A man who later would be accused of ruling the Ivory Coast with a firm "paternal" hand, was a rebel who stood up to the French colonialists in 1944, founding the country's first union for African cacao farmers. Félix Houphouët-Boigny pushed for independence from France, having established that indigenous plantation owners had the right to hire migrant workers for their own spreads. He himself was a cacao farmer who became the first President of independent Ivory Coast, after holding several offices in the French government.
Of course the French had established the cacao, coffee and cashew plantations that contributed to the Ivory Coast's vibrant economy. ( Only coffee is native to the African continent.)
But at what cost? Child slavery is endemic to cocoa production in West Africa even today. In the late 1990's, the issue finally came to global attention. ( Another source of information re slave labor and cacao is Chocolate Work.)
The finally-ousted-today Ivory Coast politician Laurent Gbago clung to power by nationalizing his country's cocoa and coffee plantations. Those opposed to him halted export of the country's production of cashews--second largest producer in Africa--in an effort to cut off financing for Gbago.
Food--it's always there, underpinning everything.
( Thanks to Raw Living Food for photo of cacao pod with beans.)
A photo on the front page of the actual St Petersburg Times riveted me this morning. It showed three Japanese people in Ishinomaki, one with a child on her back, squatting over a makeshift cooking fire, preparing food. The caption indicated they were in front of their " damaged house."
Camping! There we are with our stove teetering on a well-worn picnic bench set in a meadow, a rushing stream at one side, tall pines in the near distance, chipmunks frolicking over downed logs...but camping is what one does to experience the joys of non-civilization. Camping is a recreational choice, whereas across the region impacted by earthquakes and the tsunami, survivors are coping, in a return to the hunter-gatherer camping-style of yore. The resilient, inventive, and healthy will get by.
What are they eating? Foodie peers into their pans and sees fish, traces of greenery, and in a steamer basket, rice. Was this provender scrounged from their ruined home? Dug out of a defunct freezer? Caught from the receding sea?
Maybe it's time to take a deeper look at solar cooking, even though people with ample modernity/electricity/gas never give it a thought. ( I know, it may be snowing in the Japanese zone right now.) There's a Japanese Solar Cooking Association, affiliated with Solar Cookers World Network. The possibilities of using what is at hand, including the sun, are myriad and fascinating. Take a look here. India leads the list as a country whose most resource-poor people could benefit from solar cookery.
Meanwhile, this via the bbc: "The Japanese government is ready to release rice stockpiles wherever needed, the country's farm minister is quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency."
( Tks to Solar Cookers International for photo.)
( Thanks for the photo to Samurai Dave, aka Ronin Dave, an English teacher in Tokyo. His personal experience during the quake here. )
The Japanese plum, or "ume" in bloom, a native of China, signals spring is on the way.
"The actual ume fruit is more sour than the western plum or apricot, and is usually processed in various ways before eaten.
The most popular processed form is the umeboshi, a sour, pickled plum, which is usually enjoyed with cooked rice. Umeboshi is one of the most typical Japanese flavors. Umeshu, a sweet alcoholic beverage made of plums, is also popular."
from www.japan-guide.com
How many of you have been wondering why water was not the first supply brought in bulk into Haiti, along with the search and rescue teams?
Water and rescue teams, meds, docs, then food, temporary shelters. People are despairing, some looting, not so much for lack of food but from dehydration. Perhaps water was not a priority because:
A--there's no one in charge
B--the calamitous conditions post-quake were unimaginable
C--an element we take so much for granted was taken for granted
In any event, bottled water is now plummeting from the sky in boxes--and the US military is preparing to convert salt water, in abundance, into drinking water, on at least 1 aircraft carrier.The USS Carl Vinson makes 400,000 gallons a day--and has 200,000 in excess it will give to the people of Port au Prince. Apparently, while desalination has been done for decades on ships like this, a means of transporting such water to those who need it has lagged behind.
According to this Time Magazine piece by Tim Padgett, "... early this week the Vinson will receive up to 100,000 special 2- and 5-gallon water "bladders," collapsible containers that will make transporting such enormous volumes of liquid more efficient. If the Vinson could actually move all 200,000 of its excess gallons to Haitian distribution points each day, it could as much as double the amount of water aid, which relief agencies and military helicopter pilots alike say is being used up faster than they can deliver it. That in turn would allow donor governments and organizations to turn more of their efforts toward augmenting other critical necessities like food, medical supplies and, later on, more long-term help like building materials."
Today I will go to Pars Restaurant in Albuquerque where I will eat stewed eggplant with cinammony overtones, along with aromatic rice. I will have yogurt with chopped veggies on the side. I will have tea in glass cups without handles, but before that I will sip the yogurt , mint and fizzy water drink known as "dugh."
If I decide to indulge in what we once ate regularly in Iran, as Peace Corps vols, I will try chicken kabobs, the chicken marinated overnight in a tasty yogurt concoction. ( We became veggie-fishitarians in 1975...) The rice will be served with grilled tomatoes, a tiny dish of sumac, and a raw egg. I will mix the egg into the rice and sprinkle some sumac on top.
I will likely finish up with two tiny pieces of baklava, seasoned with rose water.
I will wear green.
Wind has come early to Albuquerque, and left in its aftermath plastic bags. All over the mesa bags are caught in tumbleweeds, or snagged on sage. In the past few days I have retrieved as many of them as I can-- offerings from the Giant Mini-Mart, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried, Walmart, Walgreen's, The Dollar Store and Smith's come up again and again. Over 3 dozen bags thus far.
The technology for biodegradable/compostable bags made from corn starch or potato starch, renewable commodities, has existed for years. As have reusable bags of all types--string, straw, leather, nylon, dried dung, you name it.
Plastic bags are so 20th century, so made from petroleum, so lethal to wildlife. How hard is it to start carrying reusable bags? San Fran was the first American city, as far as I know, that banned plastic bags in use by chain stores and supermarkets. LA will enforce a ban starting 2010. Vermont is intending to impose a tax of 17 cents on each plastic bag used by the customer, also beginning 2010. The Colorado legislature recently backed away from a ban, the silly boobs. But the planet still hosts buggy whip manufacturers who cannot let go, apparently.
The entire country of Ireland banned the bags long since. Other countries are in various stages of anti-plastic bagism. Shoppers in Belgian supermarkets who do not bring their own carrying devices must withstand withering glances fr0m their fellows, and pay for the flimsy bags the store may still have tucked under the checker's stool. Even China is getting steamed on the issue.
Here at home I gently encourage the clerks at Walgreen's not to automatically toss a toothbrush into a plastic bag. Wait. See if the customer really needs one. Etc.
Recently I was one of the first 50 customers to snare a reusable bag at Ace Hardware. I think stores should either give these away willy-nilly--free advertising--or sell them at cost.
The no-frills grocery store I pop into in Florida solves the problem by having no bags at all. You either bring in a bag, grab a used t.paper carton from the store, or juggle your goods to the car.
Before the petro bags are all gone, however, if you're handy with a crochet hook, visit this.
( Tks to www.plasticbagbag.com for pic of a plasticbagbag.)
According to this from the UK, 17 Israelis, of them nine civilians, were killed by Hamas rockets in 2008. That's in one year. In the past 10 days, about 512 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli air raids.
Can you say "disproportionate response?" According to many international politics gurus this has always been Israel's military policy.
Naturally, after the lengthy blockade and current events, people in Gaza are hungry. This report from the United Nations is dated January 02, 2009:
"No wheat grain (has) entered Gaza since the beginning of the hostilities resulting in the closure of all mills. Mill owners confirmed that the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza ordered them to allocate the available wheat flour to bakeries and distribute it under its supervision (instead of them selling it on the market). As of today, fewer than 20 bakeries throughout the Gaza Strip are operational, due to lack of flour and cooking gas."
As I read about Hamas rockets and Israeli war planes, setting aside who is right and who is wrong, I picture medieval soldiers catapulting huge stones, darts and spears at fortified castles. Why are we still engaged in this sort of nonsense in the 21st century?
Apparently it is unthinkably harder, more complex, and more time consuming to sit down around a table and talk over differences, possibly fortified with tasty powerful food, than it is to slaughter people and destroy property. ( Mind you, I know that professional diplomats and peace keepers have tried to do this, off and on, for decades. )
But without the support of the world's leaders, the diplomats' tortoise-like efforts will make little headway against the weaponed-up hares.
( Photo of Palestinian baker thanks to BBC-UK, http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5375000/5375686.stm)
Back in the high desert after a vacation along the east coast, I can report A--a lack of rain here; B--the aroma of roasting chiles in the air, and ; C--a need in yours truly to vent.
I hear a "har-har" radio story about a man who happily has eaten a BigMac every day since the early 1970's, and I reflect on the inanity of much of what is labeled" news" these days. (Incidentally, the report said the guy walks 10 miles a day............!)
Even food news as noted in effete east publications endlessly focuses on the same boutique farms like Stone Barns, outside of New York---why? because it's close to NY and easy to get the story. Kidstuff. We had a terrific time there ourselves, but the notion that its all-natural restaurant, Blue Hill, is accessible to the average mortal is utterly bogus. It's hideously costly and difficult to book into. And many other places across the country serve up tasty, locally-grown food as well. Thankfully, this is a trend.
Having just spent about a week working on Summit Springs Farm in Maine with two old pals, in the farm's first summer as a CSA, I can attest to the fact that growing food is exceedingly hard, satisfying, down and dirty, frustrating, joyful, tiring, and all the rest. In other words, the undertaking is full of contrasts, of gray, of subtlety. It is serious stuff, the work of adults, of grown-up people who comprehend its importance.
Case in point re contrast---The giant horn worms that found the tomato plants in the greenhouse are spectacular beauties, busily going about their mandate to destroy said plants. Feeding them to the happy hens in their enclosure made me both utterly satisfied, ( as were the "girls,") but also a twinge remorseful--these creatures are perfectly designed, and turn into hummingbird-sized hawkmoths, if they make it that far in their lifecyle. Of course they fancy many of the solanaceae--tomatoes, tobacco, eggplant, and potatoes, too, though I have never seen them on any spud plants in my realm. I plucked them from my bin-grown tomatoes earlier this season, after finding two giants decimating a datura ( Jimson weed) plant not close by.
As the farm is headed towards its organic rating, it uses no pesticides. So the tomato plants are fading away earlier than they might, under onslaut from the lovely green worms. And the squash bugs are working away in the winter squash rows, though thus far the squash are holding their ground. ( I know, as we weeded the hell out of them...)
Each week the farm decides what to offer its CSA members, and sometimes, these choices are tough--rain rotted many of the potatoes, the chard is fading, the new lettuces not yet ready--and yet satisfied customers roll away from the small garlic-festooned barn with what IS available. Apples just picked from one fecund tree by Sonya. Jewel boxes of yellow and red cherry tomatoes, and plenty of "blue" spuds.
We are looking at a crucial election this year, by the way, one that will impact the nations of the world, as well as the planet, and, of course, these United States. While some wish to pretend we are electing junior high student council personalities, and that up is down and backwards is forwards, sorry, kids, the grownups are here, and when we are not weeding, planting, harvesting and selling, we are voting like responsible adults.
(Two of the Rockin' Goddesses weeding away in the eggplant row.)
