ART SUNDAY - SUSAN SEDDON BOULET

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.” - George Carlin

This Sunday, I offer you the art of Susan Eleanor Seddon (1941-1997) who was born in Brazil of English parents who had emigrated from South Africa. Two years later her mother died, shortly after the birth of her second child, Patrick. The artist spent her early childhood on a large citrus and cattle farm. She loved the connection to nature offered by farm life and enjoyed a rich fantasy life fed by folk tales told her by her father and by the farm-workers. Encouraged by her father, she began drawing; her first subjects were the cows and horses of the farm. While Boulet took art classes off and on during her life, beginning in her finishing school years in Lausanne, Switzerland, she never studied art formally. She said, in fact, that she never planned on becoming an artist--the vocation came to her as by accident.

Boulet came to the US in 1967 to work for Braniff Airlines. It was also in this year that she met and married Lawrence Boulet, who inspired Susan to invest herself seriously in her art. Boulet credited the birth of her son Eric, in 1969, with freeing her creativity, saying that Eric “somehow freed the child in me; gave me permission to enjoy fantasy… gave me permission to do unicorns and dragons”. Boulet began selling her art in 1970. By 1972, aided by her husband who managed all non-artistic aspects of her career, she was supporting the family. In 1980 her husband died of cancer.

Much of Boulet's work from the 1970s pictures cheerful images from fairytale and fantasy-jesters, knights, mermaids, magicians, and the like-executed in rainbow-bright colors. Around 1980 Boulet produced 'I Heard the Owl Call my Name', the first in a series of paintings that pointed to a new direction in Boulet's work. From this point on, Boulet painted images that she felt tapped into the essence of the collective human unconscious. She visualized images of goddesses from various cultures and Native American shamanic personages that combined the forms of animal and human into a coherent whole. Boulet drew the inspiration for her art from a wide variety of sources: Mythology and poetry, Jungian psychology and worldwide spiritual traditions, as well as deep love of animals and the natural world.

Today Susan Seddon Boulet's paintings are held in collections around the world. Susan Seddon Boulet died in her home in Oakland on April 28, 1997 after a long struggle with cancer.

The paiting above is called “Moon Goddess”. More of her work can be found at:
http://www.tendreams.org/boulet.htm

SEA OF POPPIES

“Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, and left the flushed print in a poppy there.” - Francis Thompson

For Song Saturday today, a song by the talented Italian singer/songwriter Riccardo Cocciante: It is "Il Mare dei Papaveri" (The Sea of Poppies). Music: Riccardo Cocciante; Lyrics: Mogol

This is from the 1985 CD of the same name and contains a fantastic selection of songs:
1. Mare Dei Papaveri
2. Tempo Nuovo
3. Due
4. Sabato, Rilassatamente
5. Questione Di Feeling
6. Al Centro del Silenzio
7. Marilyn
8. Concerto Nello Spazio
9. Canzone Dell'infinito
10. Star



Mare Dei Papaveri

Ed è soprattutto quando è sera
che mi manchi ancora un po'.

È davvero stata molto dura
esser coerente e dirti no
ma non si può rinchiuder l'anima
in una storia di abitudini
se hai nel cuore altre immagini.

Io sono da bosco e da riviera
e vorrei vivere con te
ma in una dimensione un po' più vera
che si manifesterà da se
senza paure e senza regole
seguendo il vento come nuvole
per sempre ormai incontaminabili.

Vuoi? Vuoi?
Sei ancora in tempo se vuoi
Puoi! Vuoi?

Noi saremo un nucleo indissolubile
che si apre agli altri senza limiti
per onorare il nostro vivere

Ondeggia il mare dei papaveri
il cielo assiste quieto e complice
noi respiriamo i nostri aneliti

Vuoi? Puoi!
Sei un'altra parte di noi che oramai
lasciamo il suolo perché
il volo viene da sé
si perde, l'opaco senso si perde
e vince la vita, ogni giorno diversa
un abbraccio, una corsa
nessuna storia mai persa, mai persa...

Sea of Poppies

In the evenings, especially,
I still miss you a little bit.

It’s been really very hard
To stay coherent and tell you no,
But one can’t close up one’s soul
In a boring story of habits and routine,
If there are other ideas in one’s heart.

I am of the forest and the river
And wanted to live with you
In a more real dimension,
That would manifest itself
Without fears and rules.
Chasing the wind like clouds,
Now and forever pure.

Do you want to? Really want to?
You have time, if you want to,
You can, if you want to!

We would be an indissoluble nucleus
That would open itself up to others without limits
So that we could honour our life.

The sea of poppies rolls in waves,
The sky quietly assists it, complicitly
And we breathe in our desires.

Do you want to? Really want to?
You are another part of ourselves that now
Leaves the soil so that we can fly,
Because flight comes naturally.
The dark sense loses itself
And life wins; life each day more diverse,
With an embrace, a race,
And no story ever lost, ever lost…

Enjoy your weekend!

TEA FOR TWO

“If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.” - Japanese Proverb

“Picture you upon my knee Just tea for two And two for tea Just me for you And you for me...alone”

So the old song goes, and the wonderful beverage from China, made now a citizen of the world and after water is the most popular drink worldwide. Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. Tea also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the colloquial name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself.

Unless you drink your tea iced, chances are that you enjoy it scalding hot! Iranian scientists have published a study in the British Medical Journal where they report that drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer. The oesophagus is the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach. The study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 70˚C was associated with a heightened chance of developing this cancer.

Oesophageal cancers kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type. Tobacco and alcohol are the main factors linked to the development of oesophageal cancers in Europe, America and Australia. Until now, it has not been clear why other populations around the world have high rates of the disease although there has been a theory that regularly drinking very hot drinks damages the lining of the gullet.

Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have the cancer diagnosed as men do. Tea drinking, however, is widespread. The University of Tehran researchers studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and compared them with a group of 570 people from the same area. Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, on average drinking over a litre a day.

Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70C or more) was associated with an eight-fold increased risk. The speed with which people drank their tea was also important. Drinking a cup of tea in under two minutes straight after it was poured was associated with a five-fold higher risk of cancer compared with drinking tea four or more minutes after being poured. There was no association between the amount of tea consumed and risk of cancer.

Because the researchers had relied on study participants to say how hot their tea was, they then went on to measure the temperature of tea drunk by nearly 50,000 residents of the same area.
This ranged from under 60C to more than 70C, and reported tea drinking temperature and actual temperature was found to be similar. Hot black tea is a tradition in the Middle East

Previous studies from the UK have reported people prefer their tea to be about 56-60C - cool enough not to be risky. In a British Medical Journal editorial, David Whiteman from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia said: “The mechanism through which heat promotes the development of tumours warrants further exploration and might be given renewed impetus on the basis of these findings”.

Dr Whiteman advised tea-drinkers to simply wait a few minutes for their brew to cool from “scalding” to “tolerable”. Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk. Oliver Childs, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: “Tea drinking is part of many cultures, and these results certainly don’t point to tea itself being the problem. But they do provide more evidence that a regular habit of eating and drinking very hot foods and drinks could increase your risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus”.

Linda Solegato has said that: “Iced tea may not have as much wisdom as hot tea, but in the summer better a cool and refreshed dullard than a steamy sweat-drenched sage - leave sagacity to the autumn!”; but perhaps there is much more wisdom in iced tea after all!

MEDICAL DICTIONARY

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” – Voltaire

I am currently working on a medical dictionary and together with my two fellow editors-in-chief we have been very busy over the last few months getting together the second edition of this monumental work. I am now examining the picture entries that illustrate the words and this is the fun part, sorting through various images and determining their suitability. To a certain extent the choice of image can be the clinching factor in making a dictionary entry clear and lucid. No matter how good a definition is, if the accompanying image is poor, then the whole entry can confuse rather than illuminate. If the image is as good as the definition, the reader will be doubly enlightened.

So, no surprise that today’s word is a medical one:

cystoscope |ˈsistəˌskōp| noun Medicine
An instrument inserted into the urethra for examining the urinary bladder.
DERIVATIVES
cystoscopic |ˌsistəˈskäpik| adjective
cystoscopy |sisˈtäskəpē| noun
ORIGIN early 18th century: From late Latin cystis, from Greek kustis ‘bladder’ and from modern Latin -scopium, from Greek skopein ‘look at’.

Be well and be happy!

POETRY WEDNESDAY - MY COUNTRY

“The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.” - William Shakespeare

April Fool’s Day today and there were several pranks around this morning beginning on the radio where several nonsensical pieces were played, supposedly composed by a hitherto unknown son of JS Bach. Then some interesting news items including the Goodwill’s plans to tour a new ‘submersive audiovisual environment’ stage show dubbed “The Circle”. Other news regarding a new cash crop being considered for drought-stricken areas – a variety of rapidly growing berry bush that doesn’t need watering and produces ready to harvest dried fruit. Stories of several people being sent on fools’ errands, and then of course it is all over by twelve noon.

Something which wasn’t very funny was the release of the Conficker worm, which is a computer worm that can infect PCs and spread itself across a network automatically, without human interaction. It is suspected that the worldwide computer disaster may have been averted through good communication and people being alerted to use anti-virus programs.

The other very sad news item from Australia is our floods in the Northeast of NSW, with many towns severely flooded. Parts of the New South Wales mid-north coast have been declared a natural disaster zone after at least 3,200 people were trapped by a flood described by emergency services as a once-in-a-century phenomenon. The Coff’s Harbour CBD is under flood waters and the situation will not improve for a couple of weeks. All of this of course after the bushfires and destruction in Victoria. We are still recovering from the aftermath of these and many people that have been affected by the tragedy have either moved to Melbourne (our public transport is free for the victims until October, I read in the train station this morning), or are desperately trying to rebuild their lives in their devastated areas.

For Poetry Wednesday today a classic Australian poem by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)

My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

The illustration is Australian artist Arthur Streeton’s 1896 painting “The purple noon's transparent might” (Oil on canvas, 123.0 x 123.0 cm in the National Gallery of Victoria).

URBAN LEGENDS

“No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.” - Henry Adams

I was having a cup of coffee with a colleague this morning and she was telling me that she went to a wedding at the weekend. Apparently, as the bride was walking up the aisle, she stumbled and lost her shoe, causing her to trip and would have fallen over if it weren’t for her father who got hold of her. She was summarily shod again after they ensured that she was OK and the ceremony proceeded without further hitch (except the one that the priest tied…). My colleague then went on and said that at the reception afterwards numerous stories surfaced about similar events at weddings, including one story that was told about someone’s friend of a friend who was a maid of honour at a wedding and who walked on a grating on the sidewalk and got her shoe caught in it. The grating was removed and everyone moved to the side to try and release her shoe. Another member of the wedding party then walked up carelessly and fell into the opened up hole that the grating was covering. He fell down a distance of three metres and broke his neck, dying on the spot.

We laughed over this recognising the stuff of an urban legend. An urban legend is any modern (fictional) story, which is told as truth and which reaches a wide audience by being passed from person to person. Most urban legends are completely false, but some turn out to be largely true, and a lot of them may have been inspired by an actual event which evolved into something quite different in their passage from person to person, becoming embellished and altered in the manner of Chinese whispers. More often than not, it isn't possible to trace an urban legend back to its original source, they seem to come from nowhere and everywhere.

Psychologists have come up with a number of definitions for urban legend. To many, a legend must be a story, with characters and some sort of plot. Others lump widely dispersed misinformation into the urban-legend category. While these “facts” don’t always have the narrative elements of traditional legend, they are passed from person to person and frequently have the elements of caution, horror or humour found in legends. Many of the urban legends are on the themes of death, sex, crime, contamination, technology, ethnic stereotypes, celebrities, horror or of beating the system. They are mostly cautionary tales with some sort of moral at the end, and give a dire warning about the “terrors lurking out there”.

One of the most famous of urban legends is the “hooked-hand” tale: A young couple on a date drive off to a remote spot to “park”. Over the radio, there is a news flash that interrupts the music telling of a psychopath with a hook prosthesis for a missing hand, who has escaped from a local mental institution. The girl wants to go home, but her boyfriend insists there’s nothing to worry about. After a while, the girl thinks she hears a scratching or tapping sound outside the car and terrified she says again she wants to leave. The boyfriend assures her it’s nothing, but at her insistence, they eventually drive off. When they get to the girl’s house, the boyfriend goes around to the passenger side to open her door. To his horror, there is a bloody hook hanging from the door handle. The cautionary tale here is simple and direct: Don’t go parking in lonely spots that could hide a myriad dangers, trust the woman’s intuition, and certainly don’t engage in premarital sex!

A more elaborate tale tells of a businessman visiting Las Vegas and meeting an attractive woman in the bar that he gets quite friendly with. They have a few drinks and he manages to get very drunk. The next thing he remembers is that he wakes up in his bathtub, which is full of ice and bloody water. The phone is beside him and on it is pinned a note: “Ring 911 or die!” He does so and after he is rushed to hospital to deal with his serious injury, it turns out that the woman he met was part a gang of organ harvesters who have removed his kidney to sell on the black market. The warning here is that the businessman ended up in this predicament only after going to drink at a bar and then flirting with a mysterious unknown woman. Don’t drink! Don’t flirt with strange women! Don’t cheat on your wife! Don’t be an idiot in a strange city!

An amusing urban legend revolves around a colony of alligators in New York sewers who are responsible for many disappearances of people that get devoured. The colony is found by a group of children and they manage to alert police who exterminate them. Many such urban legends have the characteristics of an amusing story or a joke, that plays on fears or prejudices of (gullible) people that tend to accept them as true.
Do you have a story of an urban legend? Do tell!

MOVIE MONDAY - SECRET WINDOW

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” – André Gide

On Sunday we watched a Johnny Depp film, the 2004 thriller “Secret Window”, directed by David Koepp. It is based on a Stephen King novel and is another of these films where one turns the brain off and spends 96 minutes vegetating on a little mindless escapist entertainment. I must admit that I like a good thriller or film noir, an intelligent horror movie, but cannot stand the “Friday 13th” type of drivel or “Nightmare on Elm St” type of horror flicks that are essentially produced for the pajama party or drive in crowd and calculated to produce the most screams per minute by scattering the most blood and gore across the screen per unit time.

Johnny Depp is not one of my favourite actors although he has been in many successful films. He tends to pout a lot in this film and spends a lot of time tousling his hair and looking like stunned rabbit. He also seems to sleep a lot (and not in his bed). The cast includes John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton and Charles S. Dutton. They all act in a rather woodenish way and they are good caricatures of the typical suspense/thriller movie. The twists and turns of the plot are rather predictable and the ending is less than satisfying.

In short, the plot has as follows (don’t worry, I won’t give anything away by peppering it with spoilers): After a bitter separation from his wife (Maria Bello), the famed mystery writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) lives alone at his remote lake house. He is unexpectedly confronted there by a dangerous and mysterious stranger named John Shooter. Claiming Rainey has plagiarised his short story, the psychotic Shooter demands “justice”. When Shooter's demands turn to threats (and subsequently murder) Rainey turns to a private detective for help. But when nothing stops the horror from spiralling out of control, Rainey soon discovers he can't trust anyone or anything.

There is a very horrific scene in which a dead animal is featured, so if you are squeamish about it, then this is not the film for you. I disliked it particularly as it didn’t contribute to the story. The scene could have been easily deleted. Philip Glass was responsible for part of the score but “Psycho” it’s not, although there are some Hitchcock tributes in the film.

I got a bit sick of Depp and his hair very early on in the movie and his impression of a village idiot fails to satisfy. I got a few laughs out of the movie (unintentional, to be sure, the scenes were meant to be scary!) and watched till the end, even though it was quite lame. This is a B-grade TV flick to be seen during a pizza night with a few good friends and relaxing and joking about it. I would not go out of my way to find it and see it, but if its on TV, send out for a pizza and ring a couple of friends…

ART SUNDAY - GERASIMON

“To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family.” - Buddha

For Art Sunday today, the art of Peter Gerasimon. He was born in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of eight children of Russian/German immigrants. He developed an interest in fine arts from a very young age and attended art classes, despite advice from relatives and friends that this was not a secure career choice. He attended art classes at the Escuela de Artes Quilmes, Argentina 1966-1967 and a course at the “Famous Artists School for Talented Young People” 1969-1971.

Peter Gerasimon succumbed to the advice of his family and not believing an art career could support him in the future, pursued studies in economics and business management. Nevertheless, painting remained his passion and even on his business trips he always found some time to draw sketches and produce an occasional painting. In early 1996 he gave up his busy management career to go after his true calling, becoming a full time artist. He set up his home studio and gallery, “Glenrowan Studios” in Gisborne, Victoria, near the Macedon Ranges and met with instant success. He has since then held many exhibitions and won various art prizes.

This painting is called “A Glorious Day in Melbourne” and depicts one of the most famous buildings of our city, the Flinders Street Station. This is the station I get off every morning when going to work. It is a lovely old Victorian building and at one time housed the longest corridor in the world. A tongue in cheek comment is the blue utility in the intersection driven by the former treasurer Peter Costello and in which the passenger is John Howard our last PM.

More of this artist’s work can be seen on: http://www.gerasimon.com.au/

RELAXING...

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” - Ovid

Saturday night and the end of a long and tiring week. This will definitely be a microblog, with a wonderful song by Clannad, “Theme from Harry's Game”, covered by Órla Fallon. Need it to relax by…

BARBEQUE INVITATION?

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” – English Proverb
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/One+man's+meat+is+another+man's+poison

I was in Brisbane all day today for work, flying in early morning and coming back late at night. It makes for a very long day, but I prefer to come back to my own bed and if everything turns out well, like today, it makes it worthwhile.

The results of a USA study that was progressing for more than ten years were released last Monday. Apparently, people who eat more red or processed meat have a higher risk of death from all causes including cancer, while a higher consumption of white meat reduces these risks. The joint study was begun in 1995 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and seniors group AARP and it followed more than half a million men and women between age 50 and 71, who filled out a food frequency questionnaire estimating their intake of red and processed meats as well as white meats such as pork, chicken and turkey.

It was observed that 47,976 men and 23,276 women died during the period of time the study lasted. Those men and women who ate the most red meat (a median of 62.5 grams per 1,000 calories per day) had a higher mortality rate than those who consumed the least (9.8 grams per 1000 calories). Similar rates held true for consumers of processed meat.

In comparison to this, the people who ate the most white meat had a slightly lower risk for death than those who ate the least white meat. It was found that as far as the overall mortality was concerned, 11% of deaths in men and 16% of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of intake indicated by the lower consumption group (ie: 9.8 grams per 1000 calories). Similar benefits would result in cardiovascular disease mortality if the red meat consumption was decreased to the same degree.

Carcinogens (cancer-causing compounds) are known to form during high-temperature cooking of meat (eg, barbequeing, frying, grilling), the report stated, and meat is a major source of saturated fat, which has been linked to certain cancers. Lower meat consumption has been linked to reductions in risk factors for heart disease, including lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

These results have confirmed what has been known empirically for a very long time and also what the results of smaller studies previously showed. It still makes sense to reduce overall meat intake, preferring white over red meat and to also increase fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetable consumption.

Have a good weekend!

MICRO-BLOGGING

“No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.” - Plutarch

A full day today with a whole day offsite workshop. Only managed to get home now. Getting up early tomorrow for a trip to Brisbane.
Micro-blogging (noun)
A form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group, which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.

ORIGIN 2006-7: From Greek mikros ‘small’ and web in the sense [World Wide Web] and log in the sense [regular record of incidents.]

GREEK NATIONAL DAY

“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” - Hypatia of Alexandria

The 25th of March in Greece is a double holiday. It is firstly the Feast Day when the church commemorates the holy day of the Annunciation. It was on this day that the archangel Gabriel proclaimed to the Virgin that she would conceive and bear a son nine months later. Secondly, it is the National Day of Greece, the anniversary of the commencement of the Greek Revolution, which on this day in 1821 AD broke out. Through a concerted effort, the Greeks enslaved fro over 400 years managed to overthrow the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. This day marked the beginning of modern Greek history.

Greece is a Southern European country, a peninsula surrounded by seas, the Aegean to the East, the Ionian to the West and the Cretan to the South. It is a country of islands and mountains, hot dry summers and cool to mild winters. The fertile plains are few, most of the land being poorly watered and drained, and too rocky or mountainous for farming. Greece, nevertheless is one of the world’s largest producers of olives and olive oil with other agricultural produce also being exported to the rest of Europe.

It has an area of about 132,000 square km and a population of about 11 million. Athens is the capital city with other major centres being Thessaloniki, Patras, Volos, Larissa, Iraklion and Kavalla. Tourism is a major economic boost but the clothing and footwear industries also contribute. Since it gained its independence from Turkey in 1821 it has had a history of political upheavals. In the last few years, after it joined the European Union, the country has had to cope with a variety of issues including a massive influx of illegal immigrants, worsening economy, increasing national debt, terrorism, increasing crime and great political tensions.

The poem this Poetry Wednesday was written firstly in Greek and then translated into English. It tells the plight of the millions of Greeks of the Diaspora across the world who have two countries to call their own, or who maybe have none…

Ξενιτιές

Κάθε βραδάκι που το λυκόφως
-το μενεξελί-
ουρλιάζει στο παράπονό μου,
πηγαίνει η καρδιά μου
στην Ελλάδα να πεθάνει.

Κάθε που η μοναξιά μου
-η γκριζωπή-
χώνει βαθιά τα νύχια της στα στήθεια μου,
πετάει η καρδιά μου
στην Ελλάδα να πεθάνει.

Όταν τά αλλόφωνα τραγούδια
-τ’ άχρωμα-
μες στην ψυχή μου δεν μπορούν να μπουν,
τότε που η καρδιά μου τη γλώσσα τους δεν την καταλαβαίνει,
πηγαίνει στην Ελλάδα να πεθάνει.

Κάθε που ο ήλιος
-ο κατάμαυρος-
βγαίνει το πρωί και μου παγώνει την ανάσα
πως να μπορέσει η καρδιά μου να τ’ αντέξει; Πετά μακριά
και στην Ελλάδα πάντα πάει για να πεθάνει.

Όταν τα φθονερά τα μάτια
-θαλασσοπράσινα-
με μοχθηρία με κοιτάνε, και τα στενόχωρα μυαλά
αδυνατούν να μ’ αγκαλιάσουν, τότε έρχεται η καρδιά μου
στην Ελλάδα να πεθάνει.

Και κάθε φορά που σπαρταράει η καρδιά μου
-στο γαλανό τον ουρανό-
νεκρανασταίνεται μες στο γαλάζιο…
Μα πάλι τη διώχνουνε κι επαναξενιτεύεται
για να την ξανασκοτώσουν τα ξένα δειλινά.

In Foreign Lands

When faint twilight of late evening
-Violet-coloured-
Cries out my plangent woe,
My heart will each time go back
To Greece to die.

Each dusk when my emptiness awakes
-Grey-hued-
And sinks its sharpened claws deep into my breast,
My heart flies out
To Greece to die.

When foreign-speaking songs
-Uncoloured-
Fail my soul to reach, and whose alien language
Cannot communicate with my heart, it goes
To Greece to die

Each day when the morning sun rises
-Jet black-
It chills my shortening, failing breath,
And my heart can’t stand it, it escapes always
To Greece to die.

When envious eyes
-Green-tinged-
Look at me with hidden malice,
And closed minds can’t embrace me, my heart comes
To Greece to die.

And each time my heart trembles and dies
-In blue caerulean-
Attic sky, from death it’s roused, revived,
Only to be forced to leave its country yet again
And in a foreign land be killed each lilac-tinted evening.

WORLD ANTI-TB DAY

“The greatest wealth is health.” - Virgil

March 24th is World Tuberculosis Day and it is observed each year so as to continue spurring on the global fight against tuberculosis (TB). TB is a “forgotten” disease by many people living in Western countries as it has a relatively low incidence there and most people with it are treated early and effectively. However, in developing countries, TB is getting deadlier by the day due to its growing drug resistance and the fatal connection between TB and AIDS.

In many third world countries TB is a common and dangerous infectious disease and is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Although TB affects the lungs in most of the cases, the disease can also affect almost any other body system. Symptoms of TB include a chronic cough productive of sputum and blood, weakness, fever, night sweats and weight loss. Two hundred years ago, tuberculosis was one of the most feared killer diseases. One hundred years ago, people with tuberculosis were placed in sanatoria in order to prevent TB from spreading from one person to another and to help cure the sufferers through good diet, and rest.

A vaccine against tuberculosis, the BCG vaccine, which was developed in the early decades of the twentieth century was widely used for several decades in many countries around the world. This was never a very effective vaccine and provided limited protection to the infection. However, the vaccine together with improved public health measures, better diet and antibiotic treatment the disease was controlled in Western countries.

With the discovery of better, specific antibiotics, TB was controlled and for a time was all but eliminated. But with the emergence of HIV over the last 25 years, TB has returned and must be dealt with. In some parts of the world, HIV and tuberculosis are at epidemic proportions. The most current tuberculosis statistics are quite frightening:

• Over 400,000 cases of Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) are reported across the world every year with more than 100,000 estimated deaths
• 80,000 MDR-TB cases from India each year
• 64% of the TB patients are women
• Up to 80% of TB patients test positive for HIV/AIDS in countries with high AIDS incidence

MDR-TB is posing a challenge to modern medicine because of its resistance to two of the first line drugs which in the past were used effectively to cure TB (rifampicin and isoniazid). This drug0resistant form of the disease is caused by the spontaneous mutation of the bacteria on treatment. More serious is the XDR-TB (eXtensively Drug Resistant TB that is also resistant to fluoroquinolones and to the injectibles, Kanamycin, Capreomycin and Amikacin).

MDR-TB and XDR-TB are the biggest health hazards for people living with HIV/AIDS. With the social stigma attached to AIDS, detecting TB becomes doubly difficult. In developing countries like India patients stop medication for the following reasons: migration, alcohol, drug addiction, and sometimes due to violent side effects like vomiting that discourage the patient from further medication. Sometimes treatment is stopped after a couple of months, when the symptoms subside. Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course (DOTS) providers regularly track TB patients and encourage them to continue with the treatment till they are completely cured.

The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages governments and health departments to develop programs where the coordinated efforts by Health Care Providers, families and patients can help to completely eradicate TB. Health departments can organise effective campaigns to inform people about TB control and DOTS with a view to increase self-referral and facilitate detection of TB cases. They can enable patients (more so the vulnerable and marginalized ones such as women and transgender people) to access DOTS and other TB services. Also, it is vital to assure the quality of TB services provided in public or private enterprises.

There is crying need to stop the spread of TB and cure existing cases. The spread of drug resistant strains must be checked and a it is vital that a worldwide effort is renewed to seek new approaches, strategies and tools such as new TB vaccines for people of all ages, to protect against all forms of TB. With a number of global initiatives for new drugs and diagnostic tools along with broad community participation to eradicate TB, a world free of TB is a dream that can be realised.

MOVIE MONDAY - À LA FRANÇAISE

“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” - Eric Fromm

It was a little bit like a French film festival this weekend, as we managed to see three French films that a friend had loaned me. The offer was quite welcome as there was nothing decent on television (unfortunately this is now the rule, rather than the exception so we rarely watch TV). The three films were quite refreshing and very enjoyable.

The first is Claude Berri’s 2002 film “Un Femme de Ménage” (The Housekeeper), a romantic bittersweet comedy. It is about the messes we get ourselves with and without love, literally and figuratively. Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) has been left by his wife of fifteen years for another man. He lets his apartment fall into a state of utter disorderliness and it becomes dirty and messy. He hires a young housekeeper, Laura (Émilie Dequenne), with two-toned hair, rather banal tastes and housing problems of her own. Jacques reluctantly allows his housekeeper to share his bed, a victim of his loneliness and hurt pride.

Such an improbable relationship between the older, sophisticated Jacques and the young, banal Laura cannot work, but we hope that it does in any case. The film is simple and direct, no one is right, no one is wrong with both Jacques and Laura being perfectly honest with each other. In an attempt to test their love, they take a trip, Laura gets a haircut, and they spend their days at the beach. The ending of the film is not surprising, but it is rather gratifying. Jacques, who was cajoled into love by the young Laura finds her choice understandable but is grateful that his heart has been opened. This is a chic flick in a way, but also satisfying for men to watch, as many of us will be able to identify with poor Jacques on many levels. Also, it is not saccharine sweet, nor cloyingly romantic. We gave this a 6.5/10.

Incidentally, the director of this movie, Claude Berri, directed the very famous and excellent duet: “Jean de Florette” in 1986 and the 1986 “Manon des Sources”.

The second film we saw was the 2006 “La Tourneuse de Pages” (the Page Turner) by Denis Dercourt. This is a wonderfully dark and understated thriller about revenge. Mélanie Prouvost is a young and musically gifted butcher's daughter who has serious musical ambitions. She fails an audition for entry into a conservatory because of the behaviour of one of the judges, an egocentric pianist, Ariane (Catherine Frot). This causes her to give up her piano playing and grows up to become a clerk. Years later Mélanie (Déborah François) temps for a wealthy lawyer, Monsieur Fouchecourt (Pascal Greggory), and also volunteers to care for his son Tristan (Antoine Martynchiow) during her holidays.

When she goes to the château where Fouchecourt lives, she finds that her boss’s wife is none other than Ariane. She immediately sets out to gain the unsuspecting Ariane's confidence – easy, since Ariane has recently lost all her confidence due to a serious car accident and needs all the extra support she can get. Mélanie manages to become indispensable as Ariane's page turner for important concerts (not only in her métier, but also as a psychological prop. Mélanie also wins Tristan's affection and becomes important to Ariane in more subtle ways. The only person she doesn't seduce is the cool, aloof Monsieur Fouchecourt. Adriane and Mélanie develop a complex relationship, while the true nature of the seemingly sweet Meelanie is revealed slowly in all of its dark and malevolent colours.

The film is well-paced, acted and directed extremely well and the story is satisfying and involving, although one cannot make up one’s mind about the psychologically scarred Mélanie or the vulnerable and dependent Ariane. The music is gorgeous and there is an insight into the world of the concert pianist, in all its complexity. We gave this film a 7.5/10.

The last one we watched was another Claude Berri film, the 2007 “Ensemble, C’ Est Tout” (Hunting and Gathering – what the English title has to do with the film, I’ll never know – the literal translation is “Together, That’s What’s Important” which is much more apt). The film is an adaptation of a best seller by Anna Gavalda and I am sure that it must have disappointed the bibliophiles, but I thought that as a film this was pleasant trifle, a wonderful French bon-bon, light and airy with lashings of whipped liqueur cream and wrapped in fine dark chocolate.

The film recounts the story of four people whose lives blend and clash in a Paris apartment. Audrey Tautou stars as Camille Fauque, a waif who works as a cleaner (“Surface Engineer”!) who smokes a lot, drinks, but eats little. She lives alone in a small attic of an apartment block and meets Philibert (Laurent Stocker), a neighbour who suffers from bouts of anxiety and stutters badly. He improbably wishes to leave his souvenir shop behind him and become a theatre actor. Philibert's housemate Franck (Guillaume Canet) is a chef who lives hard and fast, and whose only care is the welfare of his grandmother Paulette (Francoise Bertin), an old woman who fears old age and hates her dependency on others.

The film has hardly any surprises and is a modern-day fairy tale, a delicious romantic comedy that works because its heroes and heroines are ordinary people with quite ordinary problems, modest ambitions and the universal human need to love and be loved. The way in which each of these people overcomes their fears, their frustrations, the way that they dispense with their psychological baggage is what makes the film engaging and eminently watchable.

The acting is very good (Philibert is a joy to watch!), the direction light-handed and discreet, while the music and cinematography seamless and unnoticeable (in the best sense of the word)! The film rated a 7/10.

ART SUNDAY - ARTHUR BOYD

“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.” - Elizabeth Lawrence

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999) was born into a lineage of gifted painters, potters, musicians and architects, to become the most celebrated member, in Australia’s cultural history, of that artistic family. After spending his youth painting idyllic impressionist landscapes and portraits of the places and people that surrounded him in the family haven at Murrumbeena in Victoria, the onset of WWII was the catalyst for the dramatic shift towards the highly expressive and personal style, which characterised his painting from during the 1940s onwards.

Influential in Boyd's development were artists associated with art patrons, John and Sunday Reed such as Nolan, Tucker, Perceval and Bergner. Boyd’s images of the deprivation of modern urban society in the war years, infused thematically with Old Testament narrative, was influenced by German Expressionism, Surrealism and the northern European painting tradition. His explorations as a painter-ceramicist yielded a series of monumentally conceived terracotta masterpieces.

In the 1950s his poetic depiction of the luminous Wimmera landscape transformed the surface of his paintings with the rich combination of oil, tempera and resin, reflecting his constant experimentation with differing materials and modes of expression. Following his move to England in 1959 where he achieved significant success, Boyd began to explore the medium of printmaking, producing etchings, lithographs and illustrated books. In 1979 the artist purchased a property on the Shoalhaven River where his depictions of the infinite variety of this magnificent landscape fuelled his artistic imagination until his death in 1999.

Here is “Wimmera Landscape” ca1975, which is an exceptional painting of one of Boyd’s most important landscape series: The Wimmera region of Western Victoria. 


The wind began to rock the grass
With threatening tunes and low,
He flung a menace at the earth,
A menace at the sky.

The leaves unhooked themselves from trees
And started all abroad;
The dust did scoop itself like hands
And threw away the road.

The wagons quickened on the streets,
The thunder hurried slow;
The lightning showed a yellow beak,
And then a livid claw.

The birds put up the bars to nests,
The cattle fled to barns;
There came one drop of giant rain,
And then, as if the hands


That held the dams had parted hold,
The waters wrecked the sky,
But overlooked my father’s house
Just quartering a tree.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

END RACISM!

“Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.” - Countess of Blessington

The United Nations has laid aside the 21st of March as the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". At that time, the South African Government was a brutal regime that applied the theory of inequality between races, regardless of humanity’s moral and ethical advances. Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

Quality education is vital in eliminating racial discrimination. International agencies such as UNESCO have constantly advocated the importance of education for combating stereotypes and building mutual understanding and respect between the various peoples of the world. High quality learning materials and pedagogical approaches that promote social cohesion and respect for human rights are among the most powerful weapons in the fight against discrimination. Sport and physical education must also provide an effective framework for promoting dialogue, tolerance and mutual understanding, in particular among youth. If children all over the world are brought up to respect diversity, celebrate differences and learn from each other’s cultures, the adults that they will grow up to be will be citizens of a better of world. Today, is an opportunity to affirm and intensify these efforts to eliminate racial discrimination, and to realize the right of every individual to live in dignity and peace.

Australia has a bad record in terms of racial discrimination, but I am glad to say that times are changing and people are beginning to become more open-minded. The way that the indigenous people of Australia have been treated since the arrival of the Europeans is a shameful chapter in Australia’s history and the compounding of injustices over the centuries perhaps reached its peak with the stolen generations of the 50s and 60s where aboriginal children were taken from their parents and given to white families or put in orphanages in order to “bring them up right” and “save them from their savagery”. This caused generations of pain and psychological damage, separated families and obliterated the cultural heritage of a proud and free people. In recent times our former prime minister, John Howard, refused to acknowledge this injustice and refused until he was voted out to say “sorry” to the stolen generations. Our current prime minister Kevin Rudd acknowledged the wrongs of the past and apologized to the aboriginal people for the past wrongs.

Aboriginal people in Australia nowadays are beginning to regain their dignity, their culture and are ready to play an important role in modern Australian society of today and the future. Here is a song from the Australian Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi, called “Djäpana”. Highly characteristic is the native wind instrument, the didgeridoo, providing the low cooing sound.

LUNCHING IN BRISBANE

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” - Lin Yutang

I was in Brisbane for work today and was kept very busy all day, with not much time at all to enjoy the weather and the autumnal equinox. At this time of the year, Brisbane enjoys mild to very warm temperatures with occasional rain. Today looked like a good mix of these, with warm weather and the occasional drizzle. Notwithstanding the busy-ness of the day there was time to have some lunch, although it was in the cafeteria of the College.

This cafeteria is an interesting proposition, in that it is leased out to a group of people who run it very well as a private business. The food is an interesting mix, but the emphasis is on good nutrition with fresh ingredients and a good mix of world cuisine tastes. There are plenty of vegetarian options, some organic and macro-organic choices, a range of coffees (including decaffeinated), milks (full cream, half-cream, skim, soy, etc), fresh juices, vitamin drinks, etc.

The student body seems to enjoy eating there and also many of the staff, but I am quite surprised that there are also many people that walk in off the street. Why I should be surprised I don’t quite know, as the shopfront is right on a busy road. Perhaps it’s because I normally associate college cafeteria with gloppy food that one eats because one has no choice.

I had a very nice vegetarian focaccia sandwich today, which was not only delicious, but also quite appropriate for Earth Day! It also kept me going until this evening where I had a light dinner at the airport at the Club. Now, all I can say I’m glad it’s Friday and I’m very glad to be home…

EQUINOCTIAL EARTH DAY

“The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: To fight for survival.” - Morris K. Udall

Tomorrow is the Equinoctial Earth Day as designated by the United Nations. This is celebrated on the March equinox (around 20th of March) and marks the moment of astronomical mid-spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and of astronomical mid-autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. An equinox in astronomy is the moment in time when the centre of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year. In most cultures the equinoxes and solstices are considered to separate the seasons.

The idea of a worldwide holiday to be called “Earth Day” was first introduced by John McConnell, a peace activist at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969. This was adopted by the United Nations and at the moment of the equinox, it is traditional to observe Earth Day by ringing the Japanese Peace Bell (donated by Japan to the United Nations). Over the years celebrations have occurred in various cities globally at the same time as the celebration at the United Nations.

Amidst cries of increasing shrillness and alarm about our changing climate, our dwindling water resources, pollution of our environment and a runaway greenhouse effect, we still have time to actively seek innovative solutions for the future. Earth Day is a means of raising awareness of environmental issues and doing something globally to diminish the destruction of this very fragile planet we are living on. It is certainly a day for taking the message of “Think Globally, Act Locally” to everyone. This adage refers to the argument that global environmental problems can turn into action only by considering ecological, economic, and cultural differences of our local surroundings. This phrase was originated by René Dubos as an advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. In 1979, Dubos suggested that ecological consciousness should begin at home.

Here are some suggestions for reducing your environmental footprint:

1. Become Carbon Neutral, purchase carbon credits (which are used to fund offset activities such as planting trees, or various energy conservation activities).

2. Convert to Green Power through your electricity provider (the electricity provider must produce your electricity needs through the use of clean, renewable energy sourced from the sun, the wind, water and waste, instead of burning coal).

3. Drive as small and fuel efficient car as is suitable to your needs. No status symbols or “Toorak tractors” (Australians are big drivers: Per capita we own more cars than any other nation except the USA. With average use, an Australian family car will travel about 15,000 km a year, generate about six tonnes of greenhouse pollution and cost its owners $7,700).

4. Be aware of the meat you eat. Don't eat Feedlot beef, or even become a vegetarian (animal products make up the biggest part of our Eco Footprint - 34% to be exact. Meat, particularly beef, has a very high environmental impact, using much water and land to produce it, and creating significant greenhouse pollution. In fact if you reduce your intake by one 150 g serve of red meat each week, you'll save 10,000 litres of water and 300 kg of greenhouse pollution in a year. Most conventional meats are resource intensive, but feedlot beef is particularly wasteful. Producing 1 kg of feedlot beef, on average, requires 4.8 kg of grain and over 19800 liters of water. It also results in the erosion of over 2 kg of topsoil).

5. Reduce the electricity consumption of your house and office by switching off lights and computers when not in use and installing energy efficient appliances and fixtures (eg: Replace existing incandescent bulbs with Compact Fluorescent bulbs or the newer LED bulbs. Turn off “power vampires” – ie, appliances on “sleep mode”. Such “power vampires” can cost a typical household up to 11% of the electric bill. Switch to a Solar hot water System if you have an electric hot water system. Switch from electric to gas appliances whenever possible. If you are buying new appliances, choose the product with the best Energy Star Rating that you can afford).

6. Communicate your views to people in power (encourage change by: Contacting your elected member of parliament; Emailing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; Having face-to-face meetings with your elected officials, which can move them from having a passive stance to taking an active interest).

7. Pressure industry to change its ways (reward a company with your business for doing the right thing by the environment. Abandon them for doing wrong, but make it known to them why they have lost your custom with a letter or email).

8. Eat less fish and be aware of the types of fish that you do consume (the global wild fish harvest has begun a sharp decline since 2000 despite progress in seagoing technologies and intensified fishing. Long-lining, in which a single boat sets line across sixty or more miles of ocean, each baited with up to 10,000 hooks, captures at least 25 percent unwanted catch).

9. Join or support an action group or Green Project that you are interested in (larger groups like the WWF and Greenpeace, are aware of the most pressing issues and have the resources to keep on top of things, however, groups like these often get a bad wrap, but the truth is that most of them highlight and study important issues that governments and companies would otherwise ignore or cover up). See the following links:

http://www1.bushheritage.org/

http://www.australianwildlife.org/index.asp

http://www.paradigmexpeditions.com/big_picture.htm

10. Communicate with other people (family, friends, acquaintances, work colleagues, blog readers!).

Have a great Earth Day tomorrow!

sustainable |səˈstānəbəl| adjective
able to be maintained at a certain rate or level: Sustainable fusion reactions.
• Ecology (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.
• Able to be upheld or defended : Sustainable definitions of good educational practice.
DERIVATIVES
sustainability |səˌstānəˈbilitē| |səˈsteɪnəˈbɪlədi| |-ˈbɪlɪti| noun
sustainably |-blē| |səˈsteɪnəbli| adverb
ORIGIN Middle English: From Old French soustenir, from Latin sustinere, from sub- ‘from below’ + tenere ‘hold.’

SHIPS IN THE NIGHT

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” - Omar N. Bradley

Railway stations and harbours have always struck me as rather sad places where many partings find a melancholy, albeit temporary, home. Unlike, say, airports or bus stations that seem strangely more utilitarian and associated more with business or pleasure; short-term shelters for people seeking to be conveyed to their destination as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The train and ship convey an image of a time past, of sad days of old (who said the old days were all so good?).

Perhaps, this attitude of mine is highly coloured by my own past experiences of trains, planes, buses and ships, but nevertheless, that may explain the fact that I still have to accustom myself to cruises and cruise ships as being for pleasure…

Ships

Every time a ship unfurls her sails and leaves the harbour,
Each evening when a ship begins her voyage,
A little part of me, deep inside, dies.

Every lonely, twilit evening when the sea birds cry,
Each night when the lighthouse beacon flashes,
A little part of me expires.

Every time the foghorn announces warnings, mournfully,
Each night as the mist covers all like a black pall,
A little part of me inside my heart dies.

Every grey twilit dawn as old sailors drink the last of the grog,
Each lonely, wintry morning when sickly sun is reborn,
A little part of my soul perishes.

Every time a ship sails away, as her image vanishes,
Each evening when a ship is swallowed by the horizon,
A little part of me dies;
And is it not a wonder that I carry within me
So much death?

ST PATRICK'S DAY

“May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.” Irish blessing
Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Saint Patrick’s Day is a predominantly Irish holiday honouring the missionary credited with converting the Irish to Christianity in the 5th century AD. He was born around 387 AD in either Scotland (near the town of Dumbarton) or in Roman Britain (the Romans left Britain in 410 AD). His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat. He was kidnapped at the age of 16 by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. During his 6-year captivity, while he worked as a shepherd, he began to have religious visions, and found strength in his faith. He finally escaped, going to France, where he became a priest, taking on the name of Patrick. When he was about 60 years old, St. Patrick travelled to Ireland to spread the Christian word. Reputedly, Patrick had a winning personality, which helped him to convert the fun-loving Irish to Christianity. He used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity. He died at 461 AD.

St Patrick is also credited with ridding Ireland of snakes (there are no native snakes on the island). When Norse invaders came to Ireland in the 9th century they noticed that the island also had no toads. The Norse word for toad is “paud”. When they heard the saint referred to as Patrick, they interpreted it as “Paudrig”, meaning “Toad-Expeller” in Norse. Toads became snakes, no doubt aided and abetted by the Old Testament symbolism of the snake as a reification of evil. Furthermore, the snake was revered pagan totem and the victory was two-fold. Thus a legend was born.

St Patrick’s day is celebrated in Ireland and in all parts of the world where the Irish have made their home. The St Patrick’s Day parade is a tradition that perhaps started in Ireland where during the holy day, the pubs were closed to locals but could serve travellers. Many inveterate drinkers got around this by walking in groups to the next town and as “travellers” could be served in the pub. In the USA the first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1737 and then the event caught on in New York in 1762 when Irish military units were recruited to serve in the American colonies.

In Ireland the traditional parade did not start to be widespread until the 19th century, introduced from the USA, but its nature was rather more religious and family oriented. The Parade outside Ireland can often degenerate into a carnival-like celebration, lubricated by gallons of green beer and backed by local businesses that see it as a means of advertising their wares.

“Beannachtaí na Féile Páraic oraibh!” St. Patrick's Day blessing upon you!