Showing posts with label Canadian streams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian streams. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2005
Canadian Philantrophy
On January 11, Mr. and Mrs. Pindoff gave in a single private donation of $5 million to the Canadian Red Cross. Their story captured the imagination of many and did much to help in relief efforts of the Boxing Day South Asian Tsunami. Aside from the traditional concerts and media fund-raising events, Canadians have been pretty innovative in finding ways to raise funds. There was the very Canadian hockey events. A most admirable event were the children's joint effort in the Toronto School District that raised $1.32 million in response to a challenge put forward by a nine-year old. According to FM Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's estimated financial donations for tsunami relief as of Jan 3 was about $80 million, out of which $38 million were individual's donations. I think that is much more than US has been able to raise. Considering the population size of Canada (32 million), this has much to say about Canadian's philantrophic tradition.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Taste of Thailand
This past Sunday, July 18, the Thai Trade Center and Thai community organized a festival to promote Thai food and products at the Nathan Phillips Square of the Toronto City Hall. It turned out to be the largest Thai community and cultural gathering that has ever happened in Toronto. Compared with the Thai community in the US, or with any other Asian groups in Canada, the Thai community of Canada is very small, hardly visible at all, despite the popularity of Thai food and restaurants. As I sat, at my volunteer position, helping out with a demonstration of some Thai movies and karaoke DVD/VCDs, I had a great time observing the people.
Since I was with the organizers the day before the event, I was worried about how it would pull together. I tell you, it was so typically, chaotically, Thai. Amazingly, early Sunday morning there was this beautifully set up stage with Thai designed props, and a cultural programme that performed throughout the day. It ranged from Thai classical dance (performed by an amateur group formed in Ottawa, that has grown increasingly professional), to Thai Boxing, fashion show, music, etc. The food stalls were so popular there was a line up throughout the whole day, until they ran out of food. Regretfully there weren't enough products to sell. Much of the participation was voluntary. In the demo stalls of Thai fruit carving, flower arrangements, our movie stall, people just wanted to buy. But these products were brought in by the community to demonstrate their culture, there was no stock for sale.
Towards, the end of the day, I couldn't help getting the familiar feeling of being in a temple fair, "ngarn wat", as if I were transported to Thailand. There were kids in Thai costumes scrambling around as if this public square were their home. It felt all the more surreal because this was a square I've visited on several occasions before for other festivals organized the variety of communities that live in Toronto.
For the following few days, I marvelled at how the Thai people are a great example of a complex, chaotic system. They show these intriguing qualities of emergence, self-referral, and self-organization. Emergence, because it seemed as if they had gathered out of nowhere. There was hardly any ads, or PR about the event, news of it went by word of mouth. People really made an effort to travel a long way to come for a brief affair. Self-referral, because they came out of love for their culture to give of their handicrafts, simple skills learnt from school, like how to make a flower garland, how to fold a Pla Tapien origami, putting together a stock of traditional Thai costumes for the fashion show, the volunteer models, the volunteer DJ and speakers. Self-organizing, because nobody really put an order to things or directed things to be done in a certain way, somehow it just flowed together, each group doing their own thing. The event was made possible, of course, with the seed funding from the Thai Trade Center. From that I learnt the true meaning of the Kingdom's concept of "rom chatr"-the shade of benefit, that a governing concept gives. Create a space and structure, allow the people to organize themselves, and they prosper.
Since I was with the organizers the day before the event, I was worried about how it would pull together. I tell you, it was so typically, chaotically, Thai. Amazingly, early Sunday morning there was this beautifully set up stage with Thai designed props, and a cultural programme that performed throughout the day. It ranged from Thai classical dance (performed by an amateur group formed in Ottawa, that has grown increasingly professional), to Thai Boxing, fashion show, music, etc. The food stalls were so popular there was a line up throughout the whole day, until they ran out of food. Regretfully there weren't enough products to sell. Much of the participation was voluntary. In the demo stalls of Thai fruit carving, flower arrangements, our movie stall, people just wanted to buy. But these products were brought in by the community to demonstrate their culture, there was no stock for sale.
Towards, the end of the day, I couldn't help getting the familiar feeling of being in a temple fair, "ngarn wat", as if I were transported to Thailand. There were kids in Thai costumes scrambling around as if this public square were their home. It felt all the more surreal because this was a square I've visited on several occasions before for other festivals organized the variety of communities that live in Toronto.
For the following few days, I marvelled at how the Thai people are a great example of a complex, chaotic system. They show these intriguing qualities of emergence, self-referral, and self-organization. Emergence, because it seemed as if they had gathered out of nowhere. There was hardly any ads, or PR about the event, news of it went by word of mouth. People really made an effort to travel a long way to come for a brief affair. Self-referral, because they came out of love for their culture to give of their handicrafts, simple skills learnt from school, like how to make a flower garland, how to fold a Pla Tapien origami, putting together a stock of traditional Thai costumes for the fashion show, the volunteer models, the volunteer DJ and speakers. Self-organizing, because nobody really put an order to things or directed things to be done in a certain way, somehow it just flowed together, each group doing their own thing. The event was made possible, of course, with the seed funding from the Thai Trade Center. From that I learnt the true meaning of the Kingdom's concept of "rom chatr"-the shade of benefit, that a governing concept gives. Create a space and structure, allow the people to organize themselves, and they prosper.
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
First day of snow
This is my first day of snow in Toronto! The morning started at -1C, it snowed sometime during the night, wished I could have seen it. I thought this first day of snow should be marked, my first winter in Toronto is definitely on its way. Before coming here to Toronto, so many people have told me stories of how harsh winter in Canada can be. Since arriving in July, I have found the weather to be suprisingly acceptable. The weather's unpredictability is actually quite entertaining! It gets cold, then warm again, then cold, then warm. Gives me hope that the winter wouldn't be as "cold" as many people have given me the impression that it should be. Even zero degree didn't seem so bad. My teenage son went out with only with a pullover last week (a surprisingly warm period), but I guess that should change now that snow's arrived, however, with teenagers you never know!
Discuss
Discuss
Monday, October 20, 2003
6,743 Canadians, and some 6,000 Thais blogging
Did I hear in class, or on the blog, that they didn't know anyone else personally who blogs? Check out this site: BlogsCanada! Incredible, wouldn't you say?
More incredible, I found out that there are some 6,000 bloggers blogging in Thai, and that the host website, diaryhub.com (I guess, the equivalent of a Thai "Blogger") was nearly single-handed set up from scratch by a 17 year old last year. And he set it up for free use as well. It's a pity that it can only be appreciated if you can read Thai, but just click on the images, they're fun on their own. Mutants, somebody mentioned? Whatever they are, I just LOVE them!
วันก่อนไ้ด้ยินเพื่่อนร่วมชั้นบ่นว่า ไม่รู้จักคนใกล้ชิดซักคนที่เขี่ยนบล้อกเลย ก็ลองเช็คดู BlogsCanada ตามที่ชี้ไว้ข้างบนดูซิ น่าทึ่ง มีคนแคนาดาบล้อกตั้งกว่า 6 พันกว่าคนแหน่ะ ยิ่งทึ่งไปกว่านั้น พบว่ามีคนไทยเขียนไดอารี่ตั้ง 6 พันกว่าคนเหมือนกัน ที่ diaryhub.com ไง เป็นเว็บไซท์ที่ตั้งขึ้นมาเป็นเวลามาแค่หนึ่งปีกับหกเดือน โดยเด็กหนุ่มอายุแค่ 17 ปี ให้คนใช้ฟรีอีกต่างหาก ถ้าอ่านภาษาไทยไม่ออกคลิ้กดูภาพก็ยังสนุกเลย ใครพูดว่า มีพวกกลายพันธุ์มาเกิดนะ เป็นมนุษย์ประเภทไหนก็ช่าง ข้าพเจ้ารักจริง ๆ
Discuss
More incredible, I found out that there are some 6,000 bloggers blogging in Thai, and that the host website, diaryhub.com (I guess, the equivalent of a Thai "Blogger") was nearly single-handed set up from scratch by a 17 year old last year. And he set it up for free use as well. It's a pity that it can only be appreciated if you can read Thai, but just click on the images, they're fun on their own. Mutants, somebody mentioned? Whatever they are, I just LOVE them!
วันก่อนไ้ด้ยินเพื่่อนร่วมชั้นบ่นว่า ไม่รู้จักคนใกล้ชิดซักคนที่เขี่ยนบล้อกเลย ก็ลองเช็คดู BlogsCanada ตามที่ชี้ไว้ข้างบนดูซิ น่าทึ่ง มีคนแคนาดาบล้อกตั้งกว่า 6 พันกว่าคนแหน่ะ ยิ่งทึ่งไปกว่านั้น พบว่ามีคนไทยเขียนไดอารี่ตั้ง 6 พันกว่าคนเหมือนกัน ที่ diaryhub.com ไง เป็นเว็บไซท์ที่ตั้งขึ้นมาเป็นเวลามาแค่หนึ่งปีกับหกเดือน โดยเด็กหนุ่มอายุแค่ 17 ปี ให้คนใช้ฟรีอีกต่างหาก ถ้าอ่านภาษาไทยไม่ออกคลิ้กดูภาพก็ยังสนุกเลย ใครพูดว่า มีพวกกลายพันธุ์มาเกิดนะ เป็นมนุษย์ประเภทไหนก็ช่าง ข้าพเจ้ารักจริง ๆ
Discuss
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