Would any of you in Australia mind going to see the movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and then writing up a quick review of it? It opens on Thursday there... but it will be a long time before I get to see it in Canada.

I read a review online and was intrigued. It is based on a book that tells the story of an aboriginal woman who ran away from an institution with her sister and cousin after being taken from her family at age 14. To get home, they followed a fence designed to exclude rabbits - considered vermin in Australia - for some 1,500 miles across the outback.

I'm intrigued to hear how it does at the box office in Australia.

Hyggelig - homelike, cosy, snug, comfortable (in Danish).

After many years, I finally tracked this word down! It became my partner's favourite word the year she worked as an engineer at Legoland in Billund, Denmark. I could never figure out how to spell it until today though since it always sounded like "hoogly" when she said it.

Now that I finally figured out the spelling, I could prowl around the Web and get a sense of whether the concept was as important to Danes as it has become to our home. Seems like it is. According to Rick Steves:

"Hyggelig is a way of life here. A Dane told me "Hyggelig is not quite cozy. Cozy is patronizing. Hyggelig is warm, real, intimate, friendly. While a Danish home is filled with books and paintings and fresh flowers, the flowers in an English home will likely be on the wall paper and on the upholstery. Homemade is hyggelig. Baking bread in England is almost eccentric. In Denmark, it's a part of you...it's the way to give something meaning. The English get together at a pub. And many pubs are as hyggelig as England can be. But a Dane will take a friend home. Partly because the price of alcohol is so high. But also because the best evening is at home — sitting around a candle with a nice wine and a good conversation. That's hyggelig."

Can I be Danish at heart?

Just to follow up on an update by eliza_t....

I dropped by the theology department at the University of Winnipeg the other day to take one of the professors out for coffee. She's a friend of a friend and since I didn't have time to take her class this term, I thought I should at least get to know her. We had an interesting conversation at the end of which she said, "You really should read something by Sharon Welch. She's a feminist theologian and much of what you have been saying [about TIG], sounds a lot like what she writes about." I hummed and hawed since I have a knee-jerk reaction against feminist anything (that I'm trying REALLY hard to get over)...

But, when I went home, I looked Sharon Welch up on the Web and came across some 1998 conference procedings with a speech by her.

I haven't had time to sort through it all yet, but there are 2 poems on the page that leapt out at me and that eliza_t's posting reminded me of:

Adrienne Rich, "Natural Resources"

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed

I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world.


Kate Rushin, "The Black Goddess"

I am not a Black Goddess,
I am not a Black Goddess,
Look at me
Look at me
I do what I can
That's about it
Sometimes I make it Sometimes I don't...

I still get Night Terrors
And sometimes it takes me weeks to
Answer a letter or make a phone call

I am not a Black Goddess
I am not a Black Goddess

Once though I was Harriet Tubman

I'd like to second Pred's suggestion that we create a discussion thread for health and sports. It's way too easy in life to get sucked into thinking that thinking is the most important thing. Especially at this time of the year (mid-winter in Canada), I find I fall into a routine of taking the bus to work, sitting in front of the computer there for 8 hours, slogging home, and then sitting front of the TV or computer for a few more hours before going to bed. I end up feeling like I'm living inside my head instead of in the world.

Fortunately, my friend Donna lives one block away and is great at dragging me to the gym. This morning, I got up early and went with her... she went to the studio cycle class; I grabbed a basketball and started shooting around. All of a sudden, it was like 12 years disappeared and I was back in high school shooting around on the evenings and weekends (boarding school = no entertainment). I had this big dopey grin on my face as I warmed up and found I could still hit turn around jump shots from the 3-point range. It was even funnier noticing the little nods of respect from a couple of guys who were about a foot and a half taller than me.

There's something viscerally satisfying about sports... I had forgotten how much I always enjoyed seeing myself get better at something. The satifying THWAP of kicking a paddle out of an instructor's hand at tae kwon do. The SWOOSH of a basket that doesn't touch the rim. I've never found anything comparable from mental/work achievements... It's so much harder to see progress.

Over the next month, Shalala Oliver Sepiso and I will be leading a Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) executive committee working group tasked to develop a methodology for supporting youth networks and their affiliation with the GKP. It has been recommended that the working group address capacity building issues such as access, financial resources and regional workshops as outlined in the framework of the draft Strategy 2005. The methodology needs to be completed by 15 March to be presented at the GKP's annual meeting - this year in Addis Ababa from April 4-6.

As the process moves along, I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas of what is needed. I anticipate opening up a discussion thread on this topic by the middle of next week.

In the meantime, you may want to read through the draft GKP strategy. Page 19 gives the outline of what they would like to do to facilitate inclusive and representative participation in global policy dialogue on ICTs for development. The strategy can be accessed in Word format through the GKP home page at http://www.globalknowledge.org