June is Portuguese Heritage Month in Vancouver and the festivities started today with a kick-off party at Vancouver's J Lounge. With Mariza singing in the background (don't get too excited, it was a DVD), free Portuguese wine, bolinhos de bacalhau and a few other goodies (no more mouth watering details, promise), the event started with an introduction by Terry Costa, Consultant to Government of Portugal in Canada (Arts & Culture Commission).
The event unfolded quickly, avoiding the pitfalls of long, boring, drawn out affairs and included short but memorable speeches from the Consul General of Portugal, Dr. Carlos Amaro, the Consul General of Brazil and City of Vancouver Councillor Raymond Louie who was representing the City and seemed genuinely thrilled to be there addressing the crowd.
The event wrapped with a little traditional music (rancho baby!) care of the Grupo Folclorico Ilha Verde who performed a couple of traditional ditties. I caught a few on video including this one which was my favorite of the bunch:
If you're interested, a few more videos here and here.
The month is full of special events celebrating Portuguese culture. The entire schedule of events is available at http://www.portuguesemonth.com/. If you attend an even and happen to be on Twitter, I urge you to use the non-official (aka Decreed by Marina, Of No Particular Importance) #yvrphm.
I'm hoping to make it out to a few events. You can keep track of all the happenings via pictures in my newly created Portuguese Heritage Month Set.
This is so awesome, I'm not even sure where to start. On the eve of Portuguese Heritage Month which kicks off in June, I get word from the fabulous Terry Costa (Terry really is fabulous - the man is a machine and I love him for all of his hard work) that Portuguese is now a recognized language in BC meaning that students can take Portuguese classes (if offered I guess) towards their high school graduation. Here's the official press release:
This week, on a visit to British Columbia, Portugal’s Secretary of State for Communities, Dr. Antonio Braga, received a two-part gift from Hon. Ben Stewart, Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism. First, the Province of British Columbia acknowledgement of the Portuguese participation in the region since 1850s with a proclamation for Portuguese Heritage Month (June 2010) and the most important words that Portuguese-language begins to be recognized, as of August 2010, as an elective language towards credits for high-school diplomas.
This news gives Terry Costa, Canada’s Consultant to Portugal (Language, Education and Culture Commission) great pride. “As a Canadian of Portuguese roots, I am ecstatic with this great news,” says Costa “finally my ancestors language is being acknowledge by my province as an important part of our culture.” Costa who founded Portuguese Heritage Month in 2004 adds that the news arriving a few days before the launch of the 2010 festivities, especially at a time of lack of funding and support, give that extra incentive towards the celebrations and notes that he hopes to see an increase in enrolment in Portuguese-language studies, “now that students can work towards elective credits to complete their high-school diploma”. Also, as the VP for the Portuguese-Canadian National Congress, Costa acknowledges that it is time for the language and culture to join the ranks of other languages like German and Spanish that have been granted these opportunities many years ago.
Portuguese speakers worldwide are estimated well over 210 million. Portuguese language is the 6th most spoken in the planet, 3rd on the internet. Eight countries have Portuguese as the official language: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guine-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal (including the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira Islands), S. Tome & Principe and Timor; as well, due to historic ties, various regions of the world including Macau (China) and Goa/Damao (India) celebrate their Portuguese influences. The Portuguese language crosses all continents and its emigrants and descendants can be found in British Columbia since 1850s. An estimated 50,000 B.C. residents hail from a Portuguese region or are descendants of the Portuguese.
This is so exciting! It's wonderful to see my heritage honoured this way - can't wait to break out all the red and green for both Portuguese Heritage Month and World Cup!
Twilight fans in the audience and living in BC should pay extra close attention.
A casting call has gone out from Aikins/Cossey (found via The Vancouver Sun Online) has put out a casting call for individuals between the ages of 15 and 25. Candidates will receive scripts and be asked return the same day to read for a part.
Details:
Victoria: Feb. 7, Paul's Motor Inn, 1900 Douglas St., 9 a.m. to noon Vancouver: Feb.8, Second Avenue Studios, 225 W. 2nd Ave., 9 a.m. to noon Kelowna: Feb. 8, Delta Grand Okanagan, 1310 Water St., 9 a.m. to noon
When the buzz started to generate about Vancouver stepping up and offering up our beautiful city for the Winter Olympics, I knew this wouldn't end well. I realize the importance of an event like this one but the city simply wasn't ready. We had so many other issues to deal through before we could get around to even thinking about hosting an event this size yet, City officials forged ahead, winning the bid.
For many, there was elation at the announcement but some of us wereconcerned.
Now there's this issue of the Olympic Village, cost overruns and the taxpayers having to shoulder the cost of the development. If that's not bad enough, the project is into major cost overruns, behind schedule and even when all is said and done and the
Olympics are over, we're going to be stuck as owners of these fabulous properties that will either be sold below cost or the City will have to hold onto them until the market returns to healthier levels. I've been reading a few bits and pieces in various different papers and all the experts seem to agree - this is going to be bad. Really bad.
This morning I was reading a piece over the The Georgia Straight that paints an even grimmer picture and the costs of these games just keep on rising. And if it wasn't bad enough to be going through this when the economy was looking decent, imagine dealing with this while we're in recession? They're estimating that BC residents could be paying this off for their entire lifetimes.
Is it worth it? It may be for those of above average income but the rest of us are going to feel the pain and no, I don't think it's worth it. But we're too far in now.
The action in the UK. Fitting to have the Ambulance up front and center.
Picture care of Nicolas Masse on Flickr.
One of the oddest of competitions is coming to BC this weekend.
The cheese rolling seems to have started in Gloucestershire, UK and it's now making it's way across the ocean and North America to end up at Whistler.
It's an interesting concept: a cheese comes rolling down a hill and the crowd comes tumbling after it in an effort to get to it before everyone else. As you can possibly imagine, it makes for some hysterical entertainment. All the fun starts Saturday, August 16th at noon. The actual rolling starts at 1PM at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. There's apparently a number of heats (for men and women) and the winners will take home some lift passes along with the 11lb cheese they chased down the hill.
If I was in town this weekend, I'd certainly be moaning to make a trip to Whistler. If you're looking for more info on where to watch or how to join in the fun by participating, be sure to check out the official website. I hope this is a huge success and that they keep it up for more than a year. I'm still getting over the disappointment that Flugtag never came back. And here we'd designed our entry and everything...
And what better way to get excited than by seeing the event in action. Check out this video from this year's event in, where else, Gloucestershire:
We're at the brink of an energy crisis. Gas prices around town are currently sitting a $1.47. That's whole lot of money to fill up your tank.
If that's not enough, Terasen wants to hike the price of your natural gas. And then there's that nasty global warming/climate crisis on everyone's mind. So how does the BC Government react? They add a new tax and then give everyone $100 to make up for it.
I know, it's a bum deal. $100 won't go very far even in that environmentally friendly Prius but it's all we get and I say be happy you're even getting that. At the last Bookcrossing Meeetup, fellow booklover and blogger Monnibo mentioned that The Tyee was encouraging folks to put their $100 to good use. It makes good sense too. On it's own it isn't much but if everyone were to pool their $100, we'd have a nice pot of money to put towards an initiative that may actually make a change.
So, head over to Green Your Campbell Cash and have a voice on how you'd like to see your $100 spent! I'm certainly putting this into consideration for my $100!
Yesterday, the BC Government introduced a new tax on fossil fuels which will raise taxes on gas by 2.4cents/litre. In return, every man, woman and child will get a $100 tax credit which, apparently offsets the cost. I'd like to see what sort of 'new funny math' (as my Gr. 10 Science teacher used to call it) they're using to figure that one out. Sure, it might be OK for folks that don't pay for natural gas and don't have a car but what portion of the population is that?
It all seems a bit fishy to me...I'm more inclined to believe the idea that this is all a way to offset ballooning Olympic costs.
God, now more than ever I'm leaning towards the NDP.
