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    Re-Imagining Ireland by Unknown

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    The Transformation of Ireland by Diarmid Ferriter

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    Midnight\’s Children by Salman Rushdie

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Recent Posts

Freshman in the Kitchen is on its way!

gpepper.jpg

On Monday Max and I picked up a final edition of the new cookbook that he and Eli wrote–it’s beautiful!! The book will debut on August 15th, but you can pre-order copies by going to the Freshman in the Kitchen website right now. The picture above is in the book, as are one or two others that I took in LA in the fall. Hahaha, now I’m a credited photographer…Who knew?

eli.jpgshmj.jpgAlas…these two pictures, my favorites, did not make the cut for the book. I had hoped they’d make the bios page. Anyway, Max and Eli will be doing a number of parties and events surrounding the release of the book in August, so you should make sure to check the website regularly.

Max and I just got done with a really great catering gig on Saturday–not exactly a book promo, but certainly a good way to advertise Max’s talents. I helped a lot with the prep beforehand, and provided expert assistance the night of. It was a wine-tasting/dinner party for 12, and Max created an amazing 7 course tasting meal. Here’s a look at the menu:

Farmer’s Market Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Tantre Farm mixed greens

Caldillo de Congrio
A rich and bold Chilean fish and vegetable soup

Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kabob
Chicken breasts skewered and grilled, served with Mango Mint Chutney and Garlic Yogurt

Shrimp in Chili Sauce with Argula
Gulf shrimp pan-seared with garlic, hot pepper, and white wine over a bed of Tantre Farm arugula

Grilled Halibut and Chilean Slaw
Served with Spring Onion and Garlic Scape Risotto and Avocado Cilantro Sla

Chili Marinated Grilled Lamb with Salsa Verde
Lamb loin chops marinated in Marash pepper and garlic, then grilled. Accompanied by Pebre (a Chilean herb salsa) , buttered new potatoes, and sautéed squash

Lonnie’s Honey Cheesecakes
Cheesecake in a local spring wildflower honey caramel sauce, served with graham crackers and berries

A Selection of Cookies: Almond Chocolate Biscotti, Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, and Aunt Beth’s Rugelach

Mmm.

On honey bees

honey6.jpgI’ll bet you didn’t know that one third of the food crops grown in the US–the world’s largest food supplier–need to be pollinated by bees. Well, I didn’t know the exact number either, but I did know how important bees are to the food system, and I’ve been following the controversy caused by the alarming disappearance of bees the world over for quite some time–in part due to my interest in world food systems and sustainable agriculture…but also because my next door neighbor, Lonnie Compeau, is a beekeeper.

A recent headline in the Telegraph (also linked to above) reads “Food prices threatened by silence of the bees.” According to testimony in Congress:

In the US, bee pollination is estimated to be responsible for $15 billion (£7.5 billion) each year of crop value. Apples, strawberries, almonds and onions are among the varied produce that rely on the insects.

However, since 2006, beekeepers have been reporting drastic and unexplained reductions in bee numbers.

This year, colony collapse disorder (CCD) saw numbers fall by 36 per cent - a five per cent increase on 2007 – with some beekeepers losing 90 per cent of their bees.

Lonnie experienced the same “silence of the bees” at his own hives, losing at least half, if not more like 70 percent of the population that used to call his hives home.

honey1.jpg Lonnie is a great neighbor. Whenever the sun is shining, you’re bound to find him sitting on his porch with neighbors, or chatting to the passers-by about the weather, about politics, or about interesting things he’s seen or heard around the neighborhood. Now retired, he’s been keeping bees for I think at least 20 years. The hives are in nearby Manchester, and every so often Lonnie brings the combs home to process into honey in his kitchen. He then sells the honey (spring wildflower, fall wildflower, raw, or beeswax) right off of his front porch. Lonnie sells the honey on the honor system, and his prices are less expensive than what you will pay in a store–and the honey is much more delicious. That’s Lonnie on his front porch, taking off his beekeeping suit.

honey7.jpgThis is a picture of an active hive. Each of these boxes hold several honeycombs–or, I should say, what will be honeycombs once the bees create them. The boxes are then stacked, and little holes like the one you see here are created so the bees can get in and out. Walking home about a week or so ago, I was surprised to see Lonnie in his driveway in his beekeeper suit, working away at cleaning out an old hive. Seems a colony of bees had moved into the old hive and were setting up shop, so Lonnie figured he should clean their new home and make sure they’d be able to live and make honey.

honey2.jpgHe had taken the inactive hives home from Manchester to eventually clean them out, and left them stacked next to his house like this. The silver canister-like object in the picture is used to blow smoke at the bees to keep them calm while working with them. Bees are apparently easily stressed out; according to Lonnie, he could not just take the hive with the bees in it back to Manchester, as most would not survive the trip. They don’t like to be moved. I think this has something to do with the fact that you can’t just farm and ship bees into an area to make up for those that are disappearing.

honey4.jpgI’d never seen anyone in real life in a beekeeper’s suit before, and it was pretty strange to see someone calmly working away in their driveway while hundreds of bees buzzed around his head. (Especially since I was accompanied by one whose name will not be mentioned who absolutely freaks out when a single bee flies in the vicinity. Ahem. That person didn’t stick around to watch!) But it was fascinating. I had to get a closer look.

honey5.jpgLonnie gave me a brief overview of how the hives work while I took some pictures. Here he is giving me a close-up of one of the combs. This was actually already in the frame when these bees moved in, and to be honest I can’t remember how he decided which needed to be scrapped and which were okay to keep, although I think it’s best if they start from scratch. Lonnie also showed me where the queen was, how the bees make a new queen, and made sure that there was only one in each of the two hives he now has at the side of his house.

honey8.jpgLonnie believes that man-made pesticides (he referred to “nicotides” but I can’t find information about them on the internet) are responsible for the disappearance of the bees, and he doesn’t have much faith that a solution will be found, or that the chemical companies that make these nicotides will stop using them because of the impact on bees (not when they are making a profit, anyway). Sigh. There have been other theories, such as cellphone towers that interfere with the ability of bees to find their way home, but as far as I know scientists have not singled anything out.

honey9.jpgAs a final thought, I’d encourage people to find out more, and to support your local beekeepers. Lonnie’s porch is always open to those of you who live in and around Ann Arbor, and I’m sure he’d like to meet you. Not only is honey delicious, but local honey is good for fighting allergies. My friend Michael tells me that if you have allergies, you need local honey from a range of 3 to 5 miles from your home. Looks like I’m set this year, with all these honey-makers moving in right next door…

michigan summer

strawberry1.jpgI’ve got so many posts I’ve been meaning to write, but have been so busy lately. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, though, about how much I love this place in the summer…and about how I might only live here for one more month (more on that later!). So this post will hopefully be the first in a series, or maybe I will even make my blog more of a priority in the coming weeks. Yesterday while taking a trip in the car I actually thought about going for a walk to take pictures of all the flowers and the pretty houses around here, so that I might remember what this place looks like when I am gone. It’s really more of a feeling that I will miss, and my friends and memories of good times. Ah, but there will be plenty to come.

strawberry2.jpgMoving on, here are some pictures from a recent strawberry-picking trip that I went on with Max, Eitan, and Joanna. Unfortunately, the only picture I have of Eitan and Jo on this trip is one of them bending over…so I’ll save that one for private use. Ha. One of my favorite things about the summer is the harvest, and the plethora of places there are within a short driving distance to pick fruit and vegetables oneself.

strawberry3.jpgThe strawberry farm pictured here is in Belleville, and unfortunately they use pesticides. You can kinda tell by the incredible size of some of the berries, as well as by how perfect they look. Oh, and the white residue on some of the plants’ leaves kind of gives it away. Ordinarily I wouldn’t like to pick or eat non-organic fruit/veggies (a privileged decision, I know!), but as far as I know there are no organic strawberry farms around here. (And of course, when I think of an organic farm, I am not picturing a monoculture, but that’s a conversation for a different time.) So on this trip, I did not eat the strawberries in the field (one of the best parts of picking one’s food!) and made sure not to touch my orifices (!) until washing my hands real well later on. (Look: I may be focused on Irish politics most of the time, but lest you forget, I did study sustainable agriculture and environmental justice for years and work on an organic farm!)

strawberry4.jpgAt the end of the evening, I think we had amassed about 44 pounds of strawberries betwixt the four of us. (”Betwixt”–a wonderful word that I am using here for the first time! You haven’t seen the last of that, I’m afraid!) I’m not sure what Eitan and Joanna did with theirs, but Max and I promptly created a ridiculously delicious strawberry tart with orange pastry cream. Yum

Stay tuned for my next post, where I discuss something just a delicious and a lot more local…

The politics of the here and now

The following article from the Andersonstown News Thursday edition was written by Father Des Wilson:

MANY people must wish our friend and neighbour Brian Keenan had  lived to see the free and united Ireland he wished for, Ireland shared and governed by all of us.
A local newspaper referred to Brian as “a diehard militarist”.
It did not ever refer to Mr Bush or Mr Blair as diehard militarists although they led whole nations into unnecessary and immoral wars costing hundreds of thousands of lives.
Or Winston Churchill.
Brian, unlike them, but like his fellow republicans, believed in using arms not as a first resort but as a last one. He differed from those who support, pay for and glory in  imperial armies.
For Irish republicans, war comes only after trying every other means of getting good government.
There is another difference between our friend Brian and those who control or encourage state armies – he believed that while war is being waged the work to stop it should already have begun. War has to end in  peace, not in a victory which reinforces the evils that began it.
Young people will ask what awful abuse of government could have induced a man of the intelligence and insight of Brian to go to war.
They can ask also whom they care most about, men and women who worked to bring peace out of war or those politicians who worked and connived  to turn a peaceful Irish  civil rights movement into war because they thought they could win the war, being unable or unwilling to create civil rights?
Those are real issues we do well not to forget – some politicians now are being awarded prizes for peace whose main contribution was to stop hindering peace. Not to create peace, but to stop hindering those  creating it.
Brian was one of the peace makers, doing that most difficult of things, making peace out of war. Unlike the politicians who made war out of peace.
All our people have suffered too much. Our future political acts should surely have one important test – are they likely to cause more suffering, or to bring the peace that decent people like Brian and his family and friends want? As he said, we are here, this is where we are now, the important thing is to see the next practical step we can take towards what we want Ireland to be.
Small step , big step, it can be either, but it must be the next practical or possible step from where we are now.  Wishing we were somewhere else – or should be – is consoling  but not useful. Wishing we could make a great leap to our objective is exciting but not useful either. Asking what is the next  practical step we can take from where we are now towards re-making our Ireland, that is creative.
And we all have a good part to play in discovering  what that step is and how we can make it with dignity for us all.
The vast numbers who paid tribute to Brian and his family showed how deeply our people think about such things and how our thinking is done not to government order  but according to our own rules and standards.
So we discipline government. And we heal  the hurts  among our friends.

Look how far I’ve come…

flamingtower.jpgBehold the infamous flaming tower!  To think I went without meat for 15 years…

Former IRA Prisoners in the US Call for Final Resolution of Legal Status; Irish American Groups United in Support

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 22, 2008— As the peace process in the north of Ireland continues to unfold, a group of former IRA prisoners now living in the United States is launching a campaign to bring a permanent resolution to their legal status in the U.S.  Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC) president Kate McCabe, Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) president Jack Meehan, and Irish Northern Aid (INA) president Paul Doris today declared their enthusiastic support for the newly formed “Thar Saile.”

Paul Harkin, vice president of the IAUC and a former prisoner himself, announced the formation of Thar Saile, Irish for “Overseas.” Thar Saile is made up of former prisoners, many of whom have faced deportation, who have been peacefully and productively living, working, and raising families in the US for decades.  Many are married to American wives and are the fathers of American born children.

In one of his last acts before leaving office in 2000, President Clinton announced that deportation proceedings against these men would be halted and they would move into “deferred action” status.  This action was hailed both as a victory for the Irish American community and as a part of the peace dividend for those courageously working to end the ongoing conflict in the north of Ireland.  It has become clear, however, that this remains unfinished business.

“The status of these men is unclear and ambiguous,” said Harkin.  “We cannot travel back to Ireland to visit family; work permit renewals are an ongoing problem, frequently jeopardizing employment; and the deferred action umbrella did not cover all of the former prisoners in the U.S., some of whom are still living in the shadows.”

The IAUC has released a document entitled “Prisoners of Peace.”  This document makes the case that reintegration of former prisoners is a first and critical step in any peace process.  Ironically, in the north of Ireland, former prisoners are holding elected office and working together to build a new society.  Only in the U.S. is their status still unresolved.

The objective of Thar Saile is to end the uncertainty for these men and their families by providing them with a permanent legal status and the right to live, work, and travel unencumbered.   Thar Saile will launch a broad-based education and communication campaign around this issue and will work with their supporters around the US to bring this issue to the attention of all major political candidates.

Former Prisoners are available for interviews.

ah, belfast…

hw-web.jpgWell, I’m here, and probably should have been in bed a while ago, considering tomorrow is my big speech at the Cultural Economy Conference. Could it be that the “Douwe Egberts Excellent Continental Gold Instant Koffie” they put in the hotel room is keeping me awake? I’m thinking…no. Oh, for a cup of delicious drip coffee that doesn’t taste like brown water.

My hotel is nice, despite the fact that during dinner on my first night we were all forced to evacuate the hotel. Loyalist bomb threat, you ask? No, just a fire in the kitchen. At least, that’s what I think the chef said as he came running out the front door of the hotel waving his arms and telling us it was safe to go back inside. Luckily it wasn’t my moist and delicious organic chicken that had set off the alarms. Mmm.

Had a most delicious meal tonight at a restaurant called Molly’s Yard, complete with an equally delicious Molly’s Chocolate Stout that is brewed locally. Who said there’s no good food in Belfast, and that everything people eat has to be beige? Not me! At least, not till now.

Pictured is the Harland and Wolff shipyard in the distance, as seen from across the Lagan near my hotel. Have not been, might go. Shipbuilding was once huge in Belfast (they built the Titanic here, after all), and the industry was infamous for discriminating against Catholics.

Incidentally, my friend believes her great-grandfather was once a harbormaster in Belfast. I hope to make it to the Belfast Harbor Commission while I am here to see if I might find out more information about him for her.

Congressman Neal’s statement on behalf of West Belfast’s Cultural Economy Conference

It’s in!  The following is a statement from Congressman Richie Neal (D, MA), Chairman of the Friends of Ireland group in the House, in support of tomorrow’s Cultural Economy Conference in West Belfast:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 7, 2008

CONTACT: William Tranghese (202) 225-5601

 

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN RICHARD E. NEAL

CHAIRMAN OF THE FRIENDS OF IRELAND

ON THE CULTURAL ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

AND THE ROLE OF U.S. INVESTMENT

IN NORTHERN IRELAND

 

(WASHINGTON) The following is a statement issued today by Congressman Richard E. Neal, Chairman of the Friends of Ireland in the U.S. House of Representatives, on the Cultural Economic Conference in West Belfast and the role of U.S. investment in Northern Ireland.

 “On the first anniversary of the historic return of the power-sharing institutions, I would like to extend my personal greetings and best wishes to the participants of the Cultural Economy Conference in West Belfast. Having been a regular visitor to West Belfast for nearly 20 years, I am very aware of the long and distinguished history of that community. I have many close friends from West Belfast, including Gerry Adams and Bairbre de Brun, and those relationships are stronger than ever. In fact, I look forward to visiting with them and the people of West Belfast at the end of the month.

 As someone whose ancestors were from Ireland, I am a strong supporter of the use and promotion of the Irish language. I know how important it is to the local culture, and I appreciate what the language means to so many people across the island of Ireland. As a result, I am confident that the Cultural Economy Conference will succeed in its worthwhile effort to preserve and promote the Irish language in the 21st Century.

 As Chairman of the Friends of Ireland in the United States House of Representatives, I also want to mention the major investment conference that is currently underway in Belfast. More than 100 senior American business executives have traveled north to participate in this important event. They recognize the potential for economic growth that now exists. And their visit serves as another reminder that Northern Ireland is a society in the process of unprecedented transformation.

 I was very pleased when the New York City Comptroller announced in April that he was investing $150 million in the Emerald Infrastructure Development Fund. This unprecedented action represents the largest public investment in Northern Ireland from the United States. I am strongly encouraging others from both the public and private sector to do the same.

 But I also hope that these historic investments are done in a fair and equitable manner. To help underpin the peace process, the peace dividend must benefit the people and communities that need help the most. As we enter this new era of peace, prosperity and equality, I will continue to tell my colleagues in the United States that Northern Ireland is now open for business. But I will also remind them that investing in a shared future must be done fairly, equitably and justly. Thank you very much.”

#30#

Now, let’s hope I wasn’t too much of a pest in making this happen…

“Micks for O’Bamagh”

iwforobama.jpgA friend of mine helped put together an ad hoc group of Irish American writers and actors who support Obama, which debuted this week with this ad and an article in the Irish Echo. The group formed partly in an effort to fight back against the mainstream media’s stereotype/generalization of the Irish American working class as being racist, and also obviously to express their support for Obama in advance of Pennsylvania’s rapidly-approaching primary. Some excerpts from the Echo article by Ray O’Hanlon:

The signing group, 22 in number, write that “generations of progressive Irish Americans and African Americans” had worked side by side in the struggle to improve conditions for the poor and working class, whatever their color or ethnicity.

“We reiterate our commitment to this struggle in our enthusiastic endorsement of Obama as the surest way to stop the destructive drift in our nation’s foreign and domestic policies, and return dignity, tolerance, compassion and intelligence to the White House. We proudly stand with Barack Obama,” they state.

English, author of “Westies” and “Paddywhacked,” and among those behind the initiative said the signatories believed Obama represented the continuation and culmination of the struggle for civil rights that JFK helped to foster and for which Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy gave their lives.

“We will not sit idly by while the term ‘white working class’ becomes a kind of code for “Irish working class bigotry,’” English said.

The group is pointing to pundits that have been predicting that the Obama campaign would flounder in the upcoming Democratic primary in Pennsylvania because of the candidate’s failure to connect with the “white working class.”

Justice for Raymond

layout.jpgRaymond McCord’s book about the murder of his son, Raymond, Jr. will be released on 16 May. The book covers the 1997 murder of Raymond, Jr. by the Mount Vernon UVF, Raymond, Sr.’s quest to find the killers and bring them to justice, the subsequent death threats from the UDA and UVF, attacks on his family, and how he has fought back. As many will recall, former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan’s inquiry into the murder showed that UVF member Mark Haddock, who ordered the killing, was at the time working as a paid informant for RUC Special Branch.

The book is expected to be controversial because Raymond names informants and police officers who participated in covering up many murders (beyond just the death of his son). In an interview earlier this year, Raymond said he expected the book would create “shockwaves” throughout NI due to the evidence of collusion contained within:

“I think people will find the book quite revealing because it proves that collusion did take place between senior Special Branch officers and top UVF members.

“I think there will be a lot of worried people out there when the book comes out.

“Names will be mentioned in the book and all the issues surrounding Raymond’s case in the last 10 years will be explored.

“But I have also highlighted other murders which the UVF in Mount Vernon were involved in and I genuinely think people will be shocked at the amount of collusion that went on during the Troubles.”

So far there are no plans for a formal book launch by the publisher, but I do hear that there may be a special event to mark the occasion–hopefully while I am in Belfast…