) the …

Today no politics, no Manitoba budget, not even flood. Just a bit of fun with eggs… I read an article the other day about colouring and decorating easter eggs where somebody expressed some concerns about the dye. Though the dyes used for eggs are food-grade (which means safe) - I want to present my readers a simply way to make wonderful Easter eggs. I have learned it from my grandmothers.

All you need is the eggs. I assume in every household there is some parsley or cilantro leaf, or something similar in the produce “department”: dill, carrot leaves or anything that has interesting shape. Where the weather is not that harsh as in Winnipeg, you could just walk around in your backyard and watch for a few small plants, leaves.

If you got the nice shaped leaves, go and find an old, unused pantyhose or stockings.
You will have to cut them into pieces of the size to be able to cover an egg. Have handy some thread and for colouring get all the onion peel from the bottom of the net they were sold in. If not enough, you could rub a bit the onions and the exterior peel will come off. Now we are ready to go. Of course, you’ll need a pot to boil the eggs after we prepare them.
Now just follow the procedure presented in the pictures…

I’ve been doing translation work and occasionally interpreting even before the internet was invented. Not to mention the blogs… And having done it in more countries on more continents I guess I am able to make a fair comparison regarding how much the interpreters (translators) are valued.

Take for example today. The Language Bank that provides interpreters/translators for different services in the city of Winnipeg, asked me to go to the Court Building (408 York Ave.) and help in a case as an interpreter. Just for the record: I did a lot and still do some unpaid volunteer work as interpreter or translator, and I am OK with that. To be honest, I am more than OK, since it is my decision to offer my knowledge, skills, talent for free. Just because it pleases me!

However, I feel embarrassed and humiliated when others decide that my work, knowledge, skills… are worth only pennies. In Winnipeg the Court pays an interpreter exactly $50 for a full day. No, it’s not a typo — this amount is not for an hour, it is for one day. And $25 for a half day. Which means if you are there from 9:00 am till 11:59 am = that’s a half day. It is also just a half day if you interpret from 12:01 pm till 5:00 pm… you got about five bucks per hour in this case. Honestly, rather than getting 5 dollars for an hour I prefer to volunteer!

In other provinces (including Saskatchewan, and I say this because whenever I complain about something, native Winnipeggers tend to “comfort” me with Look, it’s still better than in Saskatchewan…), just to have an idea what the terms of comparison are, a court interpreter gets $50/hour! That’s the official registered court interpreter. And low paid interpreter jobs are around $25/hour… The last time, before moving to Manitoba, a lawyer in Hamilton, Ontario offered me $32 for the first hour and $25 for the consecutive hours (if longer).

Well, I know, Manitoba is not a rich province, I hear it all the time. But what I experienced today is not related to wealth. The “client” was scheduled for 2:00 pm, therefore the interpreter is expected to show up around 1:30 for registering in this “witness assistance” office, where you get a form for the payment. Your name, accused’s name, time, language, and Crown Attorney’s name. This latter one has to sign it when we finished.

Yesterday, as it was the last day of February, certain tax documents were due for filing. Namely, the T4 summary and slips, if you were an employer. Actually, I am not, just a volunteer treasurer at a charitable organization… and somebody figured out in the last minute that I should …

Maybe it was the title, maybe my earlier posts (and preoccupation) regarding Muslims — but I was really looking forward to this new Canadian TV show, the Little Mosque on the Prairie. This is a novelty, because I have to …

I don’t know about you but around this time of every year, I mean just as the old one ends and the new year begins, I always get tired of two things: the ranking mania and the resolutions.

All the newspapers and magazines, TV-shows, even the blogs are full of top …

Just for the record: Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, doesn’t know me. And I don’t know him personally, either. The reason I am writing this post is because I watched his TV interview last night on CTV and I read this morning about his Christmas card in the Winnipeg Free Press. You might not like him or his party but you have to admit - he stands up for what he believes in.

There was a section of the interview about the Middle East. According to the transcript:

Harper said he’s prepared to help Palestinians through channels like non-governmental organizations [… and] “But I think all of the civilized world is agreed — and it’s not just Canada — we can’t deal with organizations whose principle and only objective is the eradication of the other side.”

Now I have been on both ends of humanitarian aid. First, while living under a Communist dictatorship we got food and medicine to be able to survive and, information. Yes, information, like books, magazine - to keep our sanity. I can’t be grateful enough for all that was done for us by unknown people and organizations. Everything was brought (read: smuggled) and distributed to individuals, churches, nothing through the government. Reminder: for me, a dictatorship is just that, regardless of its colour: be it on the left or right or established by religious fanatics!

I went to the Time magazine’s website (time.com) and I discovered: I am the Person of the Year 2006!
Because I control the Information Age.
Why?

Year 2006

Because I blog: I write about our life, our city, out politics, our weirdness.
Because I read other blogs …

Since the PM, Stephen Harper mentioned the word nation a few days ago in his speech, referring to Québec - the word made an astonishing “career”: last time I heard it on the TV news it became “the N-word”. To this stupidity the only normal reaction would be the f-word…

Diligent journalists dug up encyclopedias and dictionaries to clarify the etymology and the nuances of the word. Its meanings in different languages has been analyzed and explained. And the debate about the “united” Canada is up again. Maybe we are not that united…?

Let me add my version.
I am coming from a place that suffered a lot because of the French. Countries were cut up, borders re-drawn, artificial states created. And wars fought. I dare to say: if it wasn’t for the French foolishness at the peace treaties from Versailles and Trianon at the end of WWI - probably the second World War would never happened.

I don’t like the French.
When you say gloire - I think xenophobia.
When you say liberté, égalité, fraternité - I think nationalism and chauvinism.
When you say la nation - I think nation state (with the opression of the ethnic minorities).