Monday, February 19
Feb. 19th, 2024 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Very beautiful weather today. Nice that today is a holiday that my husband can enjoy at home. Usually if he is working at a job site, he often can't come home for it and spends the day off where ever he is working. Since he is working in the city, more like a normal 9 to 5 job this winter, he actually gets to stay home on these days.
I was able to get up a bit earlier again today, in order to go to town earlier.
My husband agreed to come to pottery, but only if we could be home at a reasonable hour so he could go to bed for work tomorrow.
We got to the pottery studio about 2 hours earlier than I normally would get there.
My teapot was finished, but it didn't really turn out that well. The glaze was not even, and though it was supposed to be transparent it obscured most of the design I had painstakingly painted on it last week. Sigh.
I threw some new things while my husband mostly kneaded and mixed reclaimed clay.
D, the woman whose father was dying and is now living with her, was there.
Once everyone else had gone home (and she was still finishing up) we talked about her situation some more.
I am very relieved that she seems more in a rational frame of mind about things now, and less upset and reactive. I got far more upset about this situation than I realized, because I found it very upsetting that it seemed like she was just rejecting her father's needs and was more worried about herself than she was about him possibly dying.
When I was at pottery last time, and I talked with the other person about D's situation, I got almost unreasonably emotional about it, given that the whole thing has nothing to do with me. I think partly it was hormones, as that whole week was "weepy" for me, but also because something about how D was talking about her father was just deeply disturbing for me.
This week, talking with D, she seems to accept that he genuinely needs her help, and she at least seems more optimistic that they can come up with a plan that will still give her some freedom so she doesn't have to be sitting at home looking after him all the time.
She said she had a serious talk with her Dad too, about how he needs to be honest with her if he thinks things are changing and he needs more care to do things like bathe or get dressed and so on, because at that point she will need to look at placing him in a personal care facility.
At this time, he can still do most of those things for himself at 90 years, which is pretty remarkable.
I'm feeling better about D as a person, because the way she was talking before, I almost didn't even want to be friends with her if she had so little consideration for her father's needs. She really came across as brutal and uncaring a few weeks ago, when things all changed. At least she seems better now that she's had a bit of time to process things.
I'm not entirely sure why the situation affected me so deeply, but it did.
We wrapped things up at the studio in good time, and were in no rush to get groceries.
It was nice to have my Sweetie's help, even though it wasn't that big a trip today.
We stuck to his "curfew" and he was able to get to bed on time.
Madagascar is a very large island country that was once part of the continent of Africa when it was a super continent (Gondwondaland) around 90 million years ago. This means that the life on this island has evolved in isolation all this time.
Around 90% of the life there is endemic (not found elsewhere), and thus it is a mega-diverse region where conservation is critical.
This island was once settled by Austronesian people that hopscotched along the islands from Australia, across Indonesia, and used outrigger boats to get from one region to another. Then, Bantu people from Africa also came there. For a very long time it was all small tribes of people.
In the 19th century, mostly it was all ruled by one monarchy as the Kingdom of Madagascar. In 1897 it was annexed by France, and it regained independence as the Republic of Madagascar in 1960.
Of course the "annexation" was the usual cruel takeover, with people being forced to work on plantations mainly to benefit France. Mining and forestry stripped the island of it's natural resources.
The people of Madagascar still fought for France during WWI and in WW II against Germany, and interestingly enough Madagascar had been considered by Germany as a place to exile the Jewish people at one time.
It is mainly Christian, with many traditional religions still being practiced, and is currently a Democratic government.
It is considered a "Least Developed Nation" by the United Nation, with a huge disparity between the wealthy and the poor (most people live on less than a dollar a day). Ecotourism and agriculture (often the dreaded "slash and burn" variety) are the main sources of income, with some textile industry and mining.
Among it's principle exports is vanilla, about 80% of the world supply of vanilla comes from Madagascar. The other big export is sapphires; about half of the world's sapphires come from mines on this island.
Human Rights: Human rights in Madagascar are protected under the constitution and the state is a signatory to numerous international agreements including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[161] Religious, ethnic and sexual minorities are protected under the law. Freedom of association and assembly are also guaranteed under the law, although in practice the denial of permits for public assembly has occasionally been used to impede political demonstrations.[143][161] Torture by security forces is rare and state repression is low relative to other countries with comparably few legal safeguards, although arbitrary arrests and the corruption of military and police officers remain problems. Ravalomanana's 2004 creation of BIANCO, an anti-corruption bureau, resulted in reduced corruption among Antananarivo's lower-level bureaucrats in particular, although high-level officials have not been prosecuted by the bureau.[143] Accusations of media censorship have risen due to the alleged restrictions on the coverage of government opposition.[162] Some journalists have been arrested for allegedly spreading fake news.[163]
A terrible famine began in 2021-2022 that is ongoing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Madagascar_famine#:~:text=In%20mid%2D2021%2C%20a%20severe,from%20food%20insecurity%20or%20famine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
A good video about the daily struggle for the people of Madagascar:
https://youtu.be/hLvPm05jAxY?si=V81Rf65nWlfUdLXg
This video is about the vanilla industry, and how volatile the market is for farmers:
https://youtu.be/_VQ-ckQPD2I?si=VdwqYCORehJVp_WM
Very beautiful weather today. Nice that today is a holiday that my husband can enjoy at home. Usually if he is working at a job site, he often can't come home for it and spends the day off where ever he is working. Since he is working in the city, more like a normal 9 to 5 job this winter, he actually gets to stay home on these days.
I was able to get up a bit earlier again today, in order to go to town earlier.
My husband agreed to come to pottery, but only if we could be home at a reasonable hour so he could go to bed for work tomorrow.
We got to the pottery studio about 2 hours earlier than I normally would get there.
My teapot was finished, but it didn't really turn out that well. The glaze was not even, and though it was supposed to be transparent it obscured most of the design I had painstakingly painted on it last week. Sigh.
I threw some new things while my husband mostly kneaded and mixed reclaimed clay.
D, the woman whose father was dying and is now living with her, was there.
Once everyone else had gone home (and she was still finishing up) we talked about her situation some more.
I am very relieved that she seems more in a rational frame of mind about things now, and less upset and reactive. I got far more upset about this situation than I realized, because I found it very upsetting that it seemed like she was just rejecting her father's needs and was more worried about herself than she was about him possibly dying.
When I was at pottery last time, and I talked with the other person about D's situation, I got almost unreasonably emotional about it, given that the whole thing has nothing to do with me. I think partly it was hormones, as that whole week was "weepy" for me, but also because something about how D was talking about her father was just deeply disturbing for me.
This week, talking with D, she seems to accept that he genuinely needs her help, and she at least seems more optimistic that they can come up with a plan that will still give her some freedom so she doesn't have to be sitting at home looking after him all the time.
She said she had a serious talk with her Dad too, about how he needs to be honest with her if he thinks things are changing and he needs more care to do things like bathe or get dressed and so on, because at that point she will need to look at placing him in a personal care facility.
At this time, he can still do most of those things for himself at 90 years, which is pretty remarkable.
I'm feeling better about D as a person, because the way she was talking before, I almost didn't even want to be friends with her if she had so little consideration for her father's needs. She really came across as brutal and uncaring a few weeks ago, when things all changed. At least she seems better now that she's had a bit of time to process things.
I'm not entirely sure why the situation affected me so deeply, but it did.
We wrapped things up at the studio in good time, and were in no rush to get groceries.
It was nice to have my Sweetie's help, even though it wasn't that big a trip today.
We stuck to his "curfew" and he was able to get to bed on time.
Madagascar is a very large island country that was once part of the continent of Africa when it was a super continent (Gondwondaland) around 90 million years ago. This means that the life on this island has evolved in isolation all this time.
Around 90% of the life there is endemic (not found elsewhere), and thus it is a mega-diverse region where conservation is critical.
This island was once settled by Austronesian people that hopscotched along the islands from Australia, across Indonesia, and used outrigger boats to get from one region to another. Then, Bantu people from Africa also came there. For a very long time it was all small tribes of people.
In the 19th century, mostly it was all ruled by one monarchy as the Kingdom of Madagascar. In 1897 it was annexed by France, and it regained independence as the Republic of Madagascar in 1960.
Of course the "annexation" was the usual cruel takeover, with people being forced to work on plantations mainly to benefit France. Mining and forestry stripped the island of it's natural resources.
The people of Madagascar still fought for France during WWI and in WW II against Germany, and interestingly enough Madagascar had been considered by Germany as a place to exile the Jewish people at one time.
It is mainly Christian, with many traditional religions still being practiced, and is currently a Democratic government.
It is considered a "Least Developed Nation" by the United Nation, with a huge disparity between the wealthy and the poor (most people live on less than a dollar a day). Ecotourism and agriculture (often the dreaded "slash and burn" variety) are the main sources of income, with some textile industry and mining.
Among it's principle exports is vanilla, about 80% of the world supply of vanilla comes from Madagascar. The other big export is sapphires; about half of the world's sapphires come from mines on this island.
Human Rights: Human rights in Madagascar are protected under the constitution and the state is a signatory to numerous international agreements including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[161] Religious, ethnic and sexual minorities are protected under the law. Freedom of association and assembly are also guaranteed under the law, although in practice the denial of permits for public assembly has occasionally been used to impede political demonstrations.[143][161] Torture by security forces is rare and state repression is low relative to other countries with comparably few legal safeguards, although arbitrary arrests and the corruption of military and police officers remain problems. Ravalomanana's 2004 creation of BIANCO, an anti-corruption bureau, resulted in reduced corruption among Antananarivo's lower-level bureaucrats in particular, although high-level officials have not been prosecuted by the bureau.[143] Accusations of media censorship have risen due to the alleged restrictions on the coverage of government opposition.[162] Some journalists have been arrested for allegedly spreading fake news.[163]
A terrible famine began in 2021-2022 that is ongoing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Madagascar_famine#:~:text=In%20mid%2D2021%2C%20a%20severe,from%20food%20insecurity%20or%20famine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar
A good video about the daily struggle for the people of Madagascar:
https://youtu.be/hLvPm05jAxY?si=V81Rf65nWlfUdLXg
This video is about the vanilla industry, and how volatile the market is for farmers:
https://youtu.be/_VQ-ckQPD2I?si=VdwqYCORehJVp_WM
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Date: 2024-02-20 07:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-20 08:13 am (UTC)