Showing posts tagged international

Finding Angelo: or how an American obtains Italian dual Citizenship

Here is a list of the documents required for me to become an Italian citizen: (please note these all need to be translated into Italian and have an apostille…whatever that is)

Your maternal great grandfather’s birth certificate from Italy 
Your maternal great grandmother’s birth certificate 
Your great grandparents’ marriage certificate 
Your maternal great grandfather’s certificate of naturalization OR statement of “No Records” 
Your maternal grandfather’s birth certificate
Your maternal grandmother’s birth certificate 
Your grandparents’ marriage certificate 
Your mother’s birth certificate 
Your father’s birth certificate 
Your parents’ marriage certificate 
Your birth certificate 
Death certificates for anyone listed above 

The fun part about having this list is that I’m really going to have to search and learn a lot about my family in order to acquire all of these documents, thus actually getting closer to my roots.  The hard part about this list is that the Meles are not the most organized species.  At the beginning of the search, we have only very slightly possibly the birth certificates of myself, my mother and my father. The caveat is that I have never actually seen these birth certificates and somewhat doubt that we actually have them.

Additionally, I have learned that my parents do not know where of if they have a marriage certificate.  Oy to the vey.

Next up, a trip to Grandma’s house!

I love this post from the new blog Finding Angelo. It’s a great motivation for historical discovery and a bit of detective work. Interesting that citizenship seems to be maternally passed down; what other countries are like that?

Looking forward to following this process through Ariel’s blog; you should follow it too!

(Reblogged from findingangelo)

Walking for Water: Results and Reflection

Last week, I wrote about the global health issue of potable water access. I wore a pedometer for exactly one week and tracked all (8 oz) glasses of water consumed during that same time period. 25 miles and 30 glasses later*, I learned some things:

  • I don’t drink nearly as much water as I should each day.
  • I walk more than the average american (afterall, this is NYC) but not as much as I think I do.
  • I drank ~2 gallons of water, which would be a lot to carry 3.7 miles one way. I would not have been able to get water just for myself in a less fortunate country, so to drink even the small amount I had, I would need to make the trip several times. 
  • The few times I couldn’t have water whenever I wanted and wherever I happened to be in those 25 miles, I felt annoyed. That’s maybe where #firstworldproblems came from, but there’s something deeper than this internet meme; people in 3rd world countries simply do not know the ubiquitous nature of potable water that can come out of a tap, in giant bottles, from people, homes, and workplaces alike, and to anyone regardless of status. This was a startling, uncomfortable reminder.
  • I didn’t count ice tea for a few days or foods directly prepared with or including water. This was blatantly wrong; we use potable water for more than meets the eye, which is a luxury that is not fact around the world.
I wasn’t totally sure what I’d get from this little experiment, but I definitely have an increased awareness of how much more some people have to trek than I do just to obtain simple necessities. I also feel more angered than I thought… How difficult could it be to bring potable water to other countries?! Organizations like Rotary International are fighting the problem with tangible, lasting solutions, and those of us not on the ground really need to continue educating ourselves and supporting those who are. This little experiment also left me feeling energized by being an American and able to raise a voice to issues like these in a way that hopefully relates to others and inspires change, even in a very small way.

On a lighter note, congratulations to Jeannie Rose, who won the pedometer giveaway! She was the 10th person to share the last blog post. Thanks to all who shared and played!

*There were a few times I do not believe I was properly wearing the pedometer (darn stockings!), and other times that it may have been overly sensitive. I did not wear it at the gym so as not to skew the results as it relates to the purpose of this experiment. I also drank items like iced coffee, coconut water, and beer, which I did not include as water consumed. My step length was conservatively estimated at 25 inches. Some argue these decisions; it’s how I chose to do it.

Walking for Water: DIY Education and Chance to Win

Starting today, I am wearing a pedometer to track how far I walk each day and how much water I drink to put the global issue of potable water in perspective as Earth Day approaches. 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, and 80 percent of diseases in the developing world are caused by contaminated water. Even when safe drinking water is available, women in Africa and Asia must walk an average of 3.7 miles to and from the nearest improved sanitation facility to collect it, and they of course can only collect what they can carry. It’s still not enough. I will report back on Earth Day, but my hypothesis is that the distance I walk in about a week would only get me 10% of the water I drink.

Raise awareness of this issue and win! The 10th person to link to share this blog post (however you’d like…twitter, facebook, tumblr, email…) and let me know will win a pedometer from Timex so that you can try this at home. It’s yours to keep, so you can use it for exercise, calorie counting, and more!

Also, watch this video from this campaign’s sponsor, Rotary International, explaining more:

In my Earth Day post, I’ll let you know some actions you can take to improve global access to potable water, and I will include any reader suggestions, too.

This house built in 1999 in Germany plays music when it rains. I’d like to see it someday. View high resolution

This house built in 1999 in Germany plays music when it rains. I’d like to see it someday.

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Give me an artistic license so I can sing to my captors in Syria. Let me embroider an eiderdown pillow for the Rutgers gay student to fall onto under the George Washington Bridge. Let me create a magic dragon with a special cape to protect the young unarmed black teenage boy in Florida before he is shot point blank and killed. Let me make a painted shield of protective wildflowers for the 3 Jewish children and their rabbi father killed by the madman in Paris. If a work of art can bring awareness towards changing these horrors let us begin the act of creativity now - It is not too soon!

Karen Finley, performance artist and activist, in a speech made on March 21, 2012 at the opening of Because Dreaming Is Best Done In Public: Creative Time In Public Spaces, which features her 1998 work 1-800-ALL-KAREN.

Words can’t describe how moved I was both emotionally and towards action, and those sentiments were widely present throughout the room. It’s incredible how people can wield words into powerful tools to, in all seriousness, change the world.

Karen, by the power vested in my by nature of existence, I grant you artistic license to keep using your voice to creatively shape public discourse and influence society’s actions.

In Israel, you can’t be a super skinny model anymore. A new law passed on Monday requires that male and female models in Israel must have a body mass index (or BMI, a measure of weight proportionate to height) of no less than 18.5—a standard used by the World Health Organization—or a note from a doctor saying they are not underweight before they can be hired for a modeling job. A six-foot-tall model, for example, must weigh no less than 136.5 pounds. The legislation also bans use of models who “look underweight,” and creators of ads must disclose whether they used Photoshop or graphic programs to manipulate images to make the models look skinnier. (yahoo news) This is not good. I want to like the idea of not showing little kids that skinny is the only beautiful; however, this is the wrong way to go about it. This is the type of gatekeeping and control shown by governments that scare me, and the last country I want to feel that way about is Israel. Granted, this legislation has a noble goal, but isn’t it putting undue stress on naturally skinny models? Can’t people look unhealthy in ways other than weight? What sort of imagery will be controlled next? If a business decided to set these standards for their own brand, GREAT for them. I wouldn’t go so far as to applaud it, because I don’t think having a skinny model is the be all end all of body image perception, but it would be the company’s choice. At the end of the day, education matters in defining health to kids, and public brands, schools, the government, parents, and peer culture are all players. So yes, it is nice to see a stance taken on healthy body image. But, perhaps regulation of something not always controllable sends the wrong message and invokes unnecessary stigma. There’s gotta be another way. View high resolution

In Israel, you can’t be a super skinny model anymore.

A new law passed on Monday requires that male and female models in Israel must have a body mass index (or BMI, a measure of weight proportionate to height) of no less than 18.5—a standard used by the World Health Organization—or a note from a doctor saying they are not underweight before they can be hired for a modeling job. A six-foot-tall model, for example, must weigh no less than 136.5 pounds.

The legislation also bans use of models who “look underweight,” and creators of ads must disclose whether they used Photoshop or graphic programs to manipulate images to make the models look skinnier.

(yahoo news)

This is not good. I want to like the idea of not showing little kids that skinny is the only beautiful; however, this is the wrong way to go about it. This is the type of gatekeeping and control shown by governments that scare me, and the last country I want to feel that way about is Israel. Granted, this legislation has a noble goal, but isn’t it putting undue stress on naturally skinny models? Can’t people look unhealthy in ways other than weight? What sort of imagery will be controlled next?

If a business decided to set these standards for their own brand, GREAT for them. I wouldn’t go so far as to applaud it, because I don’t think having a skinny model is the be all end all of body image perception, but it would be the company’s choice.

At the end of the day, education matters in defining health to kids, and public brands, schools, the government, parents, and peer culture are all players. So yes, it is nice to see a stance taken on healthy body image. But, perhaps regulation of something not always controllable sends the wrong message and invokes unnecessary stigma. There’s gotta be another way.

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We ended up identifying our niche by that process of engaging the community in the conversation.
Laura McNulty, Executive Director of Health Horizons International, on how the programs were developed in an interview with WFYI public radio’s Barbara Lewis. Sounds smart to me!
My friend Mairead sent me this gorgeous photo she took of a sunset in France. New desktop background! View high resolution

My friend Mairead sent me this gorgeous photo she took of a sunset in France. New desktop background!

Pedal-powered school bus. Great exercise, very environment friendly, and very fun. Leave it to the Dutch. View high resolution

Pedal-powered school bus. Great exercise, very environment friendly, and very fun.

Leave it to the Dutch.

Let's talk about periods.

Women worldwide share in the joy annoyance biological fact of getting their period about once a month. However, women worldwide do not share affordable access to proper sanitary napkins or comparable products; in fact, crumpled newspapers, used rags, and leaves are often worn by poor women and can lead to infection and social discomfort. Arunachalam Muruganantham, an Indian inventor, has done amazing work to change that through impressive research and engineering. Of course, talking about periods had its costs, but it’s really thrilling that his dedication and creative approaches paid off in making an affordable, well-designed sanitary napkin that can be produced and sold within communities with a new manufacturing device. Running this machine and selling the napkins will create jobs, and women will be able to better take care of their bodies. Muruganantham’s vision is that India will be a 100% napkin-using country, and that the model will be scaleable beyond that.

Social entrepreneurship is the best kind. Period.

The Economics of Trash.

Congrats, Rachel, on all of your hard work. This has a great style and synthesis of information. Now, let’s hope people seriously listen to you!

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The Dominican passion for sharing food extends to more than just hospitality; even the poorest Dominicans are able to sacrifice what little they have in order to feed a stranger. One family with whom I have grown close lives in a small tin hut in a crowded community. When I asked the mother if I could buy some of the peanuts she sells, she immediately stated rummaging around her large basket to find the perfect ones for me. She handed me two bags of peanuts, two pieces of peanut brittle, and one coconut treat I have decided to name “I died and went to coconut heaven” (I didn’t tell her that; my attempts to make jokes in Spanish have been largely unsuccessful). When I tried to pay her, I was met by a stern look and a shaking head. I persisted but in the end she would not allow me to pay. She might be 80 pounds and 4’8’’, but that woman was strong. In hopes I too would gain superhuman strength, I devoured her gifts. The tastes of roasted peanuts, caramelized coconut, and pure sugar, as well as the taste of the pure desire to do something sweet for a fellow human, still linger on my tongue and in my heart.
Sarah, via her blog post about her experience doing hypertension research in the Dominican Republic this summer through Health Horizons International.