101 reasons why not to shop at Walmart supercentres

Their 101 aisles.

The car crash

As I was walking to work today, listening to my mp3, i heard something... but didn't think twice. I kept walking, and looking up, realized that the "something" I heard - was a jeep rollover at an intersection by my house. Shock enveloped me - this is something you see in movies, not in real life. Random people drove onto the nearby grass to get out of traffic's way - not to gawk, but to pull the lady in the passenger side out of the car on its back. Her husband, who was driving, was half way out of the window - but was stuck there. I called 911. They asked if I needed an ambulance, police, or a firetruck. I meant to say "all of the above" but said "both" instead. She said it was called in already and someone was on their way. And sure enough - sirens came blaring towards me. I ran for my bus, not wanting to be late for work.

My thoughts during the whole series of events?
-one time my grade six teacher said that we - students, and everyone, are being so detached from life, not talking to each other because we listen to our music and shut the world out - from this event, I have to agree.
-the empathy that people felt as they rushed towards the car scene to help (not caring that the car may be leaking) - was heartwarming
-the moment when that empathy was happening, I was thankful no media or police were around - it was the peace before the chaos (even when the scene itself was chaotic). The people in the car crash scene even seemed calm - although, it was probably shock.

Then as I rode my bus to work, I thought: why rush? Why did I rush to go to work and not help. I'm not sure if I could've done anything but stare but talking to my mom today - she said that the car roll over might have been from them rushing. I didn't think so since there was frost on the roads this morning. But combining the "why rush?" thought with what I learned this weekend - about how Brazilians are always late because out of respect, when they meet people they know on the way to a meeting, they stop to talk to them. - Combining all this together made me realize: stopping to interact with people weather by not rushing or not always listening to my mp3, goes a long way, because as Don Cheadle said: the one thing that separates us from other species, or connects us as a species - is our ability to empathize.

CEED Closure

A weekend of debriefing from the Centre for Intercultural Learning in Toronto has provided some much needed closure for the participants of the Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development participants (including me!).

I was able to give a lot of suggestions to improve the program - which was one of my main goals when I attended the session. But I got so much more out of it:

1. Realizing that the Canadian International Development Agency is unrealistic with the short term assignments they send people on. Honestly, how can we change the world in two months?
2. I learnt a great deal on communicating with another culture - even when I am a Chinese born Canadian trying to communicate with the Chinese!
3. Frustrations that I felt were shared among the other participants who went to Jordan, Pakistan, brazil, india, and togo.
4. Found out that dreams and ambitions that we have are laced with deeper values - and that I should try to reach the values, and not necessarily the facade that covers it.
5. Realizing when people say that Canadians are rich, they mean rich in opportunities.

Overall, the psychological analysis, the packaging of our experience (it was not a trip! it was a second life, a life-changing experience!), and the many learnings - have left me wanting more. And because I am rich in opportunities, I will not let them slip by, because how could you face someone with nothing if you do?

Genocide is still happening

Did you know that there is still genocide in today's world?

You learn something new everyday. I watched Darfur Now today, a documentary following six lives around the world and their struggle to solve the problems of rape, murder, displacement, hunger of the people in Sudan. The film was great at creating awareness and as always with world issues asks the question - what can you do? Feeling helpless is often the outcome but what the people in the movie showed - you can always do something, it might seem small and trivial, but it is something. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

In my own backyard

From November 1-2, 2007 I attended the Communities without Boundaries conference held in Olds, Alberta. The conference was about the Alberta SuperNet, a broadband, high-speed internet that enables high quality video-conferencing, e-learning, e-health, and other tech-savvy innovations that will come. My first thought when I heard of this SuperNet was "so what? If I wanted video-conferencing I can just use skype." It wasn't until I went to the conference that I discovered how isolated rural Alberta was. Communities face a shortage of doctors and nurses; they do not have enough students to justify the teaching of subjects; and some internet service providers do not extend their networks to some rural citizens because it isn't worth it.

Enter the Government of Alberta, they invested and connected over 400 communities in Alberta to the SuperNet - a first government initiative in the world that connects a region so sparse in population. What does this mean? I like to refer to it as "Alberta is the new Singapore." Wishful thinking? Maybe. But it means communities will thrive and the quality of life will improve for everyone. Citizens can manage e-business without leaving their community. We will be able to market Alberta as a small town friendly place to live while having a successful business.

There is however a huge hurdle to overcome, getting Albertans aware of the SuperNet's availability and ensuring that they know how to use the internet and be innovative in it's use. Lots of money to be made for those entrepreneurs ;). There are also concerns from non-internet savvy people - they fear that "the new generation" would be too attached to their computers and become socially awkward. I see their point - I tend to check face-book way too often - but I also see the other side of the coin - I am able to socialize with people across the globe through face-book. Besides, just because I am using the internet it doesn't mean I do not socialize - I am heading out right after this post.

It's great to see this initiative and it will require a lot of leaders in the communities to push us forward. But at least I know that I do not have to travel the world to live in an innovative and challenging environment. (But of course I am still going to travel - but now when I say I'm from Alberta, people may actually know where that is!)