Last weekend we hosted an international potluck with some friends. I asked everyone to pick a country and bring a dish representing its cuisine. My guests picked Jamaica, Tibet, Greece, Senegal, and Argentina. I picked Morocco because I have traveled there before and fell in love with tajine cooking; so much so that I purchased a tajine pot while I was there.
Tajine is the name of both the pot and dish originating from North Africa. The dish is generally made with meat, especially lamb or chicken. I usually make the meat versions whenever I attend Ramadan dinners. However, since most of my guests were vegetarians, I made a version with vegetables, and my dish also included dried dates, chickpeas and almonds.
Suffice to say, the dish was a hit with everyone. I was asked to post my recipe. It’s not really my recipe; I found it on YouTube. So, without further ado…
I even had time to make a Spanish tortilla Moroccan style! Enjoy!
A couple of weeks ago I went to a fascinating new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts called Megacities Asia. It is the museum’s largest exhibit so far to focus on contemporary art, which can be vehicles for discussions about current issues. All the art pieces gave commentary on urban consumption and sustainability – plastic, slum life, kitchenware, bamboo and what does it really mean to be green. A “megacity” is an urban area with at least 10 million inhabitants, and Asia is home to most of these large cities – Mumbai, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Delhi. Most of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Both China and India will have a billion people living in their respective cities by then too.
American cities are also growing. Statistically, the millennials are moving into cities at a higher rate than previous generations, as they don’t want to own or drive cars, and want to live in urban areas where there is more diversity and use their money instead on purchasing the latest “iThing.” This is a major contrast from previous generations, whose idea of the “American dream” was moving to the suburbs to buy a home and a car and raise a family. With bigger cities come bigger problems. All growing cities around the world have the same common problem of creating a balanced, sustainable living situation for these new urbanites. This will require new, innovative solutions to food, housing, health, environment and transportation.
Since I am a lifelong Bostonian who has many thoughts on improving transportation in my city, I thought I would share them here again. Many of these suggestions can also be used in other cities.
Car Bans: I notice in Madrid that cars are permanently banned in central, mostly congested areas. The city just extended this banned into residential areas. People who live in those neighborhoods can still drive their cars, but non-residents driving into those neighborhoods are fined. If there can’t be a permanent ban, why not just a temporary ban on weekends and holidays?
Incentives: Give people discounts or vouchers for using public transit or bikes. Personally, I would like a discount on my monthly MBTA pass for being a frequent user. (But knowing how the T operates, I don’t see this happening anytime soon, unfortunately…)
More Bike Sharing: The Hubway bikes seem to be mostly stationed in central, more touristy parts of the city. It would be great to have more bike sharing stations spread out in residential areas, especially in transit-starved Mattapan, Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.
More Bike Lanes: It would be nice to have more bike lanes, or in Copenhagen’s case, more bike “superhighways” dedicated to both commuter and recreational cyclists alike. I went riding on the Minuteman Bikeway recently and thought to myself why doesn’t Boston have more bike paths like this one.
More Pedestrian Zones: More green spaces, upgraded parks and wider sidewalks would be nice. As a runner, I would like to see more jogging paths and other recreational spaces that are designed to be easier on the knees when the foot strikes the ground, such as asphalt pathways.
Extend Subway Lines and Service: This might be a good time for the city to think about extending rapid transit into areas that really need it, like along bus routes 28 and 32. And, no, not another Silver Line; a real subway line is needed. I don’t know how this can be done, but more efficient public transit is needed in those areas. Also, if residents become more reliant on public transit, the MBTA should consider starting 24-hour service. (I know it’s a stretch, but we can all dream sometimes!)
I have to say that this presidential election cycle has been a mess, to say it delicately. I have never seen so much incivility among the candidates and their supporters before, namely from the Trump campaign. I think it speaks more to the current state of American culture.
I will say upfront that I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton. I also support many of the principles that Bernie Sanders has presented, which, I think, will help Clinton be a better president. With that said, if either Clinton or Sanders were engaging in the type of toxic rhetoric Donald Trump was doing, I would be calling them out too.
With him saying that Mexicans are rapists, all Muslims should be banned from this country, and numerous verbal assaults on women, I really don’t think Trump is actually a racist, a xenophobe or a misogynist. He is even worse. Trump has always been an opportunist first, and will say and do what he needs to say and do to get attention. In this election, his behavior is no different, except that his potential presidential victory could be very dangerous for the country, from both a domestic and international policy perspective.
There are many factors to why Trump is doing so well at the primaries so far. Some of them include traditional Republicans who are disillusioned by the GOP “establishment” and other people who are simply unhappy about the direction the Obama administration has taken this country.
But let’s be real here: a good number of Trump supporters are only voting for him because of his celebrity, not necessarily for his political acumen or success in business. A couple of weeks ago during the first Super Tuesday, I was watching the news and a reporter interviewed a voter as he was leaving the voting area. The reporter asked him who he voted for and why.
“I voted for Donald Trump because I like how he ran the Apprentice show, and that is how he should run America,” he said.
Are you kidding me?
Welcome to the new America, where low-information voters are now mainstream and acceptable. What amazes me more is that this guy doesn’t seem to realize that The Apprentice might be a reality show, but, like almost all reality shows today, is scripted. But this comes as no surprise when 10 percent of American college graduates think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court, and it is totally acceptable to believe everything you see in Google search results, especially among his supporters and Trump himself.
Because he knows that many Americans today don’t invest in basic civics education and are not getting most of their news from anywhere beyond what they see on TMZ or People magazine, it seems like Trump is using this to his advantage to rally support. This is most likely why when he is in debates or speaking at his rallies, his policy positions lack any substance. I have even taken the time to read up on his policy “positions” on his website, which all look like smoke and mirrors. Immigration: build a wall? Terrorism: ban all Muslims? Immigration, terrorism and a plethora of other pressing issues can’t be solved with simplistic solutions.
Thank goodness for great people like John Oliver who keep it real on Trump’s sham Great Wall of Mexico.
What makes this worse is that a good deal of Trump supporters are openly bigoted. There are known KKK members and white power supporters who are actively campaigning for Trump. This is 2016 and we are still talking about Hitler, Nazis and fascists?
Lets not forget Trump was the instigator of the birther movement against President Obama and more recently Ted Cruz.
As a result, we are starting to see all this violence at his rallies, and Trump seems to be okay with violence against anti-Trump supporters and reporters.
For the last few days I have been talking to friends and colleagues around the world and they can’t believe this is going on in America. One of my good friends Kofi from Ivory Coast told me in an email that the United States no longer has a right to criticize “backwards elections in third world countries since it now seems hypocritical.”
He’s right. The United States used to be a standard bearer of political civility, and now that is going to the wayside.
This is a very scary time to be living in, and I am very fearful for our country’s future.
This has been a great year for me on both a professional and personal level. My biggest achievement this year was making it ten years with Global Wire Associates. I never thought a decade ago that I would be an entrepreneur, let alone one with a company with such longevity.
I want to take this time to thanks those who have been with me since day one – Marjane Nakello, Maria Ferrara and Philip Lee – great colleagues and lifelong friends I will always cherish. I want to also thank all the clients I have had over the years. A great business idea only flourishes when you have supportive customers!
I think I have learned a lot about myself, especially over the last year, about patience, humility and tenacity. And I am still learning and hoping to grow even more in the future. I am really looking forward to a new opportunity next year where I will do more STEM instruction for youth.
On the journalism side, my Caribbean business and economics newsmagazine had a rough start at the beginning of the year. But now that we have the right people in place, we hope to officially launch it in 2016. I also have a couple of other projects in the pipeline, prepping to launch in the new year or 2017.
At the beginning of 2015 I challenged myself to better balance my work and personal lives, which includes exercising more and spending more time with family and friends. Life is too short to work all the time. I’m happy to say that I have achieved that … and then some!
In the new year I hope to continue with the work/life balance by reading more books. I have dozens of books sitting on my bookcase, waiting for me to discover. I usually get so wrapped up in work that sometimes I forget to let my mind breathe. I also want to take up hand drawing again for pleasure, and not just for graphic design business contracts.
I need to watch less television in the new year, mainly because of all the negativity happening in the world. Just when you think the world is moving forward on issues like marriage equality, then you hear stories about Ahmed Mohamed and Laquan McDonald. Then Chapel Hill happened. And then Charleston happened. And then San Bernadino happened. And then Paris happened – twice.
Maybe less time on trumped up Benghazi hearings and more on why there are still Confederate flags flying on public grounds in this country is needed. I don’t consider myself a staunch Hillary supporter; she is the lesser of the evils…
With all the mass shootings, ISIS terrorism, plane disasters, political and cultural divisiveness, killings of unarmed black people and Donald Trump, I feel really stressed when I watch the news. And all the garbage reality shows don’t ease the tension either.
There were some glimmers of hope this year. Pope Francis and Malala Yousafzai continues to inspire me. Last week in Kenya Muslim women shielded a group of Christians on a bus from an Al-Shabab attack. Just yesterday I read that Muslims are openly mocking ISIS on Twitter.
American media coverage of all these issues was horrible this year, and it will only get worse with the cartoonish US presidential election next year. I find myself going to Al Jazeera, BBC News, France 24 and the Intercept for my news more often these days. Less CNN and Faux News and more real news, reading, writing and drawing in the new year.
For the next week I am just going to veg out a little, read a book, relax with some good music, and prepare myself for the new year.
I hope you will take some time out to do this too!
Last weekend we hosted an international potluck with some friends. I asked everyone to pick a country and bring a dish representing its cuisine. My guests picked Jamaica, Tibet, Greece, Senegal, and Argentina. I picked Morocco because I have traveled there before and fell in love with tajine cooking; so much so that I purchased a tajine pot while I was there.
