LumDimSaying: International Women’s Day 2011

Fragile yet indestructible.

Deep yet fathomable.

Passionate without losing subtlety.

“A woman is a miracle of divine contradictions.”

- Jules Michelet; French Historian 1798-1874

A global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

If you have 15 minutes to spare,

here is an inspiring clip I’d like to share:

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

Happy Women’s Day!

x  LDS

Roses Are Red…

“All I really need is love,

but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!”

- Lucy van Pelt from “Peanuts”

Whether you’re single or madly in love, today’s your day to indulge in as much chocolate as you crave guilt-free.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

Early Bird Catches the Worm: The Bookworm International Literary Festival 2011

After much-buzzed about Festival Prologue events with Dave Eggers and David Sedaris last week, The Bookworm’s International Literary Festival has reached new heights this year bringing together award-winning authors, poets and journalists from China and overseas.

“With China at a historic crossroads, experiencing unparalleled sustained change, looking to the future whilst catching up with the present, without forgetting the past, the Festival provides an open centre for intellectual and creative exchange. We seek to showcase the modern voices of Chinese authors to the world and bring some of the world’s leading literary lights to China.”

Some exciting events worth mentioning:

Author of BBC Samuel Johnson prize-winning classic Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick relates the stories of six North Koreans who escaped totalitarianism to find freedom in the South.

Witness Malaysian-Australian hip-hop artist and slam poet, Omar Musa “deliver a trademark performance of powerful, conscious rap from his debut album World Goes to Pieces”.

Introduced by the Irish Ambassador, meet Emma Donoghue, author of the international best-selling sensation Room, and hear her discuss her captivating tale of five- year old Jack whose whole world is one “Room.”

Italy’s most talked about young novelist and winner of it’s most prestigious literary award, Paolo Giordano introduces his debut novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers, the tale of two people touched by trauma, who find solace in one another and solitary pursuits.

Hear Greek-Australian Christos Tsiolkas read from his commonwealth Prize winner The Slap – his portrait of broken liberal dreams, empty consumerism, selfishness, adultery, vengeful sex, misogyny and new-age longings.

Special Guest and author of When a Billion Chinese Jump, Jonathan Watts discusses public discourse and the environment in China and how ordinary people can make a difference

An evening with Peter Hessler presenting his portrait of progress and a society in flux, Hessler delivers another careful and compassionate account of China from an outsider’s point of view.

For a full list of The Bookworm’s International Literary Festival Events, see here.

Hurry now as tickets are going fast!

Tickets are exclusively being sold at The Bookworm (starting February 2) from 9AM-9PM daily.

The Bookworm International Literary Festival Event Details:

• Date: Friday, March 4- Friday, March 18 (2 weeks)
• Tickets: Exclusively sold at The Bookworm starting February 2
• Location: The Bookworm
• Address: Sanlitun Nanjie, 三里屯南街4号楼
• Tel: 6503 2050
• Website: http://bookwormfestival.com/

CelebRABBITions: Happy Chinese New Year!

After a passionate year of the Tiger, I welcome the tranquil, considerate and wise characteristics of the Rabbit year.  This Thursday, February 3 brings the beginning of a new lunar year or Spring Festival, the most important of traditional Chinese holidays.

For those who are unfamiliar with Chinese New Year customs, the Chinese New Year is celebrated quite differently than New Years Celebrations in Western cultures. It’s celebrated a different day for starters and rather than focusing on glamorous, sparkly parties and scrambling to find someone to kiss at midnight, the Chinese New Year is a time for family.  Why does Beijing become a desolate ghost-town overnight?  Because everyone is rushing back to their home town to spend the new year with their families.  It’s a cherished time spent indoors with home-cooking, stuffing your face with copious amounts of jiaozi and let’s not forget the endless drum of fireworks and firecrackers…nonstop…for a week.

This year in particular is the year of the rabbit, an animal both adored and loved, symbolizing mercy, elegance, and worship of beauty. This is a year to catch your breath and calm your nerves.

“The year of the rabbit is a time for negotiation.  Don’t try to force issues, because if you do you will ultimately fail.  To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children.   Make it a goal to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, so you will be able to calmly deal with any problem that may arise.” – Chinese Zodiac

This light-hearted image is is devoted to all things funny, bunny, hilariously hare-brained, or perhaps just a bit rambunctiously rabbit .

*Courtesy of my brilliantly creative friend Jennie Glorey.

Happy New Year LumDimSum Friends!

I wish you all an abundance of good fortune, success, love, health, and happiness this year of the rabbit.

新年快樂!

恭禧發財

With Love,

LDS xx

LumDimSummary: Haiti Rise 2.0

While many are familiar with the immediate destruction and catastrophic damage of the 7.0 earthquake just west of Port-au-Prince in Haiti on January 12, 2010, many don’t know about the devastating after-effects of the earthquake. In the weeks following, there were 59 aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater, there was a the cholera outbreak in October 2010, Hurricane Tomas in early November 2010 and political violence after the November 28th elections, which have all left Haiti in shambles still.

One year ago, JUMP! foundation and LumDimSum launched the Haiti Rise Campaign to raise immediate relief post-earthquake. Garnering tremendous support from the Beijing community, together we raised over RMB 430,000 in just two weeks, which were donated to Partners in Health (www.standwithhaiti.org) and Global Potential (www.global-potential.org).

One year after the initial Haiti Rise Campaign, JUMP! hosted an informational event on January 12th, 2011 featuring Tara Yip-Bannicq, Haiti-based humanitarian aid worker who has spent the past year and a half in Haiti working in community development, shelter, child protection and youth engagement.

“I have yet to encounter a single Haitian who has not been directly been affected by the earthquake whether through losing a family member, a limb or a house. The sheer magnitude, not of the quake itself, but of it’s overall effects, is what is the most devastating.” – Tara Yip-Bannicq, Haiti-based Humanitarian Aid Worker

Due to the damage from the earthquake, consequent tsunami, coinciding hurricane, local economy and lack of inherent infrastructure present in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas of the epicenter (Leogane and Gressier), it is estimated that over 3 million are directly affected with over a million people still living in IDP (internally displaced person) camps, which lack basic access to clean water and latrines, making it the perfect environment for cholera to spread.  Other problems that continue to plague locals are the lack of jobs available to people and the sheer amount of rubble that has yet to be cleared.  Lack of funding for rubble removal and the question of where to put it all, are hindrances to clearing the rubble, making it hard to rebuild Haiti.

“Overall, Haiti is a very frustrating place to work, both personally and professionally due to the all-encompassing obstacles (lack of functioning government, lack of infrastructure, cholera, security restrictions (lack of personal freedom), etc, etc) but it is also very rewarding work. A friend of mine recently described Haitian culture as really ‘getting under your skin’ in a good way; meaning this vibrant, resilient culture and people really inspire me, as cliche as that sounds.

There is a lot of work to still be done in Haiti and there will be, probably for the rest of my lifetime, at least. So, if anyone is interested in helping out either financially or volunteering, for a week, a month, 3 months, I highly recommend the following community-based initiatives, which are doing a lot of good from the bottom-up; horizontally; and top-down.”

*If you are seriously considering volunteering in Haiti, Tara requests that you contact her first (tara@jumpfoundation.org) so she can properly brief you about staying/working in Haiti and make sure you get in with the organization of your choosing.

List of Organization Recommended by Tara Yip-Bannicq:

Community-based initiatives:

1. European Disaster Volunteers (Edvolunteers.org): volunteer driven, registered charity that does post-disaster reconstruction through community-based work, both structural and educational.  *Tara’s top pick
   • US link specifically for disaster recovery: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/edv-haiti-disaster-recovery/ (specifically for Disaster Recovery)
   • US link specifically for education for children: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/education-for-children-in-port-au-prince/?rf=matched3x (specifically for Education for Children)
   • Any donations made to EDV via US links with the mention of Haiti Rise or Beijing will be matched 3 to 1. Thus, a donation of $1 would become $3 ifHaiti Rise or Beijing is mentioned in the donation.
   • UK link: http://www.justgiving.com/project/1777657
2. Grass Roots United (Grassrootsunited.org): a globally deployable, non-profit, emergency response model and pioneering transition to capacity building. GRU connects affected communities with volunteers, resources, and partner relief organizations.
3. All Hands Volunteers (Hands.org): a US-based NGO providing hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy. (*where Tara first got her first taste of disaster response/relief in Indonesia)
4. Resilience International (Resilienceinternational.org): international organization working to build a new, sustainable model for community-based recovery after disasters.

Youth-focused initiatives:

1. The JUMP! Foundation (Jumpfoundation.org): an international NGO that envisions a world where young people fulfill their true potential as individuals, community leaders, and global citizens. It provides experiential education and leadership training to youth all over the world, and a percentage of its revenue supports youth-focused development work in Haiti, Cambodia, and China.
2. Global Potential (Global-potential.org): a project of Globalhood, which aims to provide urban youth from low-income communities with the skills and perspectives to affect positive change in their lives, communities, and the global community.
   • Haiti Open Space Youth Conferences: a collaborative project between JUMP! and Global Potential that brings together youth from rural and urban neighborhoods in the US, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic to discuss issues relevant to Haiti, especially those that are often forgotten. Past topics have included the reconstruction of Haiti, sexual orientation, racism, and HIV/AIDS.
3. Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights (Heartlandalliance.org): a NGO that helps people living in poverty or danger improve their lives and realize their human rights. Through its diverse programs, Heartland Alliance serves people in the toughest circumstances including survivors of violence, torture, war, and people living in extreme hardship or poverty.
4. Nouvelle Vie Youth Corps (Nouvelleviehaiti.org): a project of the International Association for Human Values through which Haitian youth are rebuilding their country through community empowerment and sustainable community development progra

LumDimSum Snapshots of Haiti Rise 2.0:

JUMP!’s Global Leadership Project Launch

If I didn’t already have multiple jobs that I love dedicating my time and energy to, I would probably be working full-time with JUMP! foundation.

The same group LumDimSum teamed up with to initiate the Haiti Rise Campaign that raised over RMB 430,000 last January 2009, JUMP! foundation is a non-profit organization that links underprivileged youth with international resources and creates team building and leadership programs to inspire, engage and empower youth through sustainable community development projects all over Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and Central America. Each of these tailor-made programs highlight themes of “responsible travel, cultural understanding and career development abroad”.

Join this international discussion and learn about their exciting upcoming projects at their upcoming Global Leadership Project Launch this coming Thursday, January 20 and find out how you can possibly get involved with a network of incredible individuals dedicated to making a difference in the world, taking action on poverty, the environment and other global issues.

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, January 20
• Time: 5:00PM-8:00PM
• Location: JUMP! Foundation Office
• Address: Victoria Gardens, 15 Chaoyang Park West Road
• RSVP: Call 6538 6842 or e-mail: Safia@jumpfoundation.org
• Website: www.jumpfoundation.org

LumDimSaying: On Ringing In 2011

“Ring out the old, ring in the new

Ring, happy bells, across the snow

the year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

2010 has been a blast!

Thank you all for your support, inspiration, guidance and the good times we’ve shared over the course of this year.

May this new year bring you an abundance of joy, opportunity, good fortune and happiness!

Wishing all a very HAPPY 2011!

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

~Dr Seuss

Christmas!  The very word brings me so much joy and holiday cheer.  While some dread Christmas shopping and the hassle of travel, I cherish all Christmas traditions from putting up lights, decorating a tree, baking cookies for Santa, spending all day in the kitchen, and most of all – feeling the same warm, giddy feeling I had as a child waking up on Christmas day.

A day of meaning and traditions, Christmas has always been a cherished holiday spent in the warm circle of family and friends.

More than just a good time, Christmas is a kind, forgiving, charitable, and loving time.

Open not only presents, but open your hearts and remember that the good you do for others is good you do yourself.

May the gladness of Christmas give you hope,

The spirit of Christmas bring you peace,

The heart of Christmas grant you love.

LumDimSaying: On Surviving Winter Months

“Winter is a time for comfort, for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:

It is the time for home.”

- Edith Sitwell

It’s about that time of year – when most return home for the holidays to spend with family and loved ones.

This year will be my first year spent traveling with my family rather than congregating with relatives under a Christmas tree.  Although I will not exactly be “home” this year, I’d rather say that my family is my home and I’m pretty stoked to spend my winter holiday with them basking under the sun in South America!

Don’t fret my dear readers, even though I’ll be away the next few weeks, LumDimSum will continue to be updated daily throughout!

LumDimSum Family Pic at the top of San Cristobal Hill (Santiago, Chile)

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

LumDimSaying: by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What lies behind us and what lies before us

are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

Global Times: “Flash Fried Fiction” Contest

I figure the majority of my LumDimSum foodie community is still suffering from a mild to severe case of turkey coma, so instead of a restaurant review, I will spare your stomachs and instead, encourage you to put your thinking caps on and enter a writing contest by The Global Times Beijing Metro.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to submit a “Flash” fiction entry – meaning no more than 1,000 words. All genres are permitted as long as they follow this year’s theme – “Beijing“.

“Global Times Metro Beijing is looking for Beijing’s choicest cuts of Flash Fiction. We want your sizzling, full fat, high-calorie fiction hits in bite-sized pieces (1,000 words or less).  So get writing. We’re hungry for something fresh and meaty.”         – Global Times Metro Beijing

12 entries will be published in an anthology of Beijing fiction and the first prize winner will receive RMB 5,000 cash.

Deadline for story submissions is December 25, 2010.  E-mail submissions in a Microsoft Word Doc (.doc) to flashfriedfiction@globaltimes.com.cn with the subject title “Flash Fried Fiction”.

For more information and some sample entries, visit the Global Times website here.

LumDimSaying: On Gratitude

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

– Melody Beattie

More than just a splurging, coma-inducing turkey feast, Thanksgiving is a day to be grateful. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the one day a year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty, but living in a cosmopolitan city like Beijing, Thanksgiving day can be interpreted and enjoyed by all nationalities as a day to gather loved ones over a merry feast.

As much as we ought to express our love and gratitude to all of our loved ones on a daily basis, the truth is that we don’t.  So it is a truly wonderful thing to have a holiday like Thanksgiving to remind us to take time to count our blessings and reflect on the wonderful people in our lives and express our many reason to give thanks.

To all of LimDimSum’s dedicated followers, friends and family, I want to sincerely say thank you to each of you. Every minute of every hour of writing each and every post is dedicated to you.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support, your invaluable feedback and advice, and for giving me the motivation to continue writing everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

LumDimSaying: by Art Linkletter

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.”

- Art Linkletter

I have always believed in the power of positivity, an individual’s power to control and make your own path.

As I have quoted in previous entries, my personal philosophy is that getting the most out of life is all about having the right attitude.

“Believe in the power of positivity: POSITIVE THINKING= POSITIVE ENERGY= POSITIVE EVENTS BECAUSE OF= POSITIVE YOU!”

– My insightful friend Kat, wise beyond her years

*What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

LumDimSaying: by Anthony J. D’Angelo

“Wherever you go, whatever you do,

No matter the weather,

Always bring your own sunshine.”

- Anthony J. D’Angelo

The College Blue Book

What is a LumDimSaying? A quote I find worth noting. And sharing.

The Charitarian’s 4th Edition Launch Party

The Charitarian, China’s first magazine promoting social responsibility in government, business and corporate life, is hosting their 4th Edition Launch Party this Tuesday, November 9 from 6:00PM-8:00PM.

Charitarian CEO and Editor, Wang Liwei will be speaking about the challenges of China’s 12th 5-year plan and how to promote balanced development in China.

“We invite you to a networking drinks to discuss the role of companies, international and grassroots NGO’s, foreign embassies and the media in contributing to the delivery of the social component of the 12th five year plan.” – The Charitarian

Attendees will be given a free copy of the fourth edition of The Charitarian magazine which includes interviews with the Head of FDI in Shanghai and COO of Marks & Spencer China, reports on meetings with Chinese NGO leaders and an update on Foxconn.

Hot Tip: Come early at 6PM for a possible chance to meet UK Prime Minister David Cameron who will be in the event.

Event Info:

• Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
• Time: 6:00PM-8:00PM
• Location: Private room at Hua’s Courtyard Restaurant, Guijie Street
• Address: No. 235 Inner Street of Dongzhimen, Dongcheng District, Beijing.
• Tel: 51283315 or 64051908)
• Website: www.huajiacai.com