I just saw this on NBC's Today Show. Heartbreaking. Its about an American father who's Brazilian wife took their son to Brazil and never came back. She remarried in Brazil to an influential lawyer. The estranged wife has since passed away in childbirth and now the new husband has taken the biological father's name off of the birth certificate.
To all of my blog readers, I ask you to write, call, Email the names on the father's site. This father belongs with his son....
Wednesday, September 24
Friday, September 19
Wednesday, September 17
My Apologies....
I just read in the local paper here in Calgary, about a Brazilian student who was an innocent victim of a gang related shooting in the downtown area of the city.
There are no words to describe the feeling that is going through my mind and heart. I worked in a student exchange agency in Rio de Janeiro, and parents' minds were put at ease knowing that their sons and daughters would be safe while travelling abroad, especially to Canada, and particularly to Calgary.
Now those jerks known as the FOB's(Fresh Off the Boat) and the FOB Killers have shattered the peace not only for Calgarians, but for visitors to the city. If you ask me, if they are 'fresh off the boat', they can get right back on it and go back.
I am so sorry for what has happened to this anonymous Brazilian student. It breaks my heart to knnow that he will be permanently blinded by this unfortunate incident.
I am so sorry, and I would like to personally apologize on behalf of good Calgarians to this young man and his family. I am ashamed of the actions of these thugs that hurt him.
I hope that the Calgary Police Force will do their best to catch the perpetrators of this heinous crime and put them behind bars for a very long time.
There are no words to describe the feeling that is going through my mind and heart. I worked in a student exchange agency in Rio de Janeiro, and parents' minds were put at ease knowing that their sons and daughters would be safe while travelling abroad, especially to Canada, and particularly to Calgary.
Now those jerks known as the FOB's(Fresh Off the Boat) and the FOB Killers have shattered the peace not only for Calgarians, but for visitors to the city. If you ask me, if they are 'fresh off the boat', they can get right back on it and go back.
I am so sorry for what has happened to this anonymous Brazilian student. It breaks my heart to knnow that he will be permanently blinded by this unfortunate incident.
I am so sorry, and I would like to personally apologize on behalf of good Calgarians to this young man and his family. I am ashamed of the actions of these thugs that hurt him.
I hope that the Calgary Police Force will do their best to catch the perpetrators of this heinous crime and put them behind bars for a very long time.
Wednesday, September 3
Anorexia and the Fashion Industry
As an ex model(Vogue UK cover June 1986),I am following this whole skinny models/anorexia debate with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement. Not that I think any of it is funny, because it isn't.It is, in fact, beyond tragic.
Modelling is not for the faint hearted.Girls are thrown into a business of adults(And I use that term loosely) when they should be in Grade 9 or 10, discovering who they are.The hardest part of being a model is to distinguish between the professional and the personal rejection. Not something that a typical 15 year old is able to do easily..
Clients want a certain look, and sometimes a model doesn't fit into what they are looking for, whether it is the color of the models eyes, hair color, hair length etc. Self esteem and body image is constantly taking a beating.. For me, the hardest part was the constant travelling and being away from my family and friends. I was never miserable,and to this day I prefer modelling to an office job.I knew it was a short lived career from the beginning and I luckily had the smarts to manage myself.(Thanks mom and dad!!)Was it easy..no, but nobody was forcing me to be a model.
Maybe the new generation of models from emerging nations (where the minimum wage is a mere pittance)are more willing to put up and shut up, because they are obliged to support their families back home.That was one of the questions in regards to the Braziian model who died in November 2006( I was in Brazil at the time and saw the whole soap opera)
This whole debate about using skeletal models has a solution. Consumers should simply stop buying products from designers that insist on using overly skinny models and actresses. When their multi million dollar empires start feeling the pinch,then maybe they will change their tune and start using the healthy looking girls like they used to back in the 80s. I applaud the Canadian apparel company La Maison that pulled its catalogue after it was published because it showed skeletal models. Its a start...
Last but not least, I have yet to meet a real man who likes super skinny women.
Modelling is not for the faint hearted.Girls are thrown into a business of adults(And I use that term loosely) when they should be in Grade 9 or 10, discovering who they are.The hardest part of being a model is to distinguish between the professional and the personal rejection. Not something that a typical 15 year old is able to do easily..
Clients want a certain look, and sometimes a model doesn't fit into what they are looking for, whether it is the color of the models eyes, hair color, hair length etc. Self esteem and body image is constantly taking a beating.. For me, the hardest part was the constant travelling and being away from my family and friends. I was never miserable,and to this day I prefer modelling to an office job.I knew it was a short lived career from the beginning and I luckily had the smarts to manage myself.(Thanks mom and dad!!)Was it easy..no, but nobody was forcing me to be a model.
Maybe the new generation of models from emerging nations (where the minimum wage is a mere pittance)are more willing to put up and shut up, because they are obliged to support their families back home.That was one of the questions in regards to the Braziian model who died in November 2006( I was in Brazil at the time and saw the whole soap opera)
This whole debate about using skeletal models has a solution. Consumers should simply stop buying products from designers that insist on using overly skinny models and actresses. When their multi million dollar empires start feeling the pinch,then maybe they will change their tune and start using the healthy looking girls like they used to back in the 80s. I applaud the Canadian apparel company La Maison that pulled its catalogue after it was published because it showed skeletal models. Its a start...
Last but not least, I have yet to meet a real man who likes super skinny women.
Monday, September 1
Movie About Brazilian Indian Genocide is Praised by Critics at the Venice Film Festival
Whether you live in Brazil or Canada, the plight of the Native Indians/First Nations is a very sad situation.
I came across this article in the Calgary Herald
The similarities between the Brazilian Indians and the Canadian First Nations is sometimes uncanny.
The Portuguese were ruthless in their colonization of Brazil, and murdered many Indians for land and resources. They also considered them to be animals.The Brits and the French were not much better in Canada. I won't even go into the residential school debacle that happened in Canada.
Levels of obesity and diabetes within the Indian community has skyrocketed in the last generation, due to the introduction of sugar and processed foods into the native diet. This is true in Canada as well as Brazil. Alcoholism is also a problem in both countries.Tuberculosis on some Canadian reservations is almost as high as what is found in Third World countries.
Suicide is also a component in the reservations, here and there.
I am not sure which country is better in treating its First Nations people, but somehow it is better to be an Indian in Canada. At least the government made the first step by publicly apologizing for the treatment the Indians received in the past. Hopefully this is the first step towards a fairer future for all First Nations, all over the world.
I came across this article in the Calgary Herald
The similarities between the Brazilian Indians and the Canadian First Nations is sometimes uncanny.
The Portuguese were ruthless in their colonization of Brazil, and murdered many Indians for land and resources. They also considered them to be animals.The Brits and the French were not much better in Canada. I won't even go into the residential school debacle that happened in Canada.
Levels of obesity and diabetes within the Indian community has skyrocketed in the last generation, due to the introduction of sugar and processed foods into the native diet. This is true in Canada as well as Brazil. Alcoholism is also a problem in both countries.Tuberculosis on some Canadian reservations is almost as high as what is found in Third World countries.
Suicide is also a component in the reservations, here and there.
I am not sure which country is better in treating its First Nations people, but somehow it is better to be an Indian in Canada. At least the government made the first step by publicly apologizing for the treatment the Indians received in the past. Hopefully this is the first step towards a fairer future for all First Nations, all over the world.
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