New Media

I help organize a semi-regular little local event called the Vancouver Blogger Meetup. Looking forward to seeing some of my fellow Vancouver bloggers this week for a pint. Here are the details:

VANCOUVER BLOGGER MEETUP

Date and Time: Wednesday, April 28, starting at 6:30 pm
Location: St. Augustines, 2360 Commercial Drive

The next Vancouver Blogger Meetup is happening next week at St. Augustine’s on Commercial Drive (nicely located near the Skytrain and all major bus routes). Grab a pint, pull up a chair and meet some of the people behind the local blogs you know and love.

This is a meet-and-greet. No seminars or workshops this time out. Instead, we want to provide an opportunity for bloggers to talk, inspire each other and possibly even begin some fun and fruitful collaborations later on. Mostly, though, we’re here for the beer.

So, whether you blog about politics, fashion, food, local events or anything else, we’d like to meet you. You know that “conversation” that social media types are always talking about? Well, it’s time to continue the conversation in person.

One more thing: feel free to plug this event in your own blog post, tweet or message in a bottle.

Canadians have been putting up with extremists in our midst for too long. The threats against Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh by Sikh extremists are just the latest outrage (CBC):

B.C.’s attorney general calls online threats against Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh “despicable” and “cowardly,” and warns the perpetrators they are not out of the reach of law enforcement.

Police are investigating postings made on Facebook that said Dosanjh should be shot and labelled him a “Sikh traitor.”

Find them. Book them. Throw away the key.

From Around the Twittersphere
@redonda Gotta admire Ujjal Dosanjh, who is himself Sikh and is speaking out against extremists.

@bandshirts Much respect and concern for Ujjal Dosanjh, holding his stance versus Sikh extremism in the face of death threats

@aakankshat Ujjal Dosanjh, says Sikh extremism is on the rise in Canada, and blames it on Canadians who’ve let it happen in the name of diversity

@petequily ‘Distorted’ multiculturalism to blame for rise in Canadian Sikh extremism, Ujjal Dosanjh says

Definition: The act of killing a king.

Go Canucks!

UPDATE: We won! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

Belatedly catching up on my travel writing from Israel, after first attending to my business writing that gets the bills paid. My next story at Rediscovering Israel deals with the Part of the Zionist Plot Where Israeli Doctors Save the Lives of Children From Around the World By Fixing Their Hearts:

“Politics is outside this hospital,” says a doctor on the ward. “When children come here, they all receive the same treatment. Of course, there are parents who are bringing their child from some countries and cultures where this would seem complicated, but when a child is sick, everything else is secondary. They do what they have to do.”

Almost all parents would agree, anyway. The doctor seems to lose focus and his smile drops for a moment as he recounts the tale of an Egyptian man who contacted the program’s branch office in London. “We were excited because this would be our first child from Egypt, but it turned out that the father who made the inquiries thought we were a British organization.” As soon as he found out it was an Israeli program, he reportedly told the consultant on the phone that he would rather that his child died than be treated by Israelis.

That seems to be an exception to the rule, though. While Egypt and Jordan still have yet to participate in the program, this hospital has treated children from Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.

One part of the ward is reserved for Palestinian children and their parents, which the medical staff have politically-incorrectly nicknamed the occupied territory. Two Palestinian mothers covered up except for their faces in traditional garb dote over their babies who are in recovery. The situation here contrasts sharply with the image that both Palestinians and human rights activists outside Israel keep in mind. “We hope to leave them convinced, or at least confused,” the doctor notes.

There is a cardiac ward in a hospital in Tel Aviv where children have an off-putting sort of serenity. The little ones smile often, but they do so with a wise look that belies their short years.

Some lie on cots near each other, as doctors and nurses check charts and adjust advanced medical equipment. It is busy here. Some of the children sit up on stretchers in the halls, watching, playing with toys or taking spoonfuls of cereal from their parents. In this place, the parents are never far from their offspring.

These kids in this part of the ward are not Jewish. Indeed, none hold Israeli citizenship. Many come from China, Russia, Hungary, Yemen and other nations far from Israel. On closer inspection, you will discover that half of the children being treated here are Palestinians from the West Bank. All of these kids are receiving some of the best medical care available in the world, to heal their broken hearts.

The Save A Child’s Heart program was started by Dr. Ami Cohen, born in Brooklyn. He moved to Israel in 1992 to work at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Three years later, he was asked to operate on two Ethiopian children suffering from heart disease. With that, the Save a Child's Heart foundation was born. Since then, the center has saved the lives of more than  1100 children.

It is privately funded, though indirectly subsidized by the Israeli state. Skeptical critics of the Israeli state will surely view the entire program as a propaganda exercise. On the other hand, who could argue with a program that saves the lives of sick children?

“Politics is outside this hospital,” says a doctor on the ward. “When children come here, they all receive the same treatment. Of course, there are parents who are bringing their child from some countries and cultures where this would seem complicated, but when a child is sick, everything else is secondary. They do what they have to do.”

Almost all parents would agree, anyway. The doctor seems to lose focus and his smile drops for a moment as he recounts the tale of an Egyptian man who contacted the program's branch office in London. “We were excited because this would be our first child from Egypt, but it turned out that the father who made the inquiries thought we were a British organization.” As soon as he found out it was an Israeli program, he reportedly told the consultant on the phone that he would rather that his child died than be treated by Israelis.

That seems to be an exception to the rule, though. While Egypt and Jordan still have yet to participate in the program, this hospital has treated children from Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.

One part of the ward is reserved for Palestinian children and their parents, which the medical staff have politically-incorrectly nicknamed the occupied territory. Two Palestinian mothers covered up except for their faces in traditional garb dote over their babies who are in recovery. The situation here contrasts sharply with the image that both Palestinians and human rights activists outside Israel keep in mind. “We hope to leave them convinced, or at least confused,” the doctor notes.