After the Festival of Nations in Nashville

I am still recovering from being at the festival from yesterday and am going to be updating the website very soon.  Actually that is my first priority.   I will hopefully will get some of the pictures I took up soon as well.

Everyone who stopped by, thank you and please come back again soon, there will be much more content in the very near future.

Festival of the Nations

A quick post for today, I am actually at a festival this time at the Tennessee state fair. Nashville has an organisation that puts on festivals through out the year and this is the largest one. I will try to get pictures and interviews for later podcasts.

September 11

Living in the United States I can not help but write today's post on the attacks of 2001.  I think anyone who has access to this blog would also be aware of what is now refereed to as 9/11 so see no need to go through explaining it.  Of course people will be remembering the event in their own ways many may simply be answering the question, "where were you?".  President Obama called for a moment of silence at the moment the first plane hit and he will lay down a wreath at the Pentagon today as well.

While most people will be asking you to remember those that perished in the attacks, I would like to have you think a little more deeply about the fact that all types of people died, it was not only Americans or Christians it included people from all over the globe and from many different cultures. They included  Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, Mormons, Wiccans and many others I don't even know the names of.  I would be surprised if you belong to a group who was not represented among those who where killed.

There have been atrocities that have been committed by different groups through out history, long before recorded history I am sad to believe.  We all belong to the human race and while we have differences we do share many things.  We should be celebrating our differences and not hate those who are different, imagine what an empty world it would be if we all where the same.  I hope you do remember those who died but also take a moment or two to also contemplate the beauty in all our differences and maybe try to be a little more understanding of others.

Gibraltar National Day - September 10th

balloons being released in celebration of the nation day.

At just over 2.5 square miles Gibraltar is a small self governing British territory located on the southern tip of Spain.  Ceded to the British crown in 1713 it has stayed under their control since.  While in recent history there has been some bad blood between Gibraltar and Spain to the point of the border being closed for years this has become better recently.  In 1967 there was a referendum held to see if the citizens wished to go under Spanish rule or become a self governing area under Great Brittain and there was overwhelming support for self government.

With the country being so small the celebrations are all done in the same area, kicking off with a street party at the John Mackintosh Square with food stalls that have all the food provided by the government and manned by volunteers with the money going to charity.  The day ends with a fireworks display.

Links:

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar#Recent_history

Other: http://jimenapulse.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/gibraltar-national-day-events-and-programme/

Tajikistan - Independence Day September 9

Tajikistan, a nation in central Asia celebrates it's independence day on September 9.  The country gained it's freedom from the Soviet Union in 1991 but evidence indicates that the area has been inhabited since 4,000 B.C.

Similar to other independence celebrations food, parades and fireworks are all used to recognize the day.

Links:

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajikistan

Other: http://adrienne-is.com/blog/?p=100