The Expat Christmas

I wrote this originally for my sister but have tweaked it a little for a general audience.

So you’re not feeling Christmasly festive and it’s all not quite the same as at home?

I’ve compiled a 10-point plan of things which I think help to make it more fun during expat Christmases.

1) Decorate everything you can. A little bit of tinsel is good but a lot of tinsel and paper chains and decorations can make room and desk very happy – the cheesier the better.

2) Buy a Christmas tree and stick it in your room. Decorate Christmas tree to highest heaven – fairy lights are cheap, cheerful and good.

3) Give all colleagues a Christmas card. All it needs to say is “Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas” or something equally benign.

4) Buy yourself a present, wrap it and stick it under the Christmas tree for opening on Christmas day.

5) Find a bar that does mulled wine and drink it – it’s wonderfully warm and smells like how I imagine cold Christmases should smell. You can also make mulled wine at home.

6) Buy mince pies. Sample lots of different ones to make sure you have ones you really like. Again you can make these at home too.

7) Do “relaxed” Christmas shopping – the aim here is to do it slowly – no one minds when presents arrive, and shopping is good for festivity, as long as it’s not manic.
Carol services – the more the better. I’ve been to three so far.

9) Church – this is kinda like the above but deserves its’ own point. Point of Christmas is God’s gift of Jesus. Church’s are the best place for reminding yourself of that. Try the closest Cathedral as they tend to “do Christmas” very well. Hit the right note of sombriety and festivity as my Mum said a few days ago. The singing will help, honestly.

10) This is a great time for relaxation and reflection. I recommend time at the gym, nice showers/baths with yummy smelling stuff, food that you *really* enjoy eating (and not just junk food), books that you love and rental DVDs of good Christmas movies to get you in the spirit. DVD-wise I recommend – The Holiday, Love Actually, Miracle on 34th St, Muppets Christmas Carol, Bridget Jones, About a Boy, and the Grinch.

Anything else any expats out there would like to contribute? How do/did you celebrate your expat Christmases?

 

Where have I been?

The answer, in its shortest form, is resting.

I’ve had patches of being unwell these past 6 months but the onset of swine flu, promptly followed by pneumonia (the trick I learned was not to expose yourself to cold air for an hour while trying to get rid of swine flu induced temperature) knocked me for six. Luckily for you, I don’t intend to dwell on that.

It’s Christmas and I’m really looking forward to the break and time for rest and reflection that this time of year brings. There are wonderful people to spend time with and an over-dressed Christmas tree to keep me excited. More importantly, I’ve had several awesome chances to share “the reason for the season” in the least cheesy way possible and that has been brilliant.

In a month I’m off to New York to see my little sister in her adopted habitat, to celebrate her 21st and to have loads of fun in a city I’ve never been to before. I’ve taken out proper (read: extra) travel insurance in case of need of hospital while there – I’m learning how best to deal with these bursting cysts while I wait for the initial appointment with the specialist. It’s going to be so great to see her (the sister not the specialist) again!

This wasn’t how I thought this year would end but as we’re all constantly learning I guess, things rarely work out as planned. I had thought I’d be on an adventure in a foreign country with VSO at this point but instead I’m going to be abseiling down a 12 floor building in central London with VSO in March to fundraise for them. I like VSO – they’re a good group of people doing marvellous work! Anyway more about that later…

It’s funny, if you’d told me how this year would end at the beginning I think I’d have tried to do everything I could to avoid the inevitable health issues and yet as it is I’m happy and joyful and glad to be here at Christmas surrounded by people I really care about. I’m lucky to be in a country that provides free healthcare (even when it frustrates me) and truly lucky to live around the corner from one of the best hospitals in the country where I have been treated superbly this year. (Merry Christmas UCH!) I had a wonderful weekend away in York last weekend and it was a wonderful chance to wind down and slide over icy pavements (those two don’t necessarily go together).

In short I’m glad to be alive, glad to be here, and really glad that 2010 brings it’s share of delights too.

I’ll be putting up a few Christmas and New Year posts but until 2010 starts, there’ll be a wee bit of rambling along to the 2009 finish line.

Merry Christmas all! I promise to be better at keeping up next year.

 

Friday Roundup – Week 2

I’m off to Cumbria for a long weekend of rest, relaxation and fun with friends for a birthday. It’s going to be great and I’m going to be disconnected, at least virtually, from the world to make the most of the weekend.

To keep you all busy until Tuesday when I might consider reconnecting myself, here’s a collection of interesting tidbits from my week’s reading:

1. As Donors Focus on AIDS, Child Illnesses Languish – NY Times 29/10/09

2. Independent Science Advisor sacked for giving Independent Science Advice – Imranblog 31/10/09

3. Kiwis suffering ‘green fatigue’ – Stuff 30/10/09

4. Fiji bars NZ and Australia envoys – BBC News 03/11/09 (expect more on this next week, y’know how much I love Fiji)

5. Further to last week’s article – In Eastern Bloc, Wary View of Democracy – WSJ 04/11/09

6. glamour and how nude ladies make me feel – sas’ magical mystery tour 02/11/09

7. IPCC head attacks world leaders – Guardian 01/11/09

8. How the Tories can curb public sector strikes – FT 27/10/09

9) Bad news from Kabul – ActionAid news blog 05/11/09

And last but by no means least, especially for my Kiwi friends:

10) Nominate a charity for 2010 - Kiwiblog 05/11/09

 

Uruguay takes on One Laptop Per Child

A little lunchtime blogging catchup.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has intrigued me ever since a senior member of the team came to speak to us at one of the early DESTIN Friday afternoon lectures at the LSE. I distinctly remember asking questions about internet access and social networking, based on my experiences with young people and TakingItGlobal - providing facilities for children and their families to connect with the wider world and in particular communities of other OLPC people to share ideas and encourage innovative use of the laptops.

For those who haven’t come across the OLPC project before, it aimed initially to provide laptops to kids all over the world who would not normally have access, for $100 (US) per child.  While this cost proved impossible, the cost has still been kept really low as mentioned below.

To me, it’s an incredibly sensible and exciting project as part of wider education projects and reform. Computer skills are increasingly necessary in today’s world, wherever you are. While basic needs must be met first, it is important that the skills needed to get ahead, to get jobs wherever, to help propel developing countries forward, including IT skills, are developed at a young age. The networking and education possibilities from internet access spark my excitement - years of talking and working with young people in many developing countries on youth development initiatives via TakingItGlobal has shown me the eagerness to learn, network and develop via the internet, largely from internet cafes for those I’ve worked with.

I was really pleased to see, therefore, news of Uruguay joining the small group of nations involved - with provision of an OLPC laptop for every pupil in state primary schools – in the BBC Tech news a couple of weeks ago. According to the article:

“The Uruguay programme has cost the state $260 (£159) per child, including maintenance costs, equipment repairs, training for the teachers and internet connection. The total figure represents less than 5% of the country’s education budget.”

As Miguel Brechner, head of the project in Uruguay, puts it “This is not simply the handing out of laptops or an education programme. It is a programme which seeks to reduce the gap between the digital world and the world of knowledge”.

Now that’s exciting!

 

Friday Roundup

I’ve decided to jump on another band wagon and join in on Friday roundups of the blogosphere.  So in no particular order, this week’s selection focuses on issues I’ve been thinking about this week:

1. Malawi education system needs a serious overhaul – Jimmy Kanja’s Blog 10/09/09

2. The Global Gender Gap Index - Kiwiblog 29/10/09

3. MMP Referenda - Kiwiblog 20/10/09 (I thought the background might help)

4. The World’s Best Pancake Recipe - kottke.org 29/10/09

5. Privacy is dead, and social media hold smoking gun – CNN special 28/10/09

6. Aid workers under fire - ODI Blog 30/10/09

7. So long and thanks for all the priests? – The Church Mouse on Comment is Free 29/10/09

And some interesting titbits from the news:

8. Democracy not needed in Russia - BBC 16/10/09

9. Facebook project gives world peace a chance – Guardian 28/10/09

 

Electoral systems, democracy and participation

[Edited when I realised that WP for iPhone failed me and lost most of the post - urgh!]

Last week the New Zealand Government announced not one but the possibility of two referenda on New Zealand’s electoral system, that is the way that citizens vote in politicians to represent them in Parliament. Despite the two or so years before the next election, and by default, as the Government plan, the referendum, people are getting excited. As one friend put it the “Vote Yes” of the s.59 debate has rapidly moved on to the “Vote MMP” – mobilising support across New Zealand (although I’m fairly sure the support base has varied a bit for these two campaigns.)

This is where I felt inspired last night on a bus and wrote  what I’d like to claim was a brilliant remainder of the post on encouraging people to engage and be educated about civics.  I talked about MMP, the things I liked about it, the things I wasn’t so happy with, and why a return to the two horse race of FPP didn’t seem like a good idea to me. I talked about the important role small parties play in ensuring greater consensus is reached around new, and amended, legislation. I wrote on the lack of compulsary education at school on any of this, and how this led to a deficit in understanding of how citizens can engage with politics, politicians and Government – from spending 10-15mins in a polling booth every three years to presenting the odd submission to a Select Committee.

An accountable government needs to have citizens that know how to participate and engage and I’m not sure that’s the case in NZ at the moment. I know it’s not the case in many other countries – as our discussion on the ActionAid news blog has highlighted. ‘Civics’ should be taught and participation should be encouraged from an early age if we want to have accountable MPs and engaged democracies.

 

Democracy and International Development

We’ve started a little conversation over at the ActionAid news blog on democracy and international development and since I much prefer more engagement (you know me on participation, politics and international development) on these things - I’d love a few more people to join the discussion.

No thought is too small!

 

Friday Afternoon Fun

I was reminded of this brilliant poem last weekend up in Todmorden.

You Are Old, Father William

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”

 

“You are old,” said the youth, “As I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

 

“You are old,” said the youth, “And your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.”

 

“You are old,” said the youth, “one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?”

“I have answered three questions, and that is enough,”
Said his father; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!”

Retrieved from “http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William“

 

Better Late Than Never – Blog Action Day 09

So I’ve finally done it – dedicating four posts to the issue of climate change for Blog Action Day 09, although that’s only three if you don’t count the video. I have to admit to running a little late this year but I’ve been unwell, just a cold, but it had me crook in bed for actual BAD09 last Thursday and then I ran off to Todmorden to spend a weekend in the hills on the border of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Better late than never.

That’s it for  posts today but expect posts on the One Laptop Per Child project, Democracy in Russia and even a poem for the rest of this week – I have a blogging plan.

On a side note – the Blog Action Day team tell me there were 31,000 total trackable blog posts, with 13,000 registered bloggers on the site.

From their email:

We had at least three major world governments as active participants in this year’s event. United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted the first Blog Action Day entry in Britain at the stroke of midnight on the 15th. The PSOE  governing party of Spain hosted a bloggers event focused on climate change and transformed their website for the day to promote Blog Action Day. And late in the day, President Barack Obama’s White House blog joined in become part of the global movement of bloggers shaking the web.

Well done to all who participated, I hope I’ve inspired a few people to read deeper into the issue, to think through the problems and come up with their own ideas for how to cut their carbon footprint. Me, I’m becoming obsessive about turning everything off before I leave the house in the morning to cut our electricity use when we don’t need it - every little bit counts.

 

This Climate Change Stuff

Written the night before BAD09 before I curled up in bed feeling ill.

I’m writing this on one of London’s new “green” buses hours before the launch of Blog Action Day (October 15) in the UK, which gives me pause for thought about this whole issue of climate change.

There are fewer climate change deniers than there were a few years ago and it strikes me that this is for one very good reason – in my experience the climate has changed over the past few years in the places I’ve lived. From the increasingly warm summers to the Easter snow in London – the climate has definitely changed here and the October snow in New Zealand this year seems to indicate a change there to. I’m simplifying this hugely but this is a problem because our earth wasn’t designed (or banged if you’re a big bang fan) to work under these extremes. More importantly, life as we know it – the freedom to use fuel as and when needed, eat certain fruit & veg in different seasons, get from a to b as easily as possible – must change if we are at all serious about this. The fuel is no longer available at the same carefree rate, the fruit and veg are struggling to adjust to changes in the climate, and the transport options we rely on are dodgy at best.

I was shocked the other day to discover that me flying home to NZ for a trip generates 2,683.45 Kg of CO2 according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation. That’s a lot more carbon dioxide than I’d ever imagined it would come out of a plane, let alone for just me. No wonder there’s problems.

So the following posts look at what action is taking place on this issue and how people are campaigning for Governments to take responsibility. I’d urge you to read, think and form your own opinions but above all else:

TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.