"Being strong means being able to learn and to support what we know, in other words, to hold on and live" (Women who run with the wolves) When I came back from Sudan, I spend a week sitting by the river running through my garden. I no longer knew how to think and live my situation when I had seen what I had seen. My personal quest taught me, if I want to find inner [...]
A house without walls when all houses have no walls In Kiribati I lived in a house without walls and it was such a moving act to lie down on a mat next to the others with the full moon as our blanket. For those who live in cold countries, this exercise might be difficult but, by closing our eyes, we can imagine life in a house without walls, then life in a country where all [...]
I'm in Sudan... in my head. Just before that in Belize and in Mali . If I had an average of 3 weeks of visits per country, to include them in both in English and French on the websites (Letsmeetonearth.org) and (rendezvoussurterre.com) I must add another 4-5 days. And I do not count the days of technical difficulties. At the moment there is one in the passage from English to French and I have to wait while we [...]
Perhaps we should all rejoice that Donald Trump chose "Make America Great Again" as his campaign slogan -- for the pleasure of all humanity, every time he invokes the phrase brings us that much closer to the last time we'll ever have to hear it. In a global society, there is no more place for a country that bills itself as the "greatest and strongest" in the world, especially when these words mean using a great arsenal [...]
We have all been beaten As my stay with my family in the Mandya district of Karnataka comes to an end, I write: “I return to the village still affected. Yesterday, a fifteen-year-old girl was beaten by her mother with an offshoot, just before my eyes.” My reaction surprised me. I think I cried more than she did. What does a teenage girl do on a Sunday in India? She would follow her mother's order to get up [...]
Taking Risks On March 8, I spoke to law students from the University of North Cape (NCU) in Gurgaon. I was felicitated and guest of honor of the Indian Bar Association (INBA). The topic of the day: "Female Empowerment"and I had things to say about the subject worldwide. What did India reveal to me? There is a whole library to enlighten us on the subject of women in India, but I will now dare to write about it [...]
INBA is proud to felicitate on International Women's Day on March 8, 2016 at The NorthCap University an International Speaker as a Guest of Honor Ms. Hélène Tremblay. I expected to find myself in a room full of women. But no, there were more men in the room. Law students. I knew I was privileged to have the opportunity to speak to them. Happy also as I have been wishing for a [...]
The green of the new misty rice fields. Three months in India. I have been undisciplined and did not take notes every night. I have lived and learned. I wonder sometimes if writers read. I write and say I need to read. I read and I say, I want to write. But I am in a country I am discovering and that often does not understand itself. I feel so ignorant when comes time to write about it. [...]
Mysore, I was advised to look for a family who cultivated sugar cane. As India is still 70% rural, I needed to know who cultivated what, where and when, before making my choice of a family. I could choose Karnataka, known for its sugar cane farming or if preferred, visit a family growing rice in Tamil Nadu. "Yes, yes there will be families who grow sugar cane in this village," I was assured at the Farmer's Science Center, "we know [...]
HH The Dalai Lama & the art of balance In India, I was invited by the Asian Arab Chamber of Commerce (AACC) to speak at the launch of "Tawazun India" - The art of balance. The guest of honor was the, HH The Dalai Lama. The hall of the hotel ITC Windsor was at its height. The program's theme "Peace and Economy" and I prepared accordingly for a short 25 minutes. We talked peace, little of economy, more of religion, [...]
