The Canadian prairies- the land that God forgot!

Here is a quote by John Ruskin. I will try to keep it in mind when the temperature on the prairies drops below minus 30 degrees celsius!!

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

From "The Madman" by Kahlil Gibran

A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said “I will have a camel for lunch today.”
And all morning he went looking for camels.
But at noon he saw his shadow again – and he said “ A mouse will do.”

When Good Men Do Nothing

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
So much of the history of the struggle between good and evil can be explained by Edmund Burke's observation. Time and again those who profess to be good seem to clearly outnumber those who are evil, yet those who are evil seem to prevail far too often. Seldom is it the numbers that determine the outcome, but whether those who claim to be good men are willing to stand up and fight for what they know to be right. There are numerous examples of this sad and awful scenario being played out over and over again throughout history.

Some chilling statistics...


Afghanistan Health Stats
Infant mortality rate:
Total: 154.67 deaths/1,000 live births
Male: 158.88 deaths/1,000 live births
Female: 150.24 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
Total population: 44.21 years
Male: 44.04 years
Female: 44.39 years

Birth rate:
45.82 births/1,000 population

Death rate:
19.56 deaths/1,000 population

Total fertility rate:
6.58 children born/woman
Every 30 minutes, an Afghan woman dies during childbirth

Major infectious diseases:
degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne disease: malaria animal contact disease: rabies note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in Afghanistan.