On her Facebook page Sunday night, Sarah Palin posted a letter from a 95-year-old veteran named Harold B. Estes. The letter was to Obama saying, “I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son,” Estes wrote. “Do your job. linked to the whole letter:

November 20, 2009

Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish. I can’t figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
” We’re no longer a Christian nation”
” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,”America is mean-spirited. “

Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.) I’d say shame on the both of you but I don’t think you like America nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.” Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British ? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War ? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers,husbands,and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man. Shape up and start acting like an American.If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue .You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts who was putting up a fight ? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president. You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
McAlpin , FL

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A hard time came for the boy and the girl: the distance between them created a big mountain of obstacles.

Let’s proceed with our story! (june 2006-september 2007)

So 3 months before I had to return to Belgium after a year Ghana, K. and I got seriously involved. Of course the knowledge that I had to leave soon was quite present so we were taking it slow and seeing how things would evolve. Before I left we even agreed that we would phone or skype once in a week and for the rest we would e-mail. Once back that didn’t work at all! I got a cellphone (didn’t have one before) and we talked (still do) to each other every day. We both realised how serious it was when I went on a trip for a couple of weeks with AFS (the exchange programme) that my sweet American friend and I extended. God, how I missed him so much there! I even didn’t feel like travelling much longer then, my sweet friend and I burst out in tears on a terrace somewhere, once we split from the group to continue our personal travel. Could also have been from the tiredness… I’m still so happy we continued that trip coz we saw some amazing, once-in-a-lifetime things! Anyways, we returned and from then on I knew that I was definitely in love.

The time came that I had to leave, how quickly that last week passed! It always does, there are always a million things you have to get or a million persons you have to see before you leave so everything happens in a rushed way. The very last day of my stay in Ghana we reserved for ourselves though, we were already in Accra by then and K. got the house-key from one of his friends in Accra. That’s the very first time I saw my man crying and it still touches my heart when I think of it.

I got back to Belgium and I remember having a very very difficult time in the beginning. Not only I was missing my honey, I also returned home after a year in a foreign culture and a strange home that I had made my own by the end. I remember feeling like trying to fit or being pushed into my old place in the family/my Belgian Life and that it just wouldn’t fit. I remember not knowing what to do, strange meetings with my old friends who still saw me as the girl from highschool they knew. Many instances they were surprised of me and saying that I would have never done/said that before, that I changed so much. I found a holiday-job, tried to keep busy so my mind wouldn’t go of wondering. Threw myself on university, it was so exciting all. But once alone in my room I would get so sad and cry myself to sleep. The winter came with its early nights, cold, and lonely days in a single room. My phone-bills got out of control. I remember having a fight about it with my parents, they opened one of the bills and it was just astronomically high. They didn’t understand. I burst out in tears. K. was also having a hard time. There would be times that we were crying both over skype. Or I was crying and he was saying sweet things to me. Or he was crying and I was trying to make him laugh again. I got my exam-schedule, saw my exams finished early so we had a two-week break in february before school started again and started searching for a cheap ticket. I gently brought it up at home, they weren’t so keen on it. But I booked the ticket anyway. Finished my exams successfully, got to Ghana and spent two weeks in a very hot apartment in Accra, hosted by our good friend M. K. had to go to school from time to time, but it was still heaven on earth. We were both so happy I came down, the whole trip gave us the confirmation that this was it, it was good. It gave us the power and strength to carry on with the whole relationship although there was no ‘happily ever after’ in view yet. Got back to Belgium and started studying again. There were still moments that I thought I wasn’t strong enough to go through that lonely, missing feeling, those days I just wanted to stay in bed and cry, for another 3 years until we both got finished with studying. But somehow we got through that first year. It’s funny but after a while it really feels like you get used to the constant missing. Sometimes I suddenly realised all in panic that I forgot how his face actually looks like, that always freaked me out.

As I said before we talked/talk a lot. Every day he would call me (it’s cheaper for him to call) for at least a 5 minute talk. I would send him tons of texts, we would talk on skype for hours, until the middle of the night. It always makes me feel so much closer to him. That’s the only way I can feel he is really there. You know the feeling that imagining life happening at the other side of the globe, or even in a neighbouring country, is so difficult? It’s like life can only be happening, moving on where you are. Going back somewhere you always feel time should have stopped there, only to realise once you arrive that life goes on without you. Hearing K. on the other side of the phone made him more real to me, made me feel close to him despite the physical distance. Sometimes it happens that he switches his phone of, forgetting to warn me, so he doesn’t get disturbed by clients or family. When that happens I completely lose it, I’ll call him a million times, in the hope he switched his phone back on. I’ll send loads of angry texts, I’ll panick thinking that he might got into a deadly accident. Just because I lose my only point of contact with him, my only way to feel close to him.

Once the summer-holiday was there I got a job (for a month) to finance my next ticket to Ghana. I departed again and spent the rest of my 3-month holiday in Ghana, got back to Belgium just when classes started again. In that holiday we moved from K. single-room apartment, where the double bed took every space. Our flat should have been ready-NOT, but we got to stay in an other building, a guest house!,  from the land lord. It was like camping in a house, not much fun. There were mice in the bathroom, snakes on the roof,… But at least we had our privacy, which wasn’t at the old place where we had to share the bathroom and cook outside on the porch with everybody watching what the obruni (white/foreign person) is going to do. The kids got also the annoying habit to come calling me at the door. Let’s say I was happy to get out of there!

In the summer of 2007 we started thinking about K. visiting Belgium, getting to know my family, seeing where I grew up, etc. We started looking for information which proved not easy to come by. It promised to be a tough ride, since there is no Belgian embassy in Ghana. But more of that in my next post of the Kwesi&Esi Saga!

Sauvage Ostrich get up on it! Supple handmade leather bags made in Milan, what more could you ask for? You can view the entire collection from Ms. Timmermans lin here, remember where you saw it first !

Photo submitted by © Luuk Christiaens

[click on photo to enlarge]

• Personal note by Luuk Christiaens

Merchtem today – 28.11.2009

Links :
• Follow Luuk Christiaens on Twitter – @LuukChristiaens

The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts in Somalia and use portraits of Barack Obama for target practice. They learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda leader Najeh Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is responsible for Somalia’s al-Shabab jihadist movement, and uses foreign trainers with battlefield experience from other conflicts. The trainees are trained by, Somali, Arab, and Western instructors in small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and military-style tactics. Najeh Fazul Abdullah is described as one of the most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders in the world. Training camps are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to Al-Qaeda. Najeh Fazul Abdullah has connections with-in the ranks of the Al Shabab Al-Mujahideen Movement.

Al-Qaeda opened a new training camp based in the Al Jaza area in the district of Mudiyah in the southern province of Abyan. The camp is said to house more than 400 local and foreign fighters. Yemenis, Saudis, and Somalis make up the vast majority of the fighters. The Yemeni government is known to support al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula while targeting jihadi groups that do not adhere to a peace agreement signed in January. The government supports the group in exchange for trained fighters. U.S. officials are concerned Somali-Americans who fought with al-Shabab will return to the United States and carry out attacks. As many as 20 from Minnesota have been lured to their homeland to join the jihad. A document unsealed in Minneapolis gave details on that attack. It said Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident, took part in a truck-bombing in Bossaso, Somalia, on Oct. 29, 2008, against offices of a regional intelligence service. Ahmed, who was alone in the truck, was identified through a fingerprint obtained from a finger found at the bomb site. Jihadists linked to al-Shabab can roam through neighboring countries without attracting much attention and cross into northern Kenya.

Najeh Fazul Abdullah recently released a video showing its members vowing allegiance to bin Laden. The militants leaped over sandbags, crawled on the ground and fired at targets, affixed photos of Obama and Ahmed to wooden boards. Among al-Shabab’s ranks are an estimated 200 to 400 foreigners from Pakistan, Chechnya, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and other countries. The government is backed by 5,000 African Union peacekeepers but controls only a few blocks in Mogadishu. The Al Shabab Al-Mujahideen Movement received the support and backing from Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups and foreign fighters battling the Somali government.

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The Afghanistan War
Hakimullah Mehud: Pakistan’s New Taliban Leader
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Thanks Mr. President!

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- Yaaaaaaaaaay, Partyyyyyyy!!!!! this is post no. 100 … Woohooooo!!!

- So yesterday I went to Antwerp, Belgium with my friend (and also colleague) to shop =D It was really cool and we’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve bought some cool things <3 Like Puma shoes, a coat, a t-shirt and some Bjorn Borg Boxers Besides shopping we didn’t really do much. It was a very nice day, even though the weather was really bad. It was raining most of the time, but of course water didn’t stop us =P I was back home at 7.20 pm.

- Today me and my friends went to see Twilight; New moon for the second time =P Hahaha… I think it’s even sexier than I remembered <3 If you haven’t seen it yet…

GO NOW!!! And don’t forget to take me with you ^^

Fourth post about my trip to Belgium in November
All the pictures taken will be uploaded to a new set called Benelux 4 of my flicker photo account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/

Brass band at the Menen Gate with beautiful trees in the background

Menen Poort and sangat

My two ‘potia’

Father & Daughter

More to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

I went to Belgium today. As I wrote in a post earlier my concept has been accepted for a landart exhibit next summer in Lochristi. The park is húge. Contains small castle, visitor centre, orangerie, woods, english flower park with water features and massive fountain. and behind the gates the park continues as a family park. Today we went to meet the organizers and the 34 other artists who have been selected. Cold day but a really nice one. The park is beautiful, they get 30.00 visitors, and the artproject will last for three months.

Will have to order materials now,  approx. 40 and 60 kg of wool to turn into felt.

Kingdom of BELGIUM

stamp: 17 francs / 0,42 €

year: 2000

amphibian: frog

BEIJING – China has executed two men for abducting and selling 15 children, many of whom were taken as babies or toddlers and have not yet been reunited with their parents, state media said Friday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Hu Minghua, 55, and Su Binde, 27, were executed Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Supreme People’s Court.

Hu was convicted of kidnapping and selling nine children from April 1999 to Oct. 2005. He was detained in January 2006. Five of the children, all boys now aged from 3 to 6, have been returned to their families, while the parents of the remaining ones have not been found.

Su was convicted of abducting six children between Sept. 2005 to July 2006. Five of the children were rescued by police while a sixth remains missing.

Child trafficking is big problem in China, where traditional preference for male heirs and a restrictive one-child policy has driven a thriving market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls. Girls and women also are abducted and often used as laborers or as brides for unwed sons.

Thousands of children go missing every year though the exact numbers of victims are difficult to obtain. Earlier this year, Chinese police announced they had rescued about 2,000 abducted children as part of a nationwide crackdown on widespread trafficking of women and children.

In October, China’s Ministry of Public Security set up a Web site — “Babies Looking for Home” — to reunite rescued children with their families.

State media have reported hundreds of rescues and arrests since the campaign began in April, and the new site had photos of dozens of children rescued from kidnappers but who had not yet found their families. The ministry set up a national DNA database earlier this year.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

by Jeremy D. Morley

Here are some tips for attorneys and clients faced with instituting or defending child abduction proceedings under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, whether in the United States or internationally.

In a nutshell, a Hague Convention application may be made when a child is taken or retained across an international border, away from his or her habitual residence, without the consent of a parent who has rights of custody, if the two countries are parties to the Convention. The child must be promptly returned to the habitual residence unless the return will create a grave risk of harm to the child.

1. ACT FAST

An attorney must be ready to file a Hague Convention application and institute or defend a Hague Convention lawsuit on extremely short notice.

Prompt action may be critical. The Convention specifically requires that hearings be conducted expeditiously. A Hague case can theoretically be instituted more than a year after the abduction but a defense will then arise that the child has become settled in the new environment and, in practice, the longer a child is in a new place the more likely it is that a court will be reluctant to send the child away.

Fast action by the left-behind parent is also necessary to help prevent a claim that the parent has acquiesced in the child’s relocation.

Clients must move quickly to obtain the documents needed to file the initial application and then to collect the documents needed for the hearing. They should normally be asked to prepare a detailed family history and to assist the attorney to develop evidence as rapidly as possible.

In addition to the Hague application and lawsuit itself, counsel for the left-behind parent should take many other steps.

First, counsel should enlist the support of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues. Second, the left-behind parent should institute civil proceedings. If there is no custody order in place from a court in the jurisdiction of the habitual residence, an application should immediately be made for such an order.

Third, counsel should consider putting the abducting parent on immediate written and formal notice of the dire consequences, civil, criminal and financial, that the abduction will cause to that parent personally, and, possibly to others conspiring with the parent. It may be appropriate to provide an extremely short time for the abducting parent to cure the problem by returning the child.

Fourth, the parent should consider requesting the federal and state prosecutors to institute both federal and state criminal proceedings. The federal crime of international parental kidnapping is a felony with a penalty of up to three years in prison. In addition, many states including New York have provisions that also provide criminal penalties for parental child abduction. It will occasionally be possible to seek extradition based on a federal warrant.

2. PREPARE THE FACTUAL PRESENTATION INTENSELY

Hague Convention cases are often extremely fact-intensive. They frequently hinge on the ability of one party to convince the court of matters such as the habitual residence of a child, the extent to which a parent actually exercised custody rights and whether or not a parent consented to or acquiesced in a new residency. For a court to resolve these matters it must analyze the relevant facts.

A successful Hague proceeding requires the attorney, working closely with the client, to marshal as much evidence as possible, in as many forms as possible, to support the client’s position.

Clients are frequently shocked that matters that to them are obvious and indisputable turn out to be disputed and to require them to produce clear and convincing proof. They may well be insulted that their word alone is insufficient to convince the court that they are truthful and that the other parent is lying.

In one case, the parents had moved permanently with their young child from the mother’s native country to the U.S. Two years later, the mother took the child back to her country for a vacation and then refused to return to the States. In supporting her claim that the child was never habitually resident in the States she claimed that the original move to America had been only temporary and that she and the father had agreed that they would return to the mother’s native country after a year or two. The mother had planned the move well in advance and had amassed — and even created — evidence that tended to support her claims. Additionally, she had removed evidence from the parties’ home that would have disproved her claims.

To win the case, we interviewed neighbors, friends, family members, schoolteachers, real estate salespeople, fellow office workers and an array of other people who had had some connection with the family. We checked into any and all areas of the mother’s life for anything that might indicate her intention to stay in the States. We obtained emails, notes, invoices, and other documents. We searched old household bills for evidence of the purchase of items that inferred a degree of permanency. At the hearing, the mother was shocked that her husband had collected so much written evidence to disprove her claims and undercut her credibility. The courts ultimately — and with great reluctance, since they were going against a local national — found in favor of our client.

Since Hague cases are tried quickly, there is usually only one chance to present the case and it needs to be done well at the very outset. An attorney must embark on a quick campaign of collecting mounds of relevant evidence to support the client’s positions, and must expect the other parent to lie, cheat, and distort the facts in a desperate attempt to avoid losing the case.

Just as a current military strategy is to employ overwhelming force to create shock and awe, so too in a Hague Convention case it is often advisable to use overwhelming amounts of evidence to win the case. Such a campaign in a Hague proceeding may yield a capitulation by the other parent even before the hearing actually commences.

Hague Convention hearings sometimes take the form of “he said, she said” disputes in which each side makes verbal accusations against the other. Documentary evidence is usually far better than the mere word of one parent. Thus, if you want to claim that a parent applied for an immigration visa, you must be prepared to do more than simply have the parent tell the court that this was done. You should do whatever you can to get hold of the actual application papers that the parent signed in applying for the visa, which may mean contacting the lawyer who handled the immigration matter originally.

While it is helpful if documents are supported by sworn statements, it is not essential. Both the Convention and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (“ICARA”) provide that authentication of documents is not required in a Convention proceeding.

3. PREPARE THE LEGAL ARGUMENT INTENSELY

Hague Convention cases raise unusual international law, foreign law and treaty law questions. They involve the courts in matters of a kind that they are usually not used to handling. In many jurisdictions the court may be entirely unfamiliar with Hague cases. Accordingly it is usually essential for the lawyers to help the court to an unusual extent. Certainly a well-reasoned memorandum of law is essential.

The matters in dispute in most Hague cases raise difficult legal issues that must be thoroughly briefed. Thus, the Convention requires the left-behind parent to establish that the child was taken from the “habitual residence” and that the parent had “rights of custody” under the law of that jurisdiction. However, neither of those fundamental terms is defined in the Convention and substantial jurisprudence has grown domestically and internationally setting forth often-contradictory determinations concerning their scope and meaning. Moreover, courts have held that, while they must determine under international law whether the left-behind parent possesses Hague Convention “custody rights,” they must first examine the law of the child’s habitual residence in order to ascertain the extent of the rights that such parent possesses under that law. In this regard, it is often essential to use foreign law experts to establish the existence and scope of such rights.

A Hague Convention attorney may ” and should ” cite cases not only from the domestic jurisdiction but also from other jurisdictions if they support the client’s position. It has become more usual to cite cases from other jurisdictions in this area of the law than perhaps in any other. Courts around the world recognize that it is best to coordinate their decisions with those of other courts internationally and, for that very reason, the Hague Conference on Private International Law has established a database of significant Hague cases from courts around the world.

4. AVOID BEST INTERESTS ANALYSIS

In representing the left-behind parent in a Hague proceeding, it is necessary to keep the court focused on the narrow issues that the Convention requires an applicant to establish and the narrow defenses that a respondent can assert. Whenever the hearing strays into any areas that might be considered as constituting an analysis of the child’s best interests, the applicant should vehemently object.

However, a party opposing a return should do his or her utmost to assert any and all relevant issues under the rubric of one of the defenses specified in the Convention and should be armed with case law to establish that similar claims were permitted in other cases.

5. BE FLEXIBLE CONCERNING EVIDENCE

In Hague cases evidence rules are usually relaxed, so evidence should be submitted in any possible format. Live testimony is invariably the best and normally everything should be done to get the left-behind parent into the courtroom. (An exception is if that parent would be a poor witness and his or her presence would create an opportunity for embarrassing cross-examination). If a witness cannot be brought to the courthouse, consider testimony by video conferencing or otherwise by telephone conference. As a last resort, submit affidavits.

6. USE AN EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY: IF THAT’S NOT YOU, FIND SOMEONE WHO IS

Hague Convention cases happen too fast, and too much is at stake for the client, for an attorney to learn about this area of law at the last minute. It is extremely important to locate counsel with knowledge and experience in Hague proceedings.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

Many left-behind parents are told that the Hague Convention will bring about the return of their abducted children. Some authorities say that if your child is abducted, you should follow procedures outlined by the Hague, but we don’t agree.

Until 1980, there was no international system in place to help parents recover abducted children who had been taken to other nations. The Hague Convention attempted to create one, but it doesn’t work. If you take the time to read the well-intentioned text of the Hague, you’ll see its many flaws.

In our opinion, it’s not worth the large amounts of money, time and trouble to hire an attorney to try using the Hague Convention to get your child back. You aren’t likely to get him or her back — and even worse, the abducting parent could be “legitimized” by the courts in another nation.

Under the Hague Convention, a case must be filed in the country where the abductor has taken the child. The courts of that country tend to render their decisions in favor of their countrymen, as the Hague Convention focuses on residency, not citizenship. There is little concern for the fact that the child is a citizen of the country from which he or she was abducted, or for the possible detrimental effect on the child.

Even if the child was born in your country, if that child is found to be a “habitual resident” by the courts in another country, the child may be ordered to be returned to that country.

This underscores the need to act quickly.

Few, if any, of the Hague signatory countries are going to send anyone out to physically recover your child for you. Embassy officials will check on the child’s welfare, if it is known where the child is and if the abducting parent lets them.

As soon as abducting parents are aware that that they’ve been located, they’ll usually disappear with the children again.

And about hiring lawyers

You need to be aware that a great amount of money has been spent on lawyers in foreign abduction cases. The unfortunate fact is that they, most often, can’t practice in the foreign courts and are required to hire associate lawyers in the foreign country.

Note: they often have no qualifications or experience working with child abduction cases.

More money…

Educate yourself

Many resources are available to help you learn about parental child abduction. If you’re dealing with an abduction, the better informed you are, the better equipped you’ll be to cope.

Recover your child

Time is of the essence. Parentally abducted children are helpless on their own and confused by the irrational and sometimes abusive acts of non-custodial parents who are supposed to have their best interests in mind. ABP World Group Ltd. has the manpower and the know-how to rigorously cover all avenues, and bring your child home.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

Natacha Atlas -Amulet – نتاشا أطلس

NatachaAtlas
NatachaAtlas
NatachaAtlas
Jag gillar Natacha Atlas jätte mycket. Hon har en härlig röst, en alldeles egen stil att uppträda…lyssna och njut.

she has a British mother that converted to Islam and her father is of Egyptian origins. According to Atlas, her paternal grandfather was born in Egypt but grew up in Palestine, immigrating to Europe at age 15

With more than 20 plants across Belgium, this concrete producing group is one of the biggest in the country, producing more than 2,5 million m³ of concrete on a yearly basis. However, as times evolved, some concrete plants had to close, the ‘Nord’ one in a harbour-city close to the sea was one of them.

A powerful homemade bomb sent a high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg train careening off its tracks killing at least 26 people in what officials consider an act of terrorism. As many as 100 people were left injured by the disaster, officials said, and 18 remained missing. The crash occurred near the border of the Novgorod and Tver provinces, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) northwest of Moscow and 150 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg. Among the dead were citizens of Belgium, Italy and Azerbaijan, Governor Valentina Matvienko of St. Petersburg told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Experts found pieces of an explosive device that and left a five-foot (1.5 meter). The initial blast derailed the last three carriages of the 14-car Nevsky Express. The investigative committee of Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office said, “Indeed, this was a terrorist attack.”

Click On Links
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Profile
Fort Hood Shooting; 12 Dead, 31 Injured
Obama And Baghdad Suicide Bombers
The Afghanistan War
Hakimullah Mehud: Pakistan’s New Taliban Leader
Obama Gun Control
Taliban Attack
Iraq Car Bombing Kill 147, Wound Over 700
Six Bomb Blasts In Baghdad Kills 95 Wound 536
Peshawar Car Bomb Kills 91

Cirque Royal (Brussels, BE)

Weekend (Thursday – Monday) in Brussels in March 2010!

Concert tickets for March 19th already secured! Accommodation secured!

Looking at photos of the building/venue of Cirque Royal it’s a historic beauty that alone! Then experience some more of beautiful places and environments in Brussels with surroundings! Meeting lots of friends! Sharing concert adventure together! All of this is really something to look forward to, specially those days the blues get you ;  )

Thank you, Milow for bringing us together =D

This year was the second year in a row that I was not home to celebrate Thanksgiving. However, this year and last year I did spend it with fellow AFS exchange students.

This year I spent it with Sophie, who studied with me in French speaking Belgium last year on an AFS cultural exchange, and Sophie’s current exchange student sister from Norway, Trine.

And last year, another AFS student, Dylan, and I celebrated with our host families in Liege, Belgium.

Late October last year, Dylan and I lamented the fact that we would not be home to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families (Dylan is from Arkansas). We were particularly crushed as we agreed that Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. So, we decided to make our host families Thanksgiving dinner, European style. We literally planned the menu all throughout November, and the meal was a smashing success, if I do say so myself.

If I remember correctly (these were the days before this little food blog here, mind you) the menu was green beans with shallots, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, turkey breasts with herb paste, cranberry sauce, and roasted brussel sprouts.

Here I am keeping the garlic mashed potatoes warm in a double boiler. They had roasted garlic and were to.die.for. Also, as you can see by my cheeks, looks like I had a few too many gaufres (waffles) in Belgium.

We set the table.

And photographed our feast.

We had to use turkey breasts as we couldn’t find a whole turkey in Belgium. Whatever works, right?

We did have to make a few substitutions to the meal, as it was hard to find all the ingredients that we needed. We were able to find sweet potatoes, though they came in packages of 2 small potatoes for 2 euros. Sweet potatoes aren’t very popular in Belgium or elsewhere in Europe–apparently, sweet potatoes and their root vegetable brethren are often associated with the world wars and poverty, as they were the cheapest available vegetables. Recently, root vegetables are making a comeback, but they still aren’t widely available. Funny what vegetables are common here, but not in Europe, and vice versa. For example, in Belgium leeks were as common as onions, but almost no one uses them in the U.S.

Anyway, we couldn’t find canned pumpkin to make a pie, so we used pureed butternut squash. We had a hard time finding marshmallows, and we ended up using a pink, more candy-ish version of marshmallows, though you couldn’t see the color once they were toasted in the oven.

It was a glorious feast, and we were very proud of ourselves. Before we ate, we went around the table and expressed our gratitude. We couldn’t have our host families think it was all about the food, could we?

We made delicious desserts as well.

We made an apple galette and the Barefoot Contessa’s pumpkin banana mousse tart. My host mom, Marie Christine, brought a cake.

We couldn’t find pie pans, so a tart it was. Ina Garten definitely delivered–it was a delicious dessert. Definitely try it!

Dylan’s host brother, Tom, was the star of the evening.

Such a cute little ginger.

I loved sharing our American traditions with our Belgian host families.

Have you spent Thanksgiving away from home? If so, where?

So, Thanksgiving last year in Belgium, this year in Hawaii…it’s been fun traveling around the world during the holidays, but next year I hope to spend Thanksgiving in sweet, little ol’ Maryland. I suppose I could be anywhere, really, as long as I’m with my family!

A toute a l’heure!
Maya