A Bus Trip, A Great Lunch And A Brave Swedish Foreign Minister

Just returned from another bus trip with a bunch of youth from a Calgary Church. The folks visited the West Edmonton Mall and had an overnight stay at a church. Next morning we all went for brunch at the Buffet Royale at Gateway Blvd. in Edmonton. As a driver I was invited and boy, did I relish that lunch. One of the better places I have ever seen. Excellent food, friendly people and they had something I have never seen in “real life”, a chocolate fountain. Wow! You put some fruit, (quite a variety they had) on a small stick and hold it into the running chocolate so it gets coated with that nice stuff.  What a dessert! Ice cream was very good as well, so of course, I had to try that too.  I had the feeling I barely fit behind the wheel afterwards. I am now on a one week “vacation” as upcoming Easter makes for bad business in the charter industry. Our recent snow has all disappeared and we are back to a spring-like weather here in Edmonton. This week is also the end of March which gets us into the last month of our delightful stay in this house. On the other hand that brings Campobello and a trip east into focus. But yet it is still way too early. After all we don’t want to get into shoveling snow again, and that’s what we would have to do back home. This morning I was perusing the book of faces and stumbled upon an article about the Swedish Foreign Minister WALLSTRÖM who has stepped into some hot waters. She has dared to sharply criticize Saudi Arabia for how they treat their women. They are not allowed to drive a car, marry without consent of their father and are often being forced to marry older men when they are at teen-age. Women are Play-things in the Arab world. And that’s what the Swedish Foreign Minister addressed.  Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström One would think that she earned a lot of support in the western world. Not so! After “Je Suis Charlie” became so popular one wonders where all those people who condemned islamistic behaviour are hiding. Saudi Arabia reacted by barring Swedish business men from receiving visa for the UAE. And they are rallying for more Islam countries to join them. But not only is Wallström not getting any support but she is also facing massive political pressure as Sweden is the world’s 12th biggest weapon exporter meaning that there will be massive losses of trade volume in the aftermath. So this is what we got. Peoples rights are not important if the economy is suffering. For balance I like to say that the Arabs are not the only ones telling women how to live their life. There are countless religious groups in the U.S. and Canada who are pursuing (and achieving) their goal to keep women behind the hearth, even though they don’t take it quite as far as the Arabs are doing. I will leave this with you to ponder about. (link to the story) Have a great Sunday!