World Leaders @ MindSay

We be jammin'! It's that time of year and the grapes are picked and this morning they'll be transformed to a marvelous jam! This year the yield was almost doubled from the year before, on vines I planted several years ago now... 7 maybe, I've lost track now... but I should be close. It's surprising how much patience I've developed while waiting for the vines to reach full production. This year the bunches were large and so are many of the grapes themselves... and so very sweet! Perfect!
What is most fun is knowing these young and hardy vines will now continue to produce for 30 or more years. Not many other garden plants can make that claim! Provided the grape vines are well cared for and healthy they can continue on far longer, but who knows where I'll be then, or if the house will still be standing then - not replaced with a downtown skyscraper, so I won't concern myself too much with that! he! he!

I must say I'm elated with the whole grape thing. Grapes are very nutritious, loaded with vitamins, iron and anti-oxidants and a chemical that helps to prevent heart disease, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Wine too, has the same benefits, which we've all heard touted over the past 10 years or more. Adding greatly to the popularity and interest in Canadian and American wines. Still, I prefer to have some toasted multigrain bread with grape jam on a regular basis rather than the "glass of wine a day" recommendation. My jam keeps better than a bottle of wine, and it doesn't turn to vinegar if it takes me more than a week to finish the jar!

While I was picking my grapes I got to thinking about all the stories in the news yesterday and have to say I was very disappointed that the UN's declared International Day of Peace got next to no press coverage even though people from around the world are very supportive of it. All the world leaders hanging out in New York City  for the 61'st general session of the UN didn't even seem to  acknowledge this momentous day. The fact that over 160 countries and over a thousand worldwide organizations were involved didn't make it newsworthy. Tens of thousands of people around the world observed the day despite being ignored by our leaders and our press. When we are more interested in highlighting the words and deeds of those who purport and support destruction, harm and oppressive ideologies we are simply giving those things more strength and ignoring the desire for a peaceful, fair and prosperous world that the citizens of the world hold strongly. It's a shame that the political games of world leaders and the blusterings of groups and individuals hold the attention of far too many and yet we don't reprimand any one of them for not observing the desires of the "average joe's", just like you and me, around the world. President Bush went fund raising yesterday and I don't recall hearing Steven Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, mention anything about the peace movement either.

It tells the tale only too well - wake up people of the earth - our world leaders don't truly desire peace - how much more obvious can it be? The press corps are obviously not interested either, otherwise a least a smidgeon of information, perhaps some lovely photographs of some of the celebrations that occured would've been visible. It seems, like many other things that need fixing in our world, the change will continue to be a very slow process until the people are unified in their commitment to demanding peaceful efforts, tolerance and respect from their leaders. It must be a world wide effort. Would people rather we fall into full out war and destruction? No. Yet we are headed there if we can't temper our emotions and learn to cooperate with each other, finding those things that make us all similar - like the desire for freedom and peace and prosperity for all!
I'm still hopeful!
Yet I am disappointed that this year couldn't be the year that marked the turn of conscience that leads to a world we all crave dearly!
While I prepare and enjoy my jam and think of those lovely vines I've grown, I'll also wonder how many jars of jam will I eat before the world "out there" can highlight and reflect the peace, nuturing and contentment that is displayed in our enchanted garden?


Grape making photos might follow in a day or two, too bad I can't offer you a sample of it's delicious goodness. It's such simple pleasures that truly are life's finest treasures!

Ooh... sorry... wrong headline. My bad

 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, displaying a book by Noam Chomsky critical of U.S. foreign policy.

 

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and declaring to the annual meeting of the General Assembly that its system is "worthless."

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body Tuesday from the same lectern. "And it smells of sulfur still today."

Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world," and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement. (Watch Hugo Chavez cross himself as he tells world leaders he can smell the devil -- 1:06)

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' "

Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: "The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated."

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, later told CNN that "I think that [Chavez's] rhetoric today shows exactly what kind of man he is."

Bolton said: "We're not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.

"The real issue here is he knows he can exercise freedom of speech on that podium and, as I say, he could exercise it in Central Park, too. He's not giving the same freedom to the people of Venezuela."

Chavez's tirades against Bush have become common. In May, he accused Bush of committing genocide and said the U.S. president should be imprisoned by an international criminal court. (Full story)

Oil supplies loom large in any discussion of U.S.-Venezuela relations. Venezuela was the world's ninth-largest oil producer in 2004 and the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, accounting for 11.2 percent of U.S. imports in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Double-standard accusation

Chavez also directed his criticism Wednesday to the United Nations, calling the General Assembly "merely a deliberative organ" that meets once a year.

"We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world," he said.

Chavez called the veto power shared by the five permanent members of the Security Council "anti-democratic," and cited the U.S. veto of a resolution that would have demanded the Israelis halt their bombing of Lebanon this summer.

That move "allowed the Israelis with impunity to destroy Lebanon in front of us all as we stood there watching," Chavez said. He recommended that the world body's headquarters be moved to another country and offered his own as a possible new home.

Chavez also alleged that the United States is planning, financing and setting in motion a coup to overthrow him. The U.S. has denied such accusations in the past.

He accused the U.S. government of having a double standard, protecting terrorists when it suits its leaders.

He noted that he recently returned from a summit of more than 50 heads of state from nonaligned nations in Havana, Cuba, and urged his audience to support their efforts for "a world of peace."

Lest his remarks had not been clear, he closed to applause by saying, "It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all."

yesterday, i was on myspace, and someone sent me a message

they said that they saw me at tower city kissin someone

and i was like okay, if you did

and then they popped back and said that it was a boy

i'm like WTF?

are you sure that it was me

they was like

yeah, it is unless it's that kid that goes to that other school

i'm like, no it's not jordan or anyone else for that matter,

i was salty as hell though

but some people think i'm gay

cause i mess around with a lot of people

i'm like i'm not gay, not bi for that matter

just think of me as a "sexual" or "sensual" person

no, not a nympho

i'm not going to fuck for the fun of it, if you think about it

 

today we had a world history project where

certain students had to dress up as famous world leaders

i had to dress up as FDR, and came up there looking like

the new and improved Malcolm X,

people took a picture of me with the stupid glasses i had on

i'ma see if i can put it on here tomorrow, cause i looked dumb as hell

lol

it was funny, but yesterday i didn't like american idol

only Kat and Elliott sounded good

i love Donny Hathaway

he can sing like whitney houston

 

i have that new rihanna song stuck in my head, unfaithful and it is getting to the point where i want to

shoot someone

 

all of the poems that i wrote recently (including the if i had a crush) are on that beat

it's annoying as hell

my sister and i were arguing, she said that alicia keys and jamie foxx are gay, and i'm like no they are not

just because alicia dresses tomboyish (or used too) doesn't mean that she is one, and jamie is a little feminine

to me, but that's my opinion

 

i gotta go, cause my mom and dad are gonna be trippin if i don't come home and see that i didn't pick up the car from the shop with my father

i told them i have a makeup test to take, which is the truth, but i didn't go, so i really don't care

i don't know if i should let my sister ann read chapter 2 to my story or not

all those who read it know that there's some content that she might find offensive or not, but i don't care

 

in biology, we watched a movie on charles darwini think that charles darwin was dumb as hell, saying that we evolved from monkeys, that's the stupidest thing i've ever heard, minus the fact that big sis nicole thinks that alicia keys is gay