My Blog.

So officially, My blog sucks.  I find it very difficult to capture the experiance of the blog.  I guess its great and all to read and try to understand what and why other people think, but somehow I dont believe the entire experiance of blogging is adding anything to the world.  Maybe I havent looked around at enough of them.  When I think on the experiance of blogging I feel somehow claustriphobic, or constricted when dealing with my own writing. 

This quarter has seemed to be fast and furious yet I believe the the experiances that were shared  from our guest speakers will be remembered most.  There view point is unique in my everyday life and can only rarely be experianced.  And so many thanks to Paco and Kohl for there generosity in the sharing of there knowledge and experiances. 

In the end I guess that is what blogging is the sharing of knowledge.  I guess if twitter and facebook can incite change for people as in the goings on in the middle east, or convey messages to family members in disasters like Japans Tsunami, then maybe another internet technology can unite us in a another way.  

French Assimilation Efforts

So I came across some research done on French colonazation of the Louisana territory.  Whats interesting is the French studied the tribal peoples diet and adopted the Native food stuffs into French cuisene as to try and show tribal peoples the benefits of "Modern Society" as well as provide a commonality between them.  There generosity was rooted in a sence of Superiority over tribal peoples and their belief that they were bringing enlightenment to a barbaric race. 

Food for Thought

So in my research for my paper I came across a study on European expansionists and how they dealt with the lack of Wheat within the "New World".  Wheat as a major component to the diet as well as the spiritual and philosophical nature of Europeans was absent in the New World.  I was blind to how food could be a reason for oppression of people. But the lack of wheat in the "New World" was unimaginable to the expansionist, and so they planted it where ever they could in place of the "New World" crops such as maize and enslaved the local populations as labor.   Upon finding that the reason for the spread of wheat was due in part by spiritual education disappoints me and I don't understand why.  It should seem obvious its the mentality of "New World" inferiority to Europe in all aspects of life, in which they reasoned justification for enslavement of the local peoples.  It seems that I forget that the foods that I enjoy on a daily basis have history and the prominence of them in my daily life has been built upon years of labor and struggle which continues today.  It reminds me that the food we have access to should be held in reverence with the remembrance of those who struggled to provide it to us. 

Saw this in the yahoo news, thought this article was interesting and an example of how our society is trying to help a situation and provides some small hope.  Although this is just an example of one reservation.  I would hope help is all encompasing to all native peoples.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-look-inside-Americas-apf-621911295.html?x=0

Gah.

Somehow I am tired of how people want to forget the past transgressions of our forefathers on others.  It seems that the shame that should be felt is so easily sloughed off, because that was the past and that it wasnt me that caused the harm.  However I feel that someone has to take responsibility of what happened in the past.  We as a country were able to say that the Japanese internment in the US wasnt ethical, so why arent we able to acknowledge this to other cultures.  We have caused harm to the peoples in the past and somehow we need to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it for healing to occur

Food for Thought

So over the past couple weeks I have been thinking of my topic for my final research paper.  As A Chef I automatically drawn to the idea of Native Food Culture.  I would like to understand Native Food Cuisene and why its important to natives today. 

Egypt

So its interesting to watch and see the events that are happening in Egypt.  I am surprised in how the military has reacted in a peace keeping manner.  It seems that we are watching history in the moment.  Egypt was the first arabian country to accept Israel and now will it be the first to accept a democracy.  Time will only tell.