我最近搬家到了加拿大哈利法克斯，在圣玛丽大学学习商业。在加拿大换大学换得不难，但是不太容易。比如我以前在温哥华是电脑老师。圣大商业学生都学习程电脑课，内容是Access, Word, Excel,等等。我觉得太容易的课。老师说：我必须参加程电脑课，所以没办法。

我星期一，星期二晚上有上课，不可以吃中秋节的特别的菜。我真想在天津我和朋友们2004年一起包饺子，吃饭，喝白酒。这次晚上有数学课。我以后安排教哥哥的小孩儿怎么包。觉得他们太小，但是可以好玩儿。在加拿大可不可以买中国的白酒？我不知道。我从中国只拿一瓶山西的白酒。如果在哈利法克斯要真的中国食品，可以买。我已经买了饺子皮儿，花椒，等等。两次我自己做葱油饼，但是做得不好啊！我不熟练。做炒面比葱油饼更容易，所以常常做。

你中秋节在你家乡吃什么菜？

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone!

Saint Mary’s University (圣玛丽大学)

Like Derek Miller, I find my thoughts of these events a strange contrast with the celebration of Mother’s Day.

At least for the next few days I’ll have a chance to engage in some friendly debate, and we can role-play without the responsiblity of being held accountable to anyone.

Today he published an open letter to the Devil Dogs of the 3.1, the unit he was with when he captured on video the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi; it’s the first detailed public statement on the Falluja shooting incident and its aftermath, and it’s worth reading.

“The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.”
— Kevin Sites

“The Sudanese government signed an agreement for peace on Tuesday, with great fanfair that stimulated hopeful reports in the world press. As has been the pattern, within days the government made clear that it did not intend to abide by it.

“The first key element of the agreement was that humanitarian aid workers be allowed unfettered access in Darfur. Yet humanitarian access remains so limited that on Thursday it was announced that the UN is pulling out humanitarian staff in protest.”

Perhaps I don’t understand, but how will pulling out humanitarian staff be an effective protest??

CNN explains that the Sudanese government has placed restrictions on UN aid workers and, as a concequence, are forced to sit idle until these restrictions are removed.

Is the aid agency really just re-allocating its resources, as the article suggests, and moving workers to places where aid can be delivered to those in need? Someone please explain the “protest” part of this?

My discovery began when I learned that the TRU President’s Lecture Series is presenting Lt.-Gen. (Ret.) Roméo Dallaire on October 14^th. Mr. Dallaire is the author of a new book, Shake Hands With the Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and I thought I’d learn more about the book, and possibly read it, before his presentation.

Amazon.ca provides this exerpt from the book:

“My story is not a strictly military account nor a clinical, academic study of the breakdown of Rwanda. It is not a simplistic indictment of the many failures of the UN as a force for peace in the world. It is not a story of heroes and villains, although such a work could easily be written. This book is a cri de coeur for the slaughtered thousands, a tribute to the souls hacked apart by machetes because of their supposed difference from those who sought to hang on to power. . . . This book is the account of a few humans who were entrusted with the role of helping others taste the fruits of peace. Instead, we watched as the devil took control of paradise on earth and fed on the blood of the people we were supposed to protect.”

Obviously I won’t be able to read it ahead of time, but how have these supposedly reader-submitted reviews appeared on the book’s page at Amazon if the book is not yet for sale? Have these individuals received advanced copies? Are they professional reviewers posing as consumers?

Considering the current situation in Darfur, Sudan and what is being done about it, I’m really looking forward to seeing Mr. Dallaire has to say.