It’s frightening that in Canada we’re now jailing people who haven’t been formally charged with a crime. But in this case, I can’t help but wonder if the action is worth the possible slippery slope it appears this court decision puts us on. Specifically, the news that Racist web postings land white supremacist in jail is welcome. The disturbing element is that the jail time (9 months) has been assigned without the laying of criminal charges. I’m not a lawyer, so perhaps ignoring a pre-existing court order is sufficient to get around the requirement to be charged with an office before being jailed.

Feel free to educate me in the comments.

You have to wonder about the type of home environment people with these views grew up in. I’m tired of the old “child of immigrants” schtick. I’m the child of immigrants and I certainly was never taught to believe anything of this nature. In fact, I’d have to say my parents taught me that people are to be viewed on a individual (personal) basis based on what they say and do. Painting entire swaths of people with the same brush is ludicrious.

h/t to the Blogging Party of Canada

Technorati Tags: white supremacist in jail, immigrants

Please bear with me today as I’m playing with some of the templates on the blog. The sidebar may be displaying some odd things until I get everything worked out.

After work today a few of us got together and headed to Dencios for breakfast. As far as I understand it, Dencios is a local restaurant chain. You won’t find many western foods there, but if you like sissig and lumpiang shanghi then you’ll probably enjoy your meal.

When Paul and I took the trainees to breakfast here a few months back (it was Paul’s birthday), we took a table inside the restaurant. They don’t have air conditioning – just electric fans – so after a short stay the room was unbearably hot. The main room also becomes so noisy that it’s nearly impossible to hear the person next to you.

This time, we managed to score a table on the patio. For the first time in days, I saw sunlight. Alas, my joy was short lived. Within an hour of our arrival the sky began to darken. Since the patio is covered no one wanted to move inside – especially not with the nice breeze combined with electric fans outside. Tables were hastily shifted away from the edge of the patio and under the wooden overhang.

When the rain came down, it landed fast and hard. Back home, we’d describe it as “sheets of rain” or in some circles “buckets”. It wasn’t as hard as the rain that came with the typhoon and the storm was over in about 45 minutes but I’m definitely getting tired of rain. Similar rainfalls took place in the middle of the night in Makati yesterday. I only remember it raining like this once or twice when I was in India during monsoon season. I can’t imagine having to live with rain like this everyday for months on end. Then again, most people I talk to here can’t imagine living where the weather can dip to -50C (Winnipeg) in winter or where it’s still sunny at 10:00pm (Edmonton) in summer.

I know I haven’t done much except talk about the rain recently. Unlike my trip to India where my daily babbles often centered on food and religion, I just haven’t managed to dive whole hog into the food here. When I was in India, I tried everything I can get my hands on and loved a lot of it. Filipino food is, to my palate, quite bland or too sweet. I also don’t like a lot of fat on my meat, so there’s a number of dishes I’ve tasted that I’m really not interested in ever having again. Other things, such as balut, will never pass through my lips. I’ve no interested in eating a semi-formed duck embryo!

Technorati Tags: Manila, rain, food, balut

Mayon volcano, approximately 210 km south east of Manila, erupted on 07/14/06. It’s happened before and I’m sure it’ll happen again. What’s so amazing about this little tidbit of information is that I didn’t learn about it from any local news source. Despite being smack dab in the middle of Makati, I learned about the eruption when my husband sent me an instant message. Apparently, news of the volcano’s discontent appeared on Canoe.ca. It’s amazing how fast information can travel internationally when it’s barely made mention of locally.

Technorati Tags: mayon volcano, manila

Typhoon Florita made landfall in Manila and I slept through it. Actually, rain was falling in sheets when I left work at 7am and the drive home was slow. It was difficult to see anything through the windshield but luckily the trip back to the hotel from work is very short. The bulk of the wind and rain apparently struck around 2pm when I was snug in bed.

Many of my co-workers weren’t as lucky. Houses began flooding from the constant rain on Wednesday and by Thursday many people were armed with buckets and desperately trying to shift the water from the inside to the outside where it belongs. According to those who have been affected, certain areas of the city are commonly affected by flooding in the “rainy” season. This is scheduled to keep up until at least another month and a half…

The time it takes them to travel to work has doubled and in some cases tripled. Pau has resorted to taking a taxi to work just to make it on time – but this has resulted in a distinct dip in her bank account. The two hour trip by bus and jeepney is far more affordable than taxi’s.

Technorati Tags: typhoon florita, Manila, flood