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Oil On Troubled Waters:
The Legacy Of Exxon Valdez
By Andy Rowell
The Independent - UK
It was at 7.15am on a cold Alaskan morning on 24 March 1989 that Dr Riki Ott was awoken by a loud banging on her front door. It sounded urgent. Still in her nightdress, she raced downstairs. "How long will it take you to get dressed?" asked a distressed colleague. "Five minutes. Why?" Ott replied. "We've had the big one. There's a tanker aground on Bligh Reef. It's lost 10 million gallons, but there's four times that on board."
Only the night before, Ott, a marine biologist, had warned the local mayor's oil action committee about the possibility of a big spill. "Given the high frequency of tankers into Port Valdez, the increasing age and size of that tanker fleet, and the inability quickly to contain and clean up an oil spill in the open water of Alaska, fishermen feel that we are playing a game of Russian roulette," she said. "Gentleman, it is not a matter of what if, but when."
Hours later, on a calm, moonlit night, the 1,000ft-long Exxon Valdez ploughed into reef, a well known hazard in Prince William Sound. In charge was Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who, it would transpire later, had lost his driving licence through drink-driving. Having been drinking that night, he'd left the third mate at the wheel. The collision tore a car-sized hole in the vessel's side and ruptured eight of the 11 cargo tanks.
Since that day, Ott has tried to uncover the true social, health and environmental costs of the spill, and has just written a book exposing the lies and myths surrounding it. The oil spill killed more wildlife than any in history, but her book also tells of the mounting human cost of the catastrophe, and the implications for our use of oil.
Ott, 50, grew up in Wisconsin at the height of the scare over the toxic pesticide DDT. Her father gave her a copy of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, which exposed the problems of DDT and helped to spark the modern environmental movement. "At 13, I decided to become a marine biologist, like Carson. At 18, I left to find an ocean." She gained a doctorate in marine toxicology and became a commercial fisherwoman.
Flying over the Exxon Valdez the morning after, Ott watched as the vessel spewed millions of gallons of highly toxic oil into the sea. A bluish haze was rising above the oil. The official estimate of the spill was 11 million gallons, but years later Ott uncovered a secret report by the State of Alaska putting the true figure at about 30 million. The slick spread over 10,000 square miles of Alaska's coastal seas, as far as 1,200 miles away.
The images were a public-relations disaster for Exxon and other oil companies. Pictures of workers wiping rocks with rags looked totally inadequate. The numbers killed ranged from thousands of marine mammals, including otters, seals and orcas, to hundreds of thousands of sea birds, such as murres and ducks, to millions of fish.
Every oil spill brings untried new ways of trying to clean up. The unacknowledged truth is that only really effective tactic is not to spill it in the first place. "They didn't know what to do. The oil industry collectively is not able to clean up oil once it is spilled on beaches," Ott says. Still, 11,000 people were hired to clean up the oil.
Exxon tried an untested method of blasting the rocks with high-pressure hot-water hoses. This washed the oil away, but with devastating consequences. As well as wiping out wildlife that had survived the disaster, the hoses caused chronic health problems for the workers - and this is the hidden story. They vaporised the oil into a fine mist that the workers inhaled. This toxic cocktail contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, now classified as some of the worst chemicals known to man.
Crude oil was known to be dangerous. A 1988 Exxon Safety Data Sheet said "High vapour concentrations are irritating to the eyes and the respiratory tract, may cause headaches and dizziness... may cause unconsciousness, and may have other central nervous system effects including death" and added "Minimise breathing vapours. Minimise skin contact." Fishermen trying to stop the oil spreading soon became nauseous and dizzy. So did the first workers, who claim they weren't given protective equipment or warned that the oil fumes could be hazardous to their health.
Ott argues that Exxon failed to protect workers because it did not provide protective clothing, adequate training or information about the risks. Some clean-up crews were told that respirators were "optional", while others were given respirators that did not work. One study later found that in a survey group, 70 per cent of clean-up workers were not given respirators.
Workers started coming down with the "Valdez crud", a term used by doctors to describe symptoms including headaches, sore throats, sinus infections and coughs. The problems became so widespread that the former Alaskan medical doctor for BP warned that clean-up crews should be "pulled off the beaches to avoid further tragedy in the form of human suffering, illness and disease".
"They told workers they were safe, and they weren't," Ott says. "They put keeping their reputation intact ahead of protecting people. When people start to get sick you find out why, you get respirators, you get proper protective gear. That didn't happen... They could have stopped the high-pressure hosing. When they realised it wasn't working, they could have stopped it. Exxon killed Alaska while trying to save it."
Ron Smith was one of the workers who headed to the spill hoping to earn good money. He worked on the boats. He started to get intense headaches, especially on sunny windless days, where he could watch the "vapours rising like heat waves". Even after stopping work, the headaches and mood swings continued. Eventually he went to see doctors specialising in environmental medicine in Dallas, to be told he had "very high levels of some pretty dangerous chemicals" in his body. Smith later settled a personal injury lawsuit against Exxon, and he was subject to a gag order.
But it was not just oil the workers were exposed to. Exxon used fertilisers and other industrial chemicals to try to break down the oil. One of the chemicals used was Inipol. Its Safety Data Sheet warned that Inipol caused a variety of health effects: dizziness, headaches, blood and kidney damage, and red discolouration of the urine. Some workers, including Don Moeller, started peeing blood.
When Moeller heard about the spill, he took time off from his job to looking mentally handicapped people to work on the beaches, mopping up. Like many, he had problems with the respirators, which were "no longer good after a couple of hours".
His ledger for 1 August noted that, after the raingear he was given fell apart, he worked for two hours with his legs "exposed". But he was told by Exxon of Inipol that there was "no hazard to us. Just wear the right gear." He was pulled off the beaches after blood was found in his urine. Moeller continued to experience chemical sensitivity problems and night sweats for the next few years. In 2001, he settled a lawsuit against Exxon and its contractor.
Captain Richard Nagel worked on the clean-up for three years. In some bays, the oil was six inches thick on the water. "You couldn't breathe right and your eyes would tear constantly," he recalls. He was told about Inipol: "This stuff is harmless. You can eat it and it won't harm you." In the early Nineties, he too started suffering chronic symptoms - calcium breakdown and blood disorders, seizures, acute anxiety and severe depression, loss of balance, night sweats, blurred vision and memory loss. He has been told by his doctors that he is dying.
Ott has been collating information about people who sued Exxon. "I found Exxon's clinical data, showing that 6,722 workers reported respiratory distress. That is more than one in two clean-up workers. That is like an epidemic," she recalls. She argues that Exxon "covered-up mass chemical poisoning of the clean-up workers".
At the end of their three-year investigation, Ott and her assistant, Pam Miller, concluded that "there are, unquestionably and undeniably, people who have died, and people who are suffering from chronic health problems stemming from wrongful exposure during the clean-up."
It is unlikely that any of these people will be compensated. Of the cases against Exxon so far, many have been lost, with a small number being settled for tiny amounts, for a variety of reasons. These included the difficulty of proving in court that the health problems were due to the spill, and the fact that Exxon has the financial and legal muscle to defend any case vigorously, including going to appeal. Exxon argues that "no cause and effect" between ill health and the spill has been proven in the 25 cases that have made it to court.
Indeed, Exxon is still contesting the main civil legal case against the company. In 1994, a judge ordered the company to pay about $4.5bn in punitive damages, but the case has gone back and forth between America's Supreme Court and the Alaskan courts. Ott claims that Exxon has saved billions by delaying paying compensation.
Exxon's spokesman, Tom Cirigliano, dismisses Ott as a "propagandist" and her book as "nothing new and flaky science". He argues that Exxon acted "responsibly" and took the spill "very seriously", pointing out that they "stayed with the clean-up until the federal government and State of Alaska said it was complete". He dismisses the health concerns, arguing that Exxon monitored the health of workers: "Safety was our number one priority during the clean-up of the spill."
He said: "Certainly, there were respiratory problems, which are very common when you put large groups of people together in very small quarters."Asked if any of the respiratory problems were due to the spill, he said: "No, we don't believe there were any... It is hard to say. There may be people who had a sensitivity to some of the materials being used ... There was certainly no increase in the normal number you would expect who have a sensitivity". He does admit that hot-water hosing "would probably not" be done today.
Ott says scientific studies have shown that an estimated 50-100 tons of oil remains in Prince William Sound. As it breaks down, it accumulates in the food chain from mussel beds, clams and whelks to worms, crabs and fish and then to mammals. Ott contends that oil continues to harm wildlife 15 years after a spill.
Ott says the Exxon Valdez spill forces us to re-evaluate our continuing dependence on oil because of the effect it is having on our health and wildlife. She draws a parallel with lead in petrol: "With lead, we recognised these problems back in the 1920s, but it took us until 1989 finally to get the lead out of petrol. Now it looks like we need to take the petrol out of our cars as well."
- 'Sound Truth and Corporate Myths: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill' by Riki Ott is published by Dragonfly Sisters Press (see http://soundtruth.info/)
©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
http://news.independent.co.uk/


Another interesting article: Academic Integrity in Ireland and the UK: Is there any such thing? at Leonie fennells' Blog. It's about financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists. Same old story; different location. It's worth a look. Thanks to Becky @yobluemama2 on Twitter for drawing my attention to this.


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British Nigeria Law Forum Launches Junior Lawyers' Division
Lagos event attracts massive interest among young lawyers and law students
Carol Campbell
Legal circles in Nigeria and the UK were abuzz recently when the British Nigeria Law Forum (BNLF) hosted the launch of its Junior Lawyers' Division (JLD) in Lagos. A second London event is also to be hosted ensuring that ties between junior lawyers in the two countries are stronger than ever.
The JLD launch in Lagos was sponsored by George Etomi & Partners. Speakers at the event were George Etomi; Aji Ayorinde, co-head of the Junior Lawyers' Division; Seye Aina, chair of the BNLF; Babatunde Akinyanju, treasurer and past chair of the BNLF; Lizzette Robleto De Howarth, international manager at the Law Society and Boma Ayomide Alabi (OON) head of Primera Africa Legal's international commercial law practice.
As a London-based lawyer, Aji Ayorinde said it was clear that young lawyers in Nigeria and the United Kingdom were eager for an open and dynamic relationship – with opportunities opening on both sides.
"The position of these two countries is unique because their legal systems are so similar and run in parallel," he said.
"Law students and young lawyers in Nigeria have always looked to the UK to enhance their education and hone their legal skills while junior lawyers in the UK now see in Nigeria an opportunity to learn and access opportunities in Africa."
Aji said that interest in the launch of the JLD had been overwhelming with attendees including law students, young lawyers from the UK and Nigeria and senior members of the legal profession, who were there to support the initiative. He explained that, as Britain's position in the global community shifted and its relationship with old colonies like Nigeria and Kenya equalised, opportunities for new ways of doing business were emerging. This was especially so now with the spectre of Brexit hanging over the UK.
One of the highlights of the launch was a raffle draw with winners receiving gift hampers, BNLF polo shirts, a book on Commercial Law in Nigeria written by George Etomi and opportunities to shadow senior BNLF lawyers at work.
Aji said "wonderful networking" happened at the event as BNLF members shared information about membership and young lawyers shared their experiences of being mentored or shadowing a BNLF member at work.
"Sometimes all it takes to get your career underway is an introduction to the right person," he said.
Seye Aina, BNLF chair said, "I am delighted by the response we had to the launch. This forum is a chance for young and aspiring lawyers to exchange ideas and information, to network and also to get career advice or assistance." For information on how to join the British Nigeria Law Forum and Junior Lawyers' Division go to the website www.bnlf.org.uk
Lawyers to the Trade Party! Read more
Infrastructure Project in Peril Read more
Human Dignity Core in Baby Visa Drama Read more
Growing Africa's Talent Read more

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Lovely 1950's mirrored makeup compact made by Stratton of London. This compact features a genuine abalone grid top and a removable compact screen. Made in England. It includes the original box and pouch. Unused - make up not included.
Minor discoloration on the removable screen & slight corrosion on the inner metal ring.


We just wanted to thank you properly for organising our wedding in paradise. The service you provided was truly invaluable in making our day exactly the way we wanted it, even though we just had a small ceremony we never felt any less important than the big events that were seemingly happening all around the island at the same time.
Fiona you are fabulous and you went above and beyond for us which we truly appreciated, you truly made our day perfect.
Again ladies thank you so much for making our small intimate ceremony absolutely perfect in every way. So incredibly happy! It truly was beyond our expectations.
I just wanted to email now that I have settled back into married (and normal!) life!
I wanted to thank you and Fiona for your hard work in making our dream wedding a reality. We wanted something beautiful, fun, casual and memorable and you managed to make all of that and more come to life. Every step of the way you were there to help me with my millions of questions and problems. My wedding day was such a calm day, I was able to relax and have so much fun knowing that everything would be in your very capable hands and the wedding was more than I even imagined!!
Thank you for all of your patience, support and guidance. Hopefully we can come back to the rock to do a renewal in a few years!
To dear Fiona and Andrea – How can we thank you enough! Our March beach wedding was relaxed, full of love and just perfect and we have you both to thank for that.
Although our wedding consisted of only my husband and I, our 22 month old son and my Mum, enlisting Wedded Bliss to help plan our wedding was the best move we made. Prior to our arrival, Andrea promptly responded to my countless emails and offered help and advice graciously. Once in Rarotonga, nothing was too much for the beautiful duo. To name but a few instances, we were loaned a floor fan for our rented accommodation during a heat wave, the time of our wedding was put back an hour to allow for the heat of the day to dissipate, the wedding flowers were exquisite and my head ei was expertly created as requested from a photo of an ei that my sister wore when she married more than 30 years ago, my husband's traditional ei was created on an outer island, flown in by plane then hand delivered to our wedding venue, Fiona stood in as our second witness and brought her gorgeous son to keep our toddler entertained and when it was discovered less than 30 minutes to countdown that flower petals for our toddler to scatter on the beach had been waylaid, Fiona organised petals from nowhere in addition to raking the beach, setting the flower arch in place, organising the sound system and all the last minute preparations before our arrival.
The service providers that the girls have chosen complement their business beautifully. Our celebrant Mi'i met with us twice before our wedding and personally designed a beautiful ceremony involving my Mum and incorporating my dear Dad who had passed away only 6 weeks prior. My hair stylist and make-up artist Jane gave me a beautiful natural hair style and make up application which was perfect considering our wedding consisted of just us. Our photographer Ine went above and beyond her job description and took the most incredibly beautiful photos that we cherish and love looking at every day.
I cannot speak more highly of Andrea, Fiona and their team of professionals and I would not hesitate to recommend them to any friends and family planning a future wedding in Rarotonga. Thank you girls. We are so grateful to you both for making our special day amazing.
From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for making our dream wedding a reality! What an incredible time we had in Rarotonga… and the wedding day itself… WOW! Suffice it to say that our expectations were well and truly exceeded.
Fiona, you coordinated our day with such calm professionalism -everything ran so seamlessly! The marquee looked incredible as did the ceremony set up. The flowers, food and cake blew us away! The fire dancing was a fabulous addition to our reception and JK did such a wonderful job at the ceremony.
Ine and Juhz from Angle Photography were a great choice- they were so friendly and fun to work with- we can't wait to see our photos! And Jayne and Hannah from the Pacific Village Salon made me and my bridesmaids feel like princesses!
We will be gushing about our experience for years to come!
Thank you so much for everything you did to make our wedding everything Vai and I dreamt off. From the first email and phone call 2years prior, to the last few days in Raro, you always had our best interests at heart. You made things so easy and completely stress free.
Vai and I were always going to be getting married in Raro but we were after something different and Wedded Bliss delivered 200%. We have no issue what so ever telling everyone to get married in paradise and how incredible you and Fiona are. Our guests have told us that it was the best wedding that they have ever been to and we did a great job, but the first thing I say back is we had the vision but Andrea was the one who actually made it happen! Not in a million years could we have done it without your help, advice, eye for detail and amazing ability to see other people's ideas and turn them in to reality.
You and your business are a true asset to Rarotonga, Rarotongan tourism and the wedding industry.
Now I am just getting all gushy!
Thanks Andrea- you're a legend!
I have been very impressed with the email correspondence with you, you always replied in a timely manner and I felt completely stress free.
Dave and I absolutely loved The Edgewater, it was convenient and central and worked out perfect for our guests. The food was delicious and the staff were wonderful for us. Jane from Pacific Village Salon was absolutely wonderful, she was very professional and at the same time she was comfortable that you could have a good laugh with her. Ine from Angle Photo & Video was awesome, I absolutely love her photos. I felt completely relaxed with her and I am truly impressed with the photo book and photos.
Fiona did an excellent job with the wedding, I felt completely at ease for the whole day. I have had comments from family members advising that they loved how relaxed our wedding was and it was one of their most enjoyable weddings that they've attended.
It's only been a week since our wedding but I really didn't want to delay telling you how much we appreciate everything you put into our special day. When I first got in contact with you two years ago I felt overwhelmed with the thought of planning a wedding. Pregnant at the time and with a toddler, I knew I couldn't put the time in on my own. A quick Google search and I came across Wedded Bliss and thought I would flick you an email.
From the first email Andrea was friendly, responsive and willing to answer my many questions. As an obsessive organiser there was no shortage of me emailing to ask things. Never once did a question seem too many or a problem to answer. At times I felt it was too easy, I mean how could someone possibly be planning my wedding with such minimal fuss?? But it's very easy to see why, weddings is what they do! The lead up to our big day was stress free and seamless. Our minds were completely at ease. Upon arrival in Rarotonga we were introduced to the lovely Fiona. To continue on with what is the Wedded Bliss way, she was absolutely lovely. Easy to deal with and again nothing a problem. She was excellent at making sure everything was taken care of and a real delight to deal with.
Our wedding day was truly beyond our wildest dreams. I can honestly say there is not one single thing about our day I would change. The set up was stunning. And with everything being done for us we could focus on what we were meant to, each other.
It's fair to say people will be sick of me saying get married In Rarotonga through wedded bliss already! But I really can't thank you both enough. Everyone has spoken about what a lovely day it was and Jim and I credit You for this.
Fiona thanks so much for your smiling face when we arrived feeling a little nervous on the island. Andrea I am going to miss your emails for sure.


Untested drugs can be used to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus, the World Health Organisation says.
The WHO said it was ethical in light of the scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths – over 1,000 people have died in west Africa..
The statement was made after its medical experts met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the issue.
The move came as Liberia said it was getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government.
The WHO said where experimental treatments are used there must be informed consent and the results of the treatment collected and shared.
Meanwhile, the Liberian Government said experimental drugs will be brought into the country later this week – although manufacturer Mapp Biopharmaceutical warned supplies are limited.
Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement. A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.
However, the drug has only been tested on monkeys and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans.


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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Appears in London Court
By RTE
Region: Europe, Latin America & Caribbean
Theme: Law and Justice, Media Disinformation
Julian Assange faces extradition to the US after he was arrested and forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London almost seven years after he sought refuge there.
Mr Assange was brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court this afternoon.
He made a thumbs up gesture to the press gallery as he entered the court and could be seen carrying a book.
Police detained the WikiLeaks founder after the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum, blaming his "repeated violations" of "international conventions and daily-life protocols".
Scotland Yard said in a statement that Assange was held for failing to appear in court in June 2012 and "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10.53am after his arrival at a central London police station".
In a statement, the British Home Office said:
"We can confirm that Julian Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America.
"He is accused in the United States of America computer related offences."
In a tweet, Mr Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson also said he had been "arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request".
BREAKING: #Assange removed from embassy – video pic.twitter.com/qsHy7ZVPg5
— Ruptly (@Ruptly) April 11, 2019
To read the complete RTE article click here
Featured image is from RTE
The original source of this article is RTE
Copyright © RTE, RTE, 2019
Articles by: RTE


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It appears your browser does not support JavaScript or you have it disabled. BCG.com will work better for you if you enable JavaScript or switch to a JavaScript supported browser.
BCG's Partnership with the World Food Programme
For nearly two decades, BCG has supported WFP to enhance its effectiveness on a wide range of strategic, operational, and organizational issues. BCG has worked alongside WFP on the highest priority topics for the organization.
For example, our joint initiatives have included transforming WFP's school feeding program for greater impact—an effort that reaches more than 16 million children across 63 countries. And we've helped further develop alternatives to traditional food assistance, such as the use of cash and vouchers instead of direct food aid in those instances when food is available yet inaccessible to the poor. We also supported WFP in designing a system for emergency food reserves.
BCG has also helped WFP enhance its organizational effectiveness. By calculating the return on investments in emergency preparedness, we have helped WFP prove the value of preparedness and attract more governments and donors to act on this critical effort. And finally, we have helped WFP develop its knowledge management capabilities.
We provide more detail on another project below, illustrating how we collaborate with WFP and the impact of our joint efforts.
BCGers Share Their Experiences with World Food Programme
Sisi Pan, Principal, New York and Nairobi
What role did you play in BCG's work with WFP?
BCG helped redesign WFP's core functions of grant management, planning, and performance reporting through country-led solutions and pilot processes (in Tanzania and Uganda, for example), supported by HQ and regional bureaus.
What was the impact of your work?
The goal is for WFP to deliver its mission of achieving zero hunger more efficiently and effectively by transforming core processes, roles, and systems based on smart simplicity and industry best practices. Importantly, our effort's country-first approach also "changed how WFP does change." We've empowered those working most directly with WFP's beneficiaries to design solutions, with HQ and regional teams playing more enabling roles.
What did you personally learn from the experience?
It is difficult to design for an organization that needs to be highly responsive yet sustainable, consistent globally yet highly contextualized. But if you talk to any WFPer, the optimization equation becomes simple: it's all about the impact on beneficiaries. That is why our joint effort generated solutions from the field rather than the center.
Pelumi Bamgbala, Consultant, Lagos
One of the most impactful projects I've worked on was rolling out a stunting-free model across 42 villages in Rwanda. We also developed the roadmap for the Rwandan government to deploy this model nationwide. Being on the ground showed me the real impact of our work with WFP, which goes beyond the money invested and efficiency achieved. It showed me the reality of the millions of lives being affected. Working on this project helped realign my perspective on what really matters and how I can contribute to advancing equitable livelihoods.
Toivo Hensgens, Project Leader, Nairobi
I was working hand-in-hand with the Ugandan country office to redesign, simplify, and pilot WFP's annual planning and reporting processes as the coronavirus hit. At that point, we pivoted to helping the Kenyan country office with economic-shock modeling to support discussions with the government on the need for, and effective implementation of, social safety nets.
Internal process simplification and analytics are just two examples of how WFP continues to be pragmatic, modern, and nimble above and beyond what one might expect from a large UN agency. The organization is able to maximize the impact it brings to beneficiaries, regardless of an ever-evolving funding situation.
Nothing beats a clear mandate and pragmatic mindset.
Teodora Fantigrossi, Consultant, Casablanca
I supported WFP on two occasions. First, I worked with the WFP and the Rwandan government to accelerate efforts aimed at reducing stunting (chronic malnutrition). This meant understanding key barriers, designing and piloting a new on-the-ground "stunting-free village" model, and supporting implementation across the country. Second, during the initial coronavirus outbreak, I worked with our GAMMA team to develop a forecasting tool to assess the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable populations in Kenya and to design effective cash-transfer programs.
In the first case, the impact we had was extremely tangible. After six months, we saw a decrease in stunting cases in the village we tested our model in, along with a greater community awareness of stunting and best practices to prevent it. After two years, the pilot has been expanded, and nationwide rollout is due to be completed by the end of 2021. The rollout is expected to double the rate of stunting reduction, preventing additional ~100,000 stunting cases in less than three years.
In the second case, we supported WFP with our COVID-response tool to identify population categories that were most impacted by the crisis. This means having a granular view of the people most at risk of falling below the poverty line and related demographic information. This makes it possible to target efforts with extreme precision where the help is most needed.
Working with WFP taught me the importance of on-the-ground work. As consultants, we tend to work with slides and spreadsheets behind our screens—but addressing issues as complex and deeply rooted as malnutrition requires us to go deeper and truly understand the local context.
Our diagnostic phase was carried out by talking to several community members, leaders, and experts across Rwanda. This allowed us to understand the real barriers to stunting reduction. We designed and tested our "stunting-free village" by going week after week to a village in northern Rwanda armed with paper, scotch tape, and posters to test and refine the model with the local community to make sure what we were designing was fit for purpose.
Kader Laraichi, Data Scientist, Casablanca
BCG created a social-safety-net simulator that would help predict the amount of people and households that would fall under the food poverty line in Kenya as a result of the pandemic. My role as a data scientist was to help streamline and combine an epidemic, economic, and social model into BCG's proprietary tool: DAIS.
Thanks to the work done by BCG, WFP can approach governments during and after a crisis with tangible numbers at their disposal. They can also plan their funding campaigns depending on the different scenarios that the tool is outputting.
This was the first project in which I used data science to generate social impact. Going from such a macro subject to detailed models was a challenging feat, and team collaboration was essential to the success of the project.
Learn More About BCG's Partnership with WFP
The Big Payback of Emergency Preparedness
An investment of $5.6 million in activities aimed at cutting costs and response times during emergencies is expected to deliver $12 million in savings.
Empowering Parents With a Stunting-Free Village Model in Rwanda
Achieving Zero Hunger
Fighting Hunger and Other Complex Problems with Smart Simplicity
Applying a new approach to chronic child hunger in Tanzania yields powerful lessons for governments and organizations that are tackling other tough challenges.
Innovation Is the Only Way to Win the SDG Race
Current progress toward the UN's Sustainable Development Goals is too slow. Unleashing new powers through private-sector partnerships and tools such as blockchain and digital technology can accelerate change.
Is Cash Better Than Food Vouchers for Syrian Refugees?
A study commissioned by the United Nations World Food Programme found that giving Syrian refugees unrestricted cash instead of vouchers yielded similar or better food security.
Eliminating Child Hunger with the World Food Programme
BCG partnered with the World Food Programme to transform the organization's operations in order to feed more school-age children.
Meet Some of Our Experts Working with the World Food Programme
Charmian Caines
Climate Risk, Adaptation, and Resilience
Digital HR
Heino Meerkatt
Javier Seara
Back to Social Impact and Sustainability


Last week, at this year's JAX London conference, I gave a talk about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the very interesting and specific implications for applications that use event sourcing. The talk was inspired and partly based on two earlier articles that I wrote: Forget me please? Event sourcing and the GDPR and Event sourcing and the GDPR: a follow-up.
The GDPR has many implications for any software or organization that processes data. However, if you are considering implementing event sourcing in your application (or have already done so), there are a few provisions in the regulation that have specific implications for event sourced applications.
Soon the GDPR will take effect! Are you ready?
As of May 25th, 2018, the European privacy regulation General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect. This regulation concerns the 'protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data'.
Important parts of the regulation are the right to access (and correct) of personal data that's recorded and stored by organizations. The most profound and fundamental part however is that of the right to remove – under conditions – personal data (the "right to Erasure", article 17 of the regulation).
Companies that are not compliant with the GDPR risk a substantial fine: a maximum of 20 million euros, or 4% of yearly gross revenue. However, according to research by EY, 33% of global respondents have yet to put a plan in place to realize compliancy. Time to get moving, only three short months remain!
Companies that source their IT-support or systems externally will have to make sure their vendors will be compliant. Even companies that have their own (internal) software development teams face multiple challenges to become compliant. For example, in two earlier blog posts, I researched a number of potential solutions for software applications that use Event Sourcing: here and here.
Are you ready for the GDPR? I'm more than happy to help you make the right choices. I'm not a legal expert, maar but can advise you in terms of (software) implementation or tools & technology.
This month an article I wrote for PHP Architect, called "CQRS & Event Sourcing in the Wild", was published in the December 2017 "Talking Code" issue.
In May 2018, a new piece of EU legislation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect. The GDPR attempts to regulate data protection for individuals within the EU and has very interesting and specific implications for applications that use event sourcing. In this article, I'll discuss my thoughts on this subject and a few pointers for those implications.


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MiliKing Meanderings
The adventures of the Travelling 7 MiliKings
Toronto love
July 28, 2014 | milikings
Canada is an awesome country. I haven't seen a lot of Canada yet but I like what I've seen.
We arrived about a week ago and we are staying in our great aunt and uncle's house – but we call them grandparents – Yiayia and Papou. It's a pretty big house actually – it's got an upstairs where everyone sleeps. When you go up the stairs and the first door you see is where Emilio and I sleep. Then the door next to it is the washroom as the Canadians call the bathroom. Sometimes when we ask for the toilet people think it's a bit funny. There's a basement which is where we usually hang out and do our school work and spend lots of time there. We are allowed to watch telly here in the afternoon and they're are some really cool shows.
Right now mummy is at a course that helps her to know and manage children better with their emotions, what they like and don't like I think and how they see the world. She's been gone for 5 days. In those 5 days we have done 5 days of home school – so don't worry kids we are keeping up with our schooling. We start school about 8am. Us big kids normally start with 5-10minutes of brain gym because our baba used to do it with his class when he was a teacher at high school and it helped his students be wiser when they did their tests.
Then we do half an hour of quiet reading and Yiayia Mary usually calls us for breakfast. We usually have toast or cereal and eggs. After our reading is done we do half an hour of writing – for instance we had to do different types from creative writing to journal writing to letter writing and blogging. Then comes my favourite – Maths – we have some really good new books that we bought at Walmart, to help with times tables and other things like that. We also have some really good games on our iPod called 'King of maths' and 'Quick maths'. I do recommend it to other parents of you want your kids to practice maths. I've learnt a lot from them.
Next we go on to Greek. Some of the things we've done in Greek this week is interview our Yiayia Mary and Papou Vangeli and some of their friends as well, in Greek, and then write the answers out in sentences. We've also written a letter to our wonderful private Greek teacher who we learnt a lot from. Her name is Kristalenia. Of course we wrote the letter in Greek – when baba corrects it we put it on the iPad and send it.
We've also got some wonderful new books for reading and writing that baba bought at Walmart. They're fun to work through but they're still new.
Every morning Yiayia and baba sit in the garage that looks onto the street, having a Greek coffee and they say it makes them feel like they're in the village. She usually makes the coffee and yells for baba loudly or rings the bell lots of times so he comes out.
Susie and Nick are our uncle and aunt and are Yiayia Mary and Pappou Vangeli's kids. We went to Uncle Nick's and Aunty Vicky's place on the weekend on Saturday night and it was extremely fun. It was the day of the 3rd place for the World Cup and we got to watch all of that – I was sad about Brazil and seeing Neymar on the bench but I feel happy for Holland – especially cause we have just been there. The food was also delicious – we love BBQs because we just love BBQs and meat.
Uncle Nick also let us have about 100 DVDs – even Alvin and the chipmunks. My three favourite movies that he gave us are Alvin and the chipmunks 1 and 3 and also Beverley Hills Chihuahua 3. I got to play Xbox with my cousin Evan which was so cool. We played soccer and it was awesome even though it was my first time playing soccer on the Xbox. Firstly it's my first time because we don't have an Xbox and my dad doesn't let us play computer games unless we are visiting people or if it's in OSH (after school care). He thinks we should play soccer outside not on a Screen.
What a lovely big extended family
Nick is King of the kids
He always did like playing jokes on 'The Aussie'
BBQ dinner at Nick & Vicky's place
Greek dancing with Yiayia Mary
Gorgeous Susie
Yiayia Mary
We also went to Aunty Susie's and Uncle Matt's place a couple of nights ago for a pizza night. It was absolutely cool and delicious. Aunty Susie showed us some photos of baba at her wedding and other photos. It was weird seeing my baba posing for photos when he was a teenager and he had lots of hair.
Yesterday we had some visitors who were also cousins and my baba knew them lots when he was younger. They were Mary and Helen who had kids about 14 years old except one girl Lia was three years old. She was very cute and light as a feather. Mary and Helen's parents are Yiayia Fani and Papou Apostoli. Apostoli and Papou Vangeli are brothers.
Wonderful lunch with Mary and Helen and their kids and parents
They brought us some cool presents
Papou Vangeli has lots of brothers and sisters – this is aunty Rina And Uncle Leftheri
Baba knew Mary and helen lots when he was young
It was good having other kids around that were sort of our age to play with. Emilio was playing Lego with two of the boys Nick and Joseph and was attacking them with pillows.
We went to our other cousins place – Cyndi – and had lunch with her. It was sad cause her mum Thia Souli was in Greece so we didn't get to meet her. But they had an awesome place and we watched the World Cup final game together. I have watched lots of World Cup matches this time.
Bye for now – by Tobes
My love affair with Toronto began on November 14, 1986. Well I really should say it's the day that I met and fell in love with my cousins and their whole extended family. Don't get me wrong – Toronto is a lovely city but a place takes on amazing life with amazing personal relationships.
Anyway – I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I was only 16 years old and I hadn't met these 'Canadian cousins' before. Since I was going to Greece for the summer holidays my dad mentioned that maybe I could go to Canada first and meet them. I jumped at the chance so we both went on the tram and almost skipped our way to Parthenon travel in Lonsdale st. Melbourne (yes you still had to get printed tickets from a Travel agent then). Before I new it I was sitting on a plane that seemed to stop at every island across the Pacific (well Fiji and Hawaii at any rate!) and 34 hours later I had arrived in Toronto airport. I was quite excited most of the trip but getting closer to Toronto I suddenly started getting really nervous. What is they weren't there? What if I didn't recognise them – the photos we had were a few years old! What if they didn't like me and wanted me to leave? All the usual teenage fears overcome me. If they weren't there – what would I do? This is before the Internet, before mobile phones. I guess I could call Australia through an operator………. Just as I thought that I was walkingthrough customs and a window to the crowd waiting below and my aunt Menka saw me, instantly recognised me (as she said I looked like my dad who she grew up with as a brother) and next to her was my uncle Vangeli, my gorgeous cousin Susie and Nick who seemed so tall and planned all these crazy adventures for 'the Aussie'. I was so relieved.
I also got to meet my wonderful Aunty Souli and Uncle Jim – their kids Cyndi and Gabriel were were little at the time but I felt I got to see them grow. It was so much fun to spend lots of time together and especially loved going to watch them play ice hockey.
I had such a brilliant two weeks with my lovely relatives that I vowed to return. And that I did – this is my 10th trip back to Toronto. I came back for their weddings. We kept in contact through letters – I missed a lot of the growing years of their kids though I felt I shared some of it through Facebook. I'm so glad I'm back now after 15 years so that they can meet my family and renew our strong and growing bond. What a fantastic time we had. My uncle and aunt were so nice to us, so hospitable, we felt really nurtured. While I was driving around on the last day with my uncle Vangeli he said 'I'm really going to miss these kids – I love feeding them.' He would come back each morning from the shops with delicious fruits, veggies, and of course – Ice cream! How could I say no when he came down with ice creams at 9.30 in the morning. The kids just loved it. We all loved our time there.
Thanks so so so much.
By Baba MiliKing
Uncategorized	cousinsToronto
Border crossings, Belgium and Wonderful cousins
What I love about Europe is that it's a very big place but in such small distances there is a big change in culture, language, diet – it's so exciting and I love that!
It had been about 20 years since I saw my Belgian cousins. They are obviously cousins from Greece whose parents migrated to Belgium many years ago. Twenty years is such a long time especially when some of my cousins were 15, or even under 5 years old at the time. However over the last few years I have felt that I have enjoyed connecting with their lives and their paths through Facebook – there are many negatives and drawbacks to Facebook though I love the beauty of connecting with my family and friends overseas.
Anyway – when we were camping in Holland I couldn't pass up the chance to see my cousins and aunt and uncle again – and it took us less than an hour and a half to get there – yes! Another country. Back in Australia it takes us that long to go shopping in Albury!
Anyway it was quite interesting when we got to Verviers I stupidly pressed a wrong button on my iPad and lost our directions on the map app that sometimes follows us on our drive even when we are offline. So then we had no idea where to go – we stopped in the central area and I walked past a cafe and stood outside Mcdonalds to get onto wifi (at least they're good for something!) and reboot our directions. Well I wish I had gone into that cafe because as I found out later on in the day – it was my cousin George's cafe – we went there for lunch. Very freaky serendipitous moment that I didn't take cause I knew I could get free quick wifi a few doors down. Small world!
Anyway – our cousin Chris had just been to Australia a couple of months ago to visit his gorgeous sister Alexandra who is on a working holiday – at the time most of my family was out of Australia which was shame. First time I met him he was a few years old. So good to see him – he was very jovial despite Belgium losing in the World Cup the night before!
We all met at my other cousin Anna's house who was 15 last time I saw her and it really warmed my heart to see her so happily married to Morad and with a beautiful young son Adam – and just moved into a great new house. I love being able to visualize them all in their Belgian lives now that I've seen it and felt it. My other cousins George and wife Fani and aunt and uncle were working in their cafe so we went there for lunch and boy was it a feast. I thought I wouldn't be able to eat for days after. Very yummy. My cousin George who is my age and who I spent some great 'young time' with now has kids and his youngest son is Theo who is similar age to our older kids – great for them to connect and who knows maybe they will connect again independently and have their own relationship and memories. I hope so!
At the end of our day it was lovely to all go together to the point where Germany, Holland and Belgium meet. The kids got a real kick out of being in three countries at once.
Even border crossings are a foreign concept to Australians unless we are talking about state lines. Wish we could have stayed longer but it was great to share a fun day together. Until next time…………
Uncategorized	Belgiumcousins
Connections in the Dutch Low lands
When we found out our wonderful Dutch friends – (Werner & Corina with their lovely kids Finn & Luna) from our Australian home in the King valley were coming back to Holland for a summer break, we just simply had to try and plan Holland into our trip and camp with them for 6 days. It was so wonderful to reconnect with them and for our kids to play so well. As we've said before – it's always the people that make the place! It was also amazing to meet their families and friends and spend time with them. We had met Corina's parents before in Australia and have had some lovely times together. I always love to visit a friends place of origin and to see and feel the place were their stories of growing up were formed. It was very special. We didn't necessarily come to Holland to sightsee but we loved the countryside – so green and pretty. However we were so grateful that Werner's dad managed to find us some cheap family ticket to get to Amsterdam on the train.
What a superbly beautiful city. We normally don't do queues and try to avoid touristy attractions or rather get to a place early but when we got to the Anne Frank museum we weren't early – and we hadn't had the insight to book tickets on the Internet to avoid some of the queue -so we just did it – I stood in the queue for over an hour while Sandy and the kids followed me from park bench to park bench and continued to read the fascinating story of this courageous young girl. It was wonderful to visit and read her story and see where they all hid for almost two years – though war, being Jewish or any other religion, being persecuted etc are such difficult concepts for me to contemplate let alone the young minds of our kids that feel things so deeply. We are so fortunate to not live in a war zone where history seems to repeat and repeat.
One of the highlights of our Dutch holiday was also catching up with my lovely ex Bowen student Femmy and her partner Mark and two lovely boys. It seems there are so many lakes around Holland where people love to go on holidays or just visit for the day and have fun in the water. We had a lovely morning together with some very gourmet food. Thanks very much. It also made me ponder about how wide our global Bowen family is. Very special indeed.
Lastly – something I just love about Holland is that bicycles rule the road!
There are bike lanes absolutely everywhere and bike parking is even sometimes multi storeyed. We also learnt that bikes always have right of way so you need to be careful to look around well when you are turning left or right with the car………
And on small streets they don't necessarily move over so the cars can pass. They are more important than the car! I must say that I loved that!
Here are some of the kids stories:
In Holland we went to a pancake shop where they sell cheese or cheese and garlic or sugar pancakes. We also went to a water park place that had two slides and a river that goes round and around. At Luna and Finn's place there were also go carts. It was so much fun.
From Kiki's journal
We went to a museum called Anne Frank House. The Frank family were Jews. Sister: Margot Frank. Dad: Otto Frank. Mum: Edith Frank. anne Frank was born in Germany on the 12th of June 1929. She died in March 1945 at a concentration camp (death camp). They went into hiding and the sad thing is they were discovered. By Kiki
The big yard where we camped
Our first Dutch brekky – we got to have chocolate sprinkles on bread
Werner and Corinna are fabulous. They are friendly, fun and incredibly nice. They took us to see lots of amazing places in Holland like an amazing lake that had water so clear it was clearer than most beaches. Another place was an epic indoor pool that had water slides and was really fun. The first night they took us to a traditional pancake Restraunt and we had garlic and cheese pancakes and sugar pancakes and cheese pancakes – they were terrific.
We loved Hema breakfasts
They even took us to a shopping centre called Hema in the morning where we got a €1 breakfast. To get the breakfast you have to go between 9-10am. I really recommend the breakfast if you ever come to Holland. It was fun camping with them. Bye for now from Tobes
Uncategorized	AmsterdamAnne FrankbicyclesHollandpancakes
Our school year in Crete
Our School year in Greece
I was very proud of myself for finishing school in Greece because going to school was very hard. Greek is one of the hardest languages in the world. At the beginning it was weird not knowing what to do and I was so shy at the beginning.
The good part of it is that I learnt lots of Greek and when I finished school last week I felt like I learnt a lot but not sure how much. Today when I was getting the bus tickets the man asked something and mum didn't really understand what he was saying cause he was talking so fast and I answered him easily. It felt pretty good. I enjoyed my Greek lessons – the ones that were my favourites were the ones that we played games but also learnt. I also liked when we had to bring in photos to talk about them. Kristalenia was our private Greek teacher 3 times per week for about 1.5hours until we decided to do more separate classes so Yasi had 45 mins and Kalika and I had 45 mins. We learnt heaps with Kristalenia – she was very patient and made learning finally nd gave us a good amount of homework. She also became our good friend and we met up with her lots. Her children, Gianni and Dimitri were also very nice.
By Toby
I told my teacher I wanted to stay in Greece because the school new a tiny bit of English and I now know some Greek and they ask me questions that I know. Also I have my friends Georgi and Engli and Dimitri and I used to have a friend called Manosari but now he wants to play superheroes but I didn't want to play superheroes anymore. I liked school so I told them I wanted to live in Greece –
On the last day of school we did a concert – we had to dress up in Greek colours – blue and white. I also was in a group where we had to wear blue scarves – Zoi was in the yellow scarf group. I sang four songs with my group and said a poem which is lots of Greek words on my own – my teacher helped me a tiny bit with the words. I loved it because all my friends were there and my baba and mama and brother and sisters came and even our friend Manoli came.
By Moochie
I really liked the concert cause we had to dress up in blue and white and my scarf was yellow – that is kitrino in Greek. I really liked singing with the other kids. I liked seeing baba and mama clapping in the audience. My teacher was Kiria Leftheria and she was really nice to me cause I do my work very neat and sometimes I get it wrong but lots of times I get it right. She gave me a pretty box to take home with all the pictures and work I have done all year.
By Zoi
I am very happy with myself for what I've achieved at school in Crete with one of the hardest languages in the world. School was really hard but I did it and time flew like a butterfly. What I found difficult was understanding all the maths they did in year 4 was work they do in high school in Australia. The instructions in Greek were hard to understand and the teacher would often go off her head at some of the kids when they were playing up. She only gave them one chance and then they had to go to the office. She was nice to Toby and me but I was still really scared of her.
At the breaks I loved playing with one of my best friends called Isabella. She's half English and lives in Crete forever. Every day I picked up words from school and then I would ask people what they meant and that really helped my Greek. I learnt lots of the history of Greece in school – it was one of the subjects I liked and understood. I will try to keep going with my Greek and try my hardest. When we start home schooling again in a few weeks one of the subjects we have to do for an hour every morning is Greek. The other subject is maths and also reading and writing in English.
By Yasi
School was very hard in Greece because at the beginning we hardly knew any Greek and almost everything they said I couldn't understand. Now it's much better and I understand lots and I am Miss corrector beacuse I even correct my grandma who is from Greece and my baba who was born in Greece. I had a teacher that was nice and I had lots of homework most days and sometimes I couldn't get it all done. But it made my Greek very good now. I understand most things in Greek. Kiria Soula was good because she actually told me what I had to do when I didn't understand and she made sure I understood everything. Before Christmas she sent me to do language with the grade ones but then I had caught up to my class in grade 2 so I came back for all classes with Kiria Soula in 2B. I was proud of myself for finishing and time really flew like a bird in the sky. It was a pretty good year for me.
By Kikibelle
Uncategorized	GreeceSchool
Hup Holland Hup
Tonight on the 6/7/14 Werner took my baba and I to one of his family friends' house to watch Holland vs Costa Rica in the World Cup Quarter Finals. When I walked in there I thought 'WOW! These guys are big fans!' What I first saw was an amazing big Lego modelled soccer pitch. There were Corner flags, little Lego men with cameras for TV and cameramen for the papers. It had flag men and all of that. There was even a crowd of little Lego people and little Smurfs. That soccer pitch was in the front yard and covered the whole of the driveway. On the front wall of the house was a humongous banner of a soccer player and lots of flags. They had also attached a Netherlands flag like a roof for the soccer field and it opened and closed mechanically. It was really cool.
At the back of the house there was a big outdoor covered area that was completely orange. In the front of this area there was a wall and a camera projector that you connect to a computer to make it a big screen – underneath it there was a table with so many orange football souvenirs. There were even orange coloured nuts and orange chips to eat.
There were lots of seats and bar stools and I thought there wouldn't be many people but then they started coming and I think there were about 30-40 people.
The game was very exciting – it was quite amusing when there was absolute silence and everyone had their eyes glued to the screen but when there was a good pass down to the front they would all start shouting "Hup holland Hup" and jump off their seats.
It was a tense game – most adults had at least 4 – 5 bottles of beers. They even had orange bottle holders with whistles to blow when they got a goal. The score was 0-0. They went into extra time and it was still 0-0 so they had to go to penalties. I found it quite funny and amusing that they changed the goal keeper before the penalties. I read in the paper that the goal keeper that was substituted off was angry cause he wanted to keep going. I thought it was right to change the goal keeper cause the one they substituted on was very good at saving penalties. Holland aren't usually good at penalties. The goal keeper was very amazing – he made two saves and the other goals he was inches away from making the save. One person said that she didn't really like the coach because of his attitude but he's a good coach and guided Holland very well indeed. Most people really really respect his decisions and think that he knows what he's doing. The penalty scores were 4-3 and Holland won. Everyone was going absolutely crazy when they won. Someone even snuck into the garden and lit some fireworks. Like everyone else I actually drank quite a bit too – but I didn't drink alcohol. I was quite surprised that baba let me have a few cups of Fanta because it was orange. I also had one cup of orange juice. It was a very very late night – we went home at 1.15am. At a shop earlier in the day we bought some orange sparkly hairspray and some kind of orange streamer spray so while it was the penalties when Holland got a goal or saved a goal I kept spraying and it was really really fun. I can imagine having some kind of party like that in Australia but not as big.
I'll be on a plane when Holland plays again on Wednesday and I'm not sure how we will find out the scores but we'll try.
There was fantastic orange onesies in the Hema shop that we had breakfast in and baba said that if he wasn't so Greek he would love to buy one. (Mama MiliKing)
Uncategorized	HollandHupWorld Cup
Yasmina's blog about London 29/6/14
When we arrived in London we arrived with the underground train from Paris. The London train station that we arrived in was very big and called Kings Cross – St. Pancras. We waited for about 30 minutes for Sally – she is my uncle George's wife. So Sally picked us up from the train station and we went back to her share home. On Tuesday it was a bit rainy and we just stayed at the share home and there's not much to tell you about our second day in London except that I went out with my baba for a few hours and we saw Big Ben, the London eye and the blue rooster in Trafalgar Square.
We sat down in a cafe for a while and I had a strawberry milkshake. On Wednesday my uncle George had another day off work and we went to Buckingham palace where we saw the guards with their big puffy hats – I thought they couldn't even see. We also saw the Changing of the guards. After the palace we went to the Borough market to have lunch. I got a sausage. We also met my dad's friend Steve. It felt great being able to speak English instead of Greek.
Quote by Yasi while walking with baba – " London is sooooo old but it's still so beautiful – I think it's my favourite city."
We met our aunty Sally at the Kings Cross train station. We went to her house and watched tennis because it was the first day at Wimbledon. We also played games and relaxed. That night we didn't see our uncle Chich cause he was working late. Next morning Chich had a day off – when he woke up he made us his super cool pancakes. Staying with Chich and Sally was awesome because there was lots of things to see and do like the Changing of the guards at Buckingham palace. I think their fluffy hats look ridiculous.
Princess Kate's and Prince William and Prince George's house
We went to the park right outside William, Kate and Prince George's palace. There we met one of baba's friends called Penny and her dog Toby. Penny is married to Alex who is my baba's cousin. It was so fun playing with him. Toby is a Golden retriever. Sometimes when we were calling him our brother Toby thought we were calling him instead of doggy Toby.
Before Toby flew to London he had to have all his checks by a vet and stuff like that. His owners – Penny & Alex moved to London from Melbourne for work. They couldn't bear to leave poor Toby behind. He even has a doggy passport.
We went to a market calked the Borough market and Chich got us the most awesomest meringues and lamingtons. We met one of baba's friends called Steve (they went to university together in America) and I told him my name was meat pie cause I was eating a meat pie at the time.
We went over to Oliver & Amy's house for a pizza and movie night. They had a really nice house and we got to watch a movie called 'Meatballs' where they turn food into water. It was an awesome movie.
Every night when Sally got home we all jumped on her and almost made her fall. She's fun.
On the last night we went to the musical – Matilda. It was a bit different to the book but very very good. Miss Trunchball was actually played by a man. He was awesome but very scary.
Yia Sou, Για σου, by Kalika
💜✨😋
George and Sally are amazing – they are very loving and Chich was very nice to us even though he was very tired because in the last 48 hours before we arrived he had worked for 36 hours and only slept less that 12 hours in two days so that he could take 2 days off to be with us.
His shop is in Wimbledon and it's a very good shop and lots of people go there – even tennis players. Maria Sharapova and Grigor Dimitrov go there every day. Also one of the days Sam Stosur went and my baba saw Leyton Hewitt there. Martina Navratilova said that his cafe made the best scrambled eggs she had ever had. If you want to go to try them it's called 'Brew' and is on 21 High street in Wimbledon village. When I went there I had an amazing vanilla milkshake and some pretty darn good pancakes.
Sally is very very kind and nice. She picked us up from the train station and she is an amazing aunty. (Along with four other aunties that I'm very close to).
Sally and Chich were also very kind to us – they had to look after us when my baba and mama went to the movies and then out for dinner with friends. First they took us to the market to have lunch and then took us home and we hung out and had dinner. They let us listen to music and dance around and watch movies. It was like our own little party.
London is amazing. We saw the musical Matilda and it was excellent, even though I was very tired because I had gone to Wimbledon in the daytime. Kids that were Kalika's age had bigger parts than most of the adults. I thought to myself – "how do they remember all those lines"? I think I liked Matilda the most – she was very funny at times and I loved the librarian. I liked it when Matilda was telling a story and the librarian said – "Hey Matilda this is such a sad story" and Matilda said "Do you want me to stop?" But the librarian said "Don't you dare". Miss Trunchball was a very funny character but I think it was a man playing Miss Trunchball. Oliver and Amy – our friends that we met through Grandma and Pa and also my baba's friend that he met at university in America also came. His name is Steve and he's quite funny cause he likes to joke and he's a funny character.
The musical is a bit different to the book but that happens in most musicals.
London is a wonderful and interesting city because there are lots of famous monuments and places. Like the Queen's palace, the blue rooster in Trafalgar Square and the borough market was fabulous. I had a terrific gourmet meat pie. Also they had very good brownies. We had lots of fun in London.
Chich is fun
Bye Chich – we love you – thanks for all the treats!
Uncategorized	Brew cafeBuckingham palaceLondonMatildaWimbledon
Reconnecting with Friends
July 8, 2014 | milikings
I met Jane, and later Krishna in India almost 20 years ago exactly. I had begun my love affair with India travelling initially with my uncle Bill (Darshan), and then following up research contacts I had developed whist writing a paper on India and indigenous medicine whist at uni. As things happen and connections are made it came to be that I met Jane who was working as a volunteer in Latur where an earthquake had occurred that had killed 10,000 people in early 1994. We bonded enormously as we fondly recall over baileys, toast and late night chats in the aid shelters provided by the agency we were both connected to.
Jane then met Krishna through this work; both lawyers, activists and passionate people. Kiran was later conceived and tada! I was made a non religious fairy godmother! I visited them in India in Kirans first year of life, wiped her cute little bot and continued to discuss social change, politics and the like.
After many years in India (Krishna's native land), Jane secured a job as a human rights law lecturer at Keele University in NW England and the family emigrated. Both have made massive contributions to; increasing diversity and difference in the English police force, to domestic violence legal responses as well as facilitating many exchanges between hands on projects in human rights projects on the ground in England and India. They are now the proud parents of the amazing Kiran, Rohini, Aditya and Sarika aged 16 down to 5 years…. It has been been such a pleasure and honour to meet these growing souls.
It has been so special to reconnect with them. Yasi, Toby, Christos and I visited their smaller family almost 10 years ago. Our contact has been sporadic since, something I'm not so proud of, especially being Kiran's godmum! However, the connections re-forged this time round have reaffirmed the beauty and depth of our mutual respect, the power of having love and acceptance in your heart. 9 kids, 4 adults; laughter, food, Vipassana meditation memories hide and , hide and seek, 'live dance' sessions, World Cup soccer, nana Kiran, trampolines, connect four, monkey business in doorways and toast and baileys, again will feed our fond memories. And pinky promises of our next catchup being in Krishna's hometown in Kerala, India. Mountains of MiliKing love to this impactful and special family.
Mama MiliKing
The Krishnadas family are half Indian and half English and they are all very very fun to play games with. Rohini, Aditya and Sarika all went to school but Kiran is having two months break until she goes to college to do years 11&12. So we hung out with her while the others went to school and we went to a big park and climbed on trees and rolled down hills. We also played hide and seek in front of a castle on their university grounds. One of the nights they made us Indian food and it was amazing! All the different flavours in the curry and the bread was delicious.
Aditya is like a monkey and climbs up everything. He's good at climbing and backflips.
Aditya taught us how to climb the wall, like a monkey.
Kiran had finished high school and we got to play lots with her. I liked playing Connect 4 with Rohini, Kiran & Aditya. Each morning I walked Sarika and Aditya to school – I liked walking through the woods. They cooked us an Indian dinner that was delicious. All the flavours are completely different. The bread was very very yummy especially with yoghurt.
By Kiki
Uncategorized	Friendsreconnecting
Old friends, new friends and Legoland…….
I just love it when you haven't seen a friend for 15 years and when you reconnect it's like no time has passed. What's even better is when your kids meet and become instant BFFs. It's a wonderful feeling.
I met Penny O'Hara on my first day of university when I was a exchange student in Illinois. It was so weird to see her in a grown up sensible house in a seaside town in Southern England. The times we had shared previously hardly come close to being in anyway described as 'grown up' or 'sensible'! Including things like driving to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and sleeping in the car in a car park for five days, having to reverse a car 50 metres back to an intersection in busy traffic because we didn't trust the brakes on the steep San Francisco streets, hitchhiking from Melbourne to Perth and many parties across three continents.
She was an integral part of making my year on exchange so amazing.
I find it incredible that 15 years can change so much in life circumstances, though keep a friendship strong despite sporadic contact.
Between our families we have many Lego lovers and Penny had been saving 1\2 price tickets from the back of cereal boxes, so it seemed natural to first meet at Legoland! We planned to meet at the entrance to Legoland before the doors opened, but due to our horribly inefficient rental car pickup coupled with London traffic, we were almost 2 hours late. We don't have English SIM cards and let our Greek phones lapse so we couldn't even receive let alone make calls unless in a wifi zone. It was such a good reminder of how we used to communicate before mobile phones. Penny had to come to the entrance on the hour, very hour and eventually left a written note at guest services to meet her at the end of the Pirate show. As always, in the end, it worked out fine! It would have been so easy to walk around Legoland and not see each other, however it was incredible to bump into Nicky, Alex and Isabelle from Agios Nikolaos, Crete with Nicky's parents. (We had a lovely catchup planned with them two days later at Nicky's family home).
Penny and Searj (Ian) were such beautifully calm parents and we were particularly impressed with Searj's ability to construct a water park with a small slide, a tarp, a hose and some suds. Hours of fun.
Their house was so much fun and so easy to stay in. There were so many activities and toys. The girls slept in Tess's room, the boys in Sam's room, and Sandy and I had the guest room with such a comfortable bed- and their bathroom… oh my golly their bathroom. Such a pleasure and change to our Greek shower where the whole bathroom gets wet and the shower curtain clings to your legs. I wish I had taken a photo of it for Home Beautiful magazine.
A fabulous weekend chilling out at their home and wander to the local beach and castle.
To start off today we woke up at 6:30am, went to the Clapham Junction train station and got a train to go to Waterloo where the car hire place was. We got there at 8am and left at 9:45am when we were supposed to Leave by 9am. Now what were we doing all that time you may ask – well one thing is while we were waiting they brought the wrong car to the place (They first brought a five seater instead of seven seater!) They were pretty slow.
So we were so late to meet our friends at LegoLand – we got there at 11:30am and the line was so long that we didn't get in until 12 and then we went to met our friends that we were supposed to met at 9:45 instead we met at 12:30pm at the Pirate show. (Our friends are called Penny, Tess and Sam )
Our first ride at LegoLand was a ride called 'Traffic'. It's a ride where you drive a Lego car around and you got to stop at red lights and stuff like that. You even get a licence. Next ride we went on was one were you got to go on this round thing that holds 9 people in a rushing river, we did that twice and got pretty wet. We tried to go on a submarine trip but it was too long a line to wait in, so we went to have lunch, but we ended up going to a cool ride where you're on this thing that is kind of like a small jet ski but don't actually go on the water your above about 50cm from the water and these things under the water spray water sometimes so you get really wet! Next we hung out at a pirate playground until we decided to go on a cool roller coaster. At first you go slowly through some rooms with things that tried scare you but then when we got out in open air it went really fast, we went on this ride twice. Then we decided to go on something else which was like a train that went round in circles while going up and down. Towards the end of the day when the lines were short we finally went on the submarine ride which was awesome. There were different sharks and fish that we could see. Our friend Sam told us that once one of the sharks broke the glass!
At the end we found an ice cream shop and also the Lego store. Yasi brought a hat and a pair of thongs and the others brought Lego. It was so nice to finally arrive at our friends' house to stay for two nights. We played football and pool table. And met there dad who everyone calls Sarje because his name is Ian Sargent. (Though he's NOT a policeman)
See you later alligators.
At LegoLand we had to wait in a big queue. When we got in we
found a note from our friends Penny, Tess and Sam. We met our
friends at the pirate show and then we went on the Lego cars.
I did not crash once – it was so fun. We went on a water roller coaster,
A normal roller coaster, and lots of other fun rides.
Tess, Sam, Zoi, and I made a water slide. It was raining so Sam
And I put a tarp over the top of us to protect us from the rain.
When we were in England we visited my baba's friend Penny and her family – on the second day we created a water slide with Tess and Sam and their dad Sarje in the backyard. In the evening we on the trampoline and we did tricks which we videoed and Tess has video star which is an app that helps you reverse your videos. Like if you do a front slip and it reverses it into a back flip. We also did another one when we were on swings and jumped off them – we reversed it and it looks really cool. Here is the video:
It was really fun at Tess' house
Sam was cool cause he likes to be in the pool. He had a blow up pool.
I also loved the water slide we built.
I loved going to Legoland together – we were always running ahead of everyone else. We went on some Lego cars and got our driving license. I almost went passed a red light but I stopped.
I liked playing Lego with Sam like building a police station.
We also played football together in the backyard.
His place was really fun.
Uncategorized	ChristchurchLegoland
Toby's Day at Wimbledon
Wimbledon 2/7/2014
I'm really excited cause right now I'm in a queue waiting for tickets to get into Wimbledon. We are number 2686 & 2687 (I'm waiting with my baba) in the queue so we'll definitely get in.
We woke up at 5:30am to get three buses to get to Wimbledon from Clapham. We got to Wimbledon queue about 7am. We bought a picnic blanket, a newspaper and a bar of chocolate just for 5 pounds! Now we've been waiting for over an hour and our queue has moved a bit. The ticket offices open after 9am. We are in a massive field (I think it's part of a golf club when Wimbledon isn't on) there are massive lines of people who are mostly sitting on picnic blankets and waiting. Some people even sleep overnight to get to the line early. We just want to get day passes so we didn't want to sleep overnight. There are places to eat where baba bought me a bacon roll and a hot chocolate. People are all fairly polite.
I'm looking forward to watching a new Australian champion called Nick Kyrgios. We won't be able to get into court number one (that would've cost £85 and we would've had to sleep over to get the few tickets left) but we can watch him on the big screen. On the outside courts we will hopefully watch Sam Stosur in the doubles on the outside courts. Casey Dallaqua is also plying in doubles today but not till tonight.
Yesterday's match between Nadal and Kyrgios was amazing. Kyrgios just played so well and it was fascinating watching the world number 1 being beaten by someone who is ranked 144. I'll write more later to tell you about my day………
I've never really thought that I could get to Wimbledon until it was my birthday and I GIT a voucher from mummy and baba where we were given experiences like coming to Wimbledon, because we couldn't carry extra presents. I also got to go scuba diving and to a water park with my friends. It's kind of better to have fun experiences rather than presents. Experiences can be life long memories but presents can break down and don't always last long.
When we got into Wimbledon it was 11:00am, which meant that we had waited in line for four hours, but we finally got in. When we got in Baba got me an enormous triple chocolate cookie. The games didn't start until 12, so we decided to look at what games were going to be best. After that we felt hungry so I got a meat pie and baba got a veggie pie. For the first game we watched a women's doubles match – (I found double matches were much more fun to watch than singles, except for singles with big names). The doubles match was the best women's doubles match I've ever seen. It was Su-Wei Hsieh & Shuai Peng vs Timea Babos & Kristina Mladenovic on court 3. Babos & Mladenovic won 2 sets to 1 but it was such a close games with lots of deuces.
Next we tired to watch Murray vs Dimitrov, but it was too crowed on the hill – we couldn't sit anywhere and we couldn't sit on the stairs because the police kept the people on the stairs moving! So we went back to watch some men's doubles and kept an eye on the scores for other matches, guess what Dimitrov won straight sets against Murray. Not many people were happy with Murray's loss, Will and Kate were certainly not happy with Murray's loss, though I think Dimitrov's girlfriend Maria Sharapova was happy. We didn't forget to go to the shop. I got a soft ball and baba got some chocolate.
P.S 5/7/2014
The sad thing was that Dimitrov lost against Djokovic in the semi's last night (baba and my uncle Geogie calls him 'our Bulgarian cousin' because he's from Bulgaria and so are we – or we have Bulgarian family anyway – but his NOT our cousin. Dimitrov and Sharapova come to Chich's cafe in Wimbledon everyday.
See ya later guys
Tobes
Uncategorized	Nick KyrgiosWimbledon
to see our travel map
Zoi's Travels to America with Baba
Trip Statistics – March 2013 – November 2014
Arriving in the Wonderful land of Oz
Our last few days in The Canyon, San Diego and LA
Road tripping across America
stavros tsatsas on My third time in Greece……
Korrie on Trip Statistics – March…
jasontuazonmccheyne on Trip Statistics – March…
Corina on Trip Statistics – March…
Toni Miller on Trip Statistics – March…


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text:
goodol
Makes laws
Enforces laws
Interprets laws
USA's highest court; part of the Judicial Branch
Establishes Legislative Branch
Establishes Executive Branch
Establishes Judicial Branch
Change to the Constitution
A proposed law
Written list of freedoms that a government promises to protect (1st 10 amendments to the Constitution)
A passed bill. A rule that must legally be followed.
Principle that the Supreme Court has the right to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.
Popular Sovereignty
The idea that the people are the source of the government's power.
3/5 Compromise
The compromise between states with large amounts of slaves and small amounts (or no) slaves, which counted slaves as 3/5 of a person toward a state's population for representation.
Great Compromise
The compromise between large and small states, which combined the Virginia and New Jersey plans to decide the issue of representation.
The idea that a government only has only powers given to it by the Constitution.
Checks and Balances
Each branch of government has the power to check, or limit, the power of the other two branches.
The division of power between the federal government and states.
Personal liberties that all people have, protected by the Constitution.
The President's power to "say no" to a law passed by Congress.
The group of people that make up the Legislative Branch in the United States. It contains 2 houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The introduction to the Constitution, which establishes its goals and purpose.
The main body of the Constitution, divided into seven sections.
What does Congress do?
It makes laws.
Which part of the government can tax?
Legislative Branch (Congress)
Which part of the government can declare war?
Which part of the government can veto bills?
Executive Branch (President)
The President's group of advisors
Virginia Plan
Proposed by James Madison, suggested a bicameral (2-house) Congress based on representation.
New Jersey Plan
Proposed by William Paterson, suggested a unicameral (1-house) Congress, with all states receiving equal representation.
One of the two houses (parts) of Congress (Legislative Branch)
How many Senators does each state get?
How is the number of representatives given to each state decided in the House of Representatives?
It is decided by population.
Supporters of a strong federal government and the Constitution.
Federalists
Supporters of a weak federal government and written Bill of Rights.
Anti-Federalists
The Constitution Review Book
ldvorak9
Cameron_Cervone
Lisa_emke
Government and Constitution Terms (2020)
Mrs_TsakonasTEACHER


The almost-five-year-old, not falling for this nonsense at all, will then say to me, "Mom, just read it." And I'll keep reading. Like a chump.
I am fully confident she will learn to read when she learns to read, but as a parent, I sometimes wonder if I should be trying to speed up the process. I've followed the advice of friends and purchased BOB Books for beginning readers, and I often prompt her to sound words out. I can tell that she almost gets it, but I can also tell that I'm not much help. So when Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of Raising Kids Who Read, told me that parents don't need to worry about teaching young kids the mechanics of reading—and in fact, he warns against doing so—I felt free.
When parents get stuck on teaching kids how to read, they're missing their more critical duty, the one that will help put kids on a path to lifelong reading success: teaching kids to love to read. Here's what to do instead.
Willingham recently wrote the New York Times op-ed "How to Get Your Mind to Read," and it's fascinating. In raising readers, it appears that we're doing it wrong. Parents and teachers tend to think about the learning process in separate blocks. When kids are very young—around 4, 5 or 6—we teach them how to "decode" words. It isn't until the fourth or fifth grade that we move onto comprehension. That's too late, Willingham says. "Decoding and comprehension are not the same thing," he tells me. "There are times when you can read content out loud but not understand what you're reading." In the later elementary school grades, as texts become much more complex, comprehension becomes much more difficult. And therefore, children struggle.
Instead, we should think about our children as whole readers from the beginning. In his NYT piece, Willingham writes that "comprehension is intimately intertwined with knowledge." He suggests that parents should leave the teaching up to teachers, and simply read with kids. Read often. Read everywhere. Read for fun. Read fiction. Read nonfiction. Explore different topics. Traditionally, the texts in early elementary grades "have been light in content," Willingham writes. ("Mac sat on a mat,"etc.) Kids can soak in more complicated information and plots when you read to them than when they read texts themselves, so it's important to keep at it, following their natural curiosity.
Ultimately, to teach kids to love to read, parents must love to read themselves. Parents should "support reading as a gateway to pleasure," Willingham says. Research has shown that parents who view reading as fun raise children who read better than those whose parents view reading as an academic skill.
What kids will gain goes way beyond the ability to decipher words on a page.


O We recover large judgments or small claims judgments starting at $1000.
O Our firm will never charge you a fee in advance. We charge a percentage of the judgment once it has been collected. Percentages usually range from 25% to 40%, depending on the amount of the judgment. It's obviously in your best interest and our best interest to recover the entire judgment, and we will fight hard to accomplish this.
O We prepare and file all the required documents for you.
O You will not be assigning the judgment to our agency. Instead, you will simply sign our contract and the Sheriff's instructions. Provide us any known details about the debtor, and within 10 days you will recieve our preliminary report.
These investigations are sensitive, and should not be trusted to an amateur. It's very important to realize in all cases, judgment creditors have only one opportunity to surprise a debtor. It's crucial to have the investigation process completed correctly, because usually there is no second chance.


SET ON THE BEAUTIFUL CHAUNCEY CREEK RIVER, WE'VE BEEN A CLASSIC MAINE 'LOBSTER IN THE ROUGH' DINING DESTINATION FOR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS FOR GENERATIONS.
WHETHER TRAVELING BY CAR OR BOAT (YOU CAN DOCK AT OUR PIER) COME JOIN US FOR GOOD COMPANY, SCENIC VIEWS AND DELICIOUS LOBSTER!
WE ARE A BYOB ESTABLISHMENT. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO BRING ANY ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND ANY FOOD OR DRINK THAT IS NOT SOLD HERE.
WE RECOMMEND PAIRING A BOTTLE OF WINE WITH OUR FRESH LOBSTER AND SHELLFISH, OR PAYING A VISIT TO OUR FRIENDS DOWN THE STREET AT TRIBUTARY BREWING COMPANY TO PICK UP A GROWLER OF THEIR HAND CRAFTED BEER TO BRING WITH YOU.
Open every day 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Open Tues thru Sun 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
*We regret to inform our patrons and their canine companions that we are NO LONGER PET-FRIENDLY, pursuant to 2-403.11 of the Maine Food Code.


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text:
After a catastrophic blaze in March of 1886 that left several hundred acres burned and a path of destruction that left livestock, farm buildings and even the school destroyed, the residents of the area that is now Hyattsville wondered what could be done to prevent such a horrific event in the future.
To that end, a solicitation was started for the purchase of a fire engine. The citizens contributed a total of $27 for that purpose. A hand pump was purchased and a barrel donated; both were taken to the local blacksmith and mounted on a two-wheel truck. A small, garden-type hose was placed on the pump and the village's first fire engine was complete.
The first fire that the little engine (or Barrel, as it was called) responded to was the home or Mr. Addison K. Smith on Railroad Avenue. The fire alarm — the Presbyterian Church bell — was sounded at around 10:30 a.m. on October 6, 1888. The engine responded along with all the citizens, who carried every available vessel for holding water.
The home was occupied by Mr. J. F. Marshall, Mrs. Roberts and the Misses Stewart and Berry.
The fire had started in the upper floors. Fireman took their little hose line to the second floor and were making progress until the well supplying the water ran dry, at which point the citizens began to carry out the personal belongings of the occupants.
A call was made to the Washington Fire Department, and an engine was dispatched to the rail yards. A flatcar was moved to the loading dock, but a second call advising of the water condition cancelled the call.
The engine returned to its quarters. The big double house was now an inferno, and the neighbors began to pull down the fence that ran between the fire and the McFarland property.
Who had custody of the engine or where is was stored is unknown, but there must have been some problem. The Town Commissioners appointed two of their members to the fire department committee. One agreed to house the vehicle and a metal plate with the initials F.D. was placed over the barn door.
More stories from the history of the HVFD coming.


text:
PAPERBACK AVAILABLE AT SELECT BOOKSTORES
Ilmenau is a small town in the German state of Thuringia. By 1929 Helene and Samuel Gronner have reached economic success and social prominence. Their newly-constructed landmark building features two stories of showrooms. The interior is brightly lit by floor-to-ceiling windows that help showcase a wide selection of stylish men's and women's fashions. Following years of inflation, the Gronner enterprise wins accolades for injecting the local retail economy with new optimism.
But within a year, longtime customers and neighbors of the Jewish couple begin to shun them. Following local elections, Nazi ideology grips the town, prompting a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses. Before long, Jochen, their ten-year-old son, is subjected to anti-Jewish harassment by schoolmates. By the time he is sixteen, his parents resolve to send him to Palestine in order to pursue his education toward a degree in mechanical engineering.
Then World War intervenes, and communication with the family left behind virtually ceases. Not until the Allied victory in 1945 does Jochen learn that his parents were killed after being rounded up and deported.
In Loss and Legacy, Sam A. Gronner meticulously probes unresolved questions about his father's post-war metamorphosis. The story culminates in the 2010 death of John H. Gronner, the American name he had assumed upon naturalization.
With the help of a trove of documents, photos and memorabilia, and aided by extensive personal research and collaboration with members of his extended family, the author juxtaposes his own childhood memories alongside his father's unrelenting quest: to reclaim the family's inheritance stolen by the anti-Semitic laws, and to restore the Gronner reputation in Ilmenau—the family name that the Nazis sought to obliterate through murder.
Following the narrative laid out by the author, readers join the expedition into the past as he relates details of his father's arrival in Palestine; his British Army wartime service against Nazi Germany; his clandestine role during Israel's war for independence; and how, to the consternation of his Israeli-born son, he decided to return to Germany, only to uproot the family again two years later by immigrating to the United States.
By virtue of his journey into the past, Sam A. Gronner comes to a belated realization that although his father never spent one day in Nazi captivity, he was indeed an eyewitness and victim of the Holocaust. What's more, with most of the first-hand witnesses to the events leading to and culminating in the Shoah now gone, the author recognizes the duty that has befallen on him as a member of the Second Generation: remembrance and vigilance against the hate visited upon their parents. In Loss & Legacy, Sam A. Gronner vividly relates how the legacy of his father's dogged pursuit of justice has shaped his own life and values.
Copyright © 2020 AMTA Legacy Partners LLC- All Rights Reserved.


text:
Q: Reflections over a plane. Suppose $E$ is a three-dimensional Euclidean vector space.
The reflection plane $F$ through the origin can be defined by a vector $v$ which is orthogonal to the plane. The reflection of a point $x$ about this plane is the linear isometry of $E$.
$$s_Fx = x-2\frac{\langle v,x \rangle}{|v|^2}v$$
Now I want to show that $-s_F$ is the reflection in a line orthogonal to that plane, or similarly the rotation of $180^\circ$ around that axis.
I can easily do this if $F$ is the plane orthogonal to a base vector of E. Since then for a unit vector $e_i$ orthogonal to $F$ and belonging to the basis of E: $s_Fx = x - 2\langle e_i, x \rangle e_i = x-2x_i$ and thus $-s_Fx = -x + 2x_i$. And thus the different kind of reflections can be easily shown.
Now I was wondering if I could choose a similar approach to an arbitrary $F$ one that isn't necessarily orthogonal to one of the base vectors of $E$. I guess taking any change of basis to a basis triple including the the orthogonal vector could let me give a similar argument.

A: Yes, you are free to change to another orthonormal basis with $f_1,f_2\in F$.
Geometrically, observe that $x\mapsto -x$ is the composition of reflections through the planes $(e_1,e_2),\ (e_1,e_3),\ (e_2,e_3)$ (in any order) for any orthogonal basis $e_1,e_2,e_3$, and the composition of any two of these is the reflection through their intersection.
Thus, with the basis $f_1,f_2,f_3$ above, we get
$$-s_F=\left(s_{(f_2,f_3)}\circ s_{(f_1,f_3)}\circ s_{(f_1,f_2)}\right)\circ s_F=s_{(f_2,f_3)}\circ s_{(f_1,f_3)}=s_{f_3}\,. $$

A: If I understand well, you are looking for a matrix expression for an "oblique" symmetry wrt to the given plane (with basis $x_1,x_2$) parallel to the given vector $x_3$ (pictured in red on the following figure), this vector being in general non normal to the plane.

We know that the orthogonal reflection with respect to horizontal plane $xOy$ is
$$S=\begin{pmatrix}1&0&0\\0&1&0\\0&0&-1\end{pmatrix}$$
Now, let us "adapt" this transformation to the new base $x_1,x_2,x_3$. More explicitly, let us define :
$$B=[x_1|x_2|x_3]$$
where the $x_i$s are here meant as the coordinates of vectors $x_i$ wrt to the canonical basis.
The looked for oblique symmetry matrix is therefore merely a change of basis operation :
$$S=BSB^{-1}$$
Otherwise said, the eigenvalue-eigenvector decomposition of the symmetry matrix...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This image will be part of the InFocus Exhibition in Edmonton opening on February 7th. The image was also nominated 13th Annual Spider Awards 2018, in the Children of the World category.
Honorable mention in the International Color Awards 2018, Americana category.
International Color Awards 2018, Nominee in the Nature category.
Internation Color Awards 2018, Nominee in the Architecture.
2017 International Color Awards, Honorable Mention in Sports. Clix Photography Awards, 2nd place.
12th Annual Spider Awards 2017, Nominee for Sports. Clix Faculty 1st Place Winner, Centennial College photo contest.
12th Annual Spider Awards 2017, Nominee for Children of the World category.
12th Annual Spider Awards 2017, Nominee for People category.
Clix Photo Contest for Centennial College, Faculty first place and nominee in the people category in the 11th Black and White Spider Awards.
This image is part of my "After Refuge" series that received an Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Project Grant in 2017.