Nicole still missing in Syria

Family and friends world wide are still wondering what happened to Nicole Vienneau two years after mysteriously disappearing in Syria on March 31^st 2007. This weekend Nicole's mother travels again to Damascus to search for her missing daughter. The two million Syrian pound reward still stands. As yet there is no body, no scent, no witness and no leads. Nicole was last seen by staff at the Cairo Hotel in Hama. She never returned and hasn’t been seen since. No emails have been sent from her accounts, no contacts to friends or family and no sightings. She left behind her travel journal and photos.

When she didn’t return to her hotel room political police were called to search her belongings as she was deemed a possible threat as it was thought she had possibly disappeared underground. This was found not to be the case. She is not a political suspect. Sadly criminal police were not called at the time by the hotel as there was no sign of a crime. Nicole is the first person in Syria to be a foreigner, unaccounted for and missing. Guide books such as the Lonely Planet, now mention her disappearance as a warning to others travelling there alone. On March 31^st 2007, a hotel clerk said she planned to visit Qasr Ibn Wardan in the desert.

Strangely she left behind her handwritten instructions in her guidebook for directions to that Bedouin area. Nicole was a seasoned & organised traveller. It seems most unlikely she would have left this behind to go to a remote location.

To date most of the questioning and searching has been carried out by her Mother, Brother and fiancée See interview footage Video news )

Her brother, has kept a detailed web diary of his work in trying to trace her Live Journal . Canadian police were not allowed to participate. Today her mother is back in Damascus trying to find some closure on what happened.

On the days leading to her disappearance many people saw Nicole but on the date of March 31^st onwards no one saw her at all. In a country where women dress conservatively and in traditional Muslim dress, Nicole, as a Western tourist, would have been quite noticeable. No one, save the hotel clerk, saw her from 8.30 that morning.

On the 31^st March only one man registered to visit Qasr Ibn Wardan. In Arabic, he wrote, his name as Amin Ben Yahia امين بن يحيى. He had an Algerian passport, born 1984, parents Abba and Monica. Believed to be connected to Switzerland (or even Germany). Gatekeeper recalls him as being Swiss. He has not come forward. Coincidentally on March 17, 2007 Nicole logged that she had a dinner date with a Swiss man in Damascus, her only dinner date logged.

We are most grateful for all the help around the world online who have tried to help find Nicole, particularly Syrian News for blogging about the story in 2007 and again this weekend, two years later.

Please use any form of online international communication you can to highlight this story and communicate with her family via the webpage dedicated to her story Find Nicole Vienneau

An ancient Bedouin saying states, “The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it.”

البحث عن أمين بن يحيى الذي كان في سوريا 07 مارس

Friendship

amazing Sand art

"Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself… If you don’t have friends you see much less than you otherwise might." ~Merle Shain

You've Got a Friend

Down but Not Out

Once a successful business man & real estate agent Ron Craven presents his own personal video of the slippery life as a homeless person on the streets of Toronto. Down but not Out

"I won't say that most people feel that homeless people deserve to die on the streets because they are substandard human beings, not better than vermin, but far too many Torontonians feel that way."

View Ron's own Blog @ downbutnotout

Drink your way out of poverty ~ tea bag art saves families

Original TBag Designs

is a community of South African artists who live using recycled tea bags as their canvases. The money earned by their art helps support a community of 125 people. Pictured here is Nomsa, who was able to buy a house with the proceeds from her paintings with tea bags.

“The most wonderful thing in the world is hearing the rain on the roof and knowing my children are warm and dry.”

YOu can purchase the artwork online or via retail outlets mentioned on their page.

Ballet

She with one arm ~ he with one leg ~
together hand in hand

A Ballet

Performed by Ma Li (馬麗) and Zhai Xiaowei (翟孝偉).

The music is composed by San Bao. This music is originally from a very popular TV episodes in China, named Qian Shou

Corrective Rape in South Africa

A woman carries her belongings through the rubble of shacks in the Ramaphosa squatter camp photo by Kim Ludbrook

Very moved and angered today by the grim story in the Guardian newspaper reporting the practise of correct rapes on lesbains in South Africa. Similarly I have also been outraged by the rape of women there wearing the Kanga ~ a traditional Africa dress.

See the video news Bulletin here

"Every day I am told that they are going to kill me, that they are going to rape me and after they rape me I'll become a girl," said Zakhe Sowello from Soweto, Johannesburg. "When you are raped you have a lot of evidence on your body. But when we try and report these crimes nothing happens, and then you see the boys who raped you walking free on the street."

Its such a shame that a country that has fought so hard for its rights againts the injustice of Apartheid shames its women in this way.

"Political freedom without economic empowerment is a hollow victory. However, economic empowerment without spiritual emancipation is not only hollow but deadly"

~ Mmatsilo Motsei in her book "The Kanga and the kangaroo court"

Men particularly from a patriarchal society, such as South Africa are born into communities where it is the norm to exploit and abuse women both verbally and physically as a way of exerting power. It is a huge challenge to re educate the value sytems that allow such injustice to take place. Women feel powerless to take a stand for fear of their lives. It is critical that women can walk the streets with out fear ~ a place which has a rape a minute. Change can only come about with a moral and spiritual awakening that values the equality of women in a society by men who have learned to love and respect themselves.

"When we track down and kill another person or persons, we ourselves individually die some. We place the best in ourselves the human spirit, otherwise called God ~ in unspeakable jeopardy." ~ African Elder, Eskia Mphahele

I am Khanga

I wrap myself around the curvaceous bodies of women all over Africa

I am the perfect nightdress on those hot African nights

The ideal attire for household chores

I secure babies happily on their mother’s backs

Am the perfect gift for new bride and new mother alike

Armed with proverbs, I am vehicle for communication between women

I exist for the comfort and convenience of a woman

But no no no make no mistake …

I am not here to please a man

And I certainly am not a seductress

Please don’t use me as an excuse to rape

Don’t hide behind me when you choose to abuse

You see

That’s what he said my Malume

The man who called himself my daddy’s best friend

Shared a cell with him on [Robben] Island for ten whole years

He said I wanted it

That my khanga said it

That with it I lured him to my bed

That with it I want you is what I said

But what about the NO I uttered with my mouth

Not once but twice

And the please no I said with my body

What about the tear that ran down my face as I lay stiff with shock

In what sick world is that sex

In what sick world is that consent

The same world where the rapist becomes the victim

The same world where I become the bitch that must burn

The same world where I am forced into exile because I spoke out?

This is NOT my world

I reject that world

My world is a world where fathers protect and don’t rape

My world is a world where a woman can speak out

Without fear for her safety

My world is a world where no one , but no one is above the law

My world is a world where sex is pleasurable not painful

"On May 8, 2006, the South African Judge Willem van der Merwe ruled that ANC leader Jacob Zuma was not guilty of the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, the daughter of his late friend Judson Kuzwayo, his fellow prisoner on Robben Island who died in exile in 1985. Zuma did not deny having sex with her, but claimed since the victim wore a kanga, a traditional African wrap around cloth and that she had “asked for it.”

She performed this poem in Amsterdam at the opening of the exhibition “Identity, Power and Connection,” It was her first response to the verdict.

Procrastination

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin. ~Victor Kiam

Inspiring Animated Design video "Procrastination" By John Kelly


Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
- William James

Oh Mother

Up to 50% of all homeless mothers and children are fleeing from domestic violence


25% of pregnant women have been subject to domestic assault.

One of the likeliest cause of death for women in the age range 18 to 40 is at the hands of a partner who is violent

Violence against women is primarily intimate partner violence

Oh Mother

~ a moving song written by Christina Agilera who witnessed dometsic abuse as a child and now dedicates time and resources to supporting victims of Domestic Violence via the 1736 family crisis centre


Christina Agilera

"She was so young with such innocent eyes
She always dreamt of a fairytale life
And all the things your money can't buy
She thought he was a wonderful guy
Then suddenly, things seemed to change
It was the moment she took on his name
He took his anger out on her face
She kept all of her pain locked away

Oh mother, we're stronger
From all of the tears you have shed
Oh mother, don't look back..."

Piñatas for the Homeless

Chicago artists released hundreds of paper mache piñatas stuffed with space blankets, created by a local Piñata factory. The display of functional public art created huge attention and awareness to the issue of homelessness and the spaces (in this case highway underpasses) that act as shelters.

Over 100 Chicago area youth and more than 40 community members participated.

View imges of Piñata making here. Picasa album

Homelessness

These last few days I have been thinking about homelessness ~ reasons for it and those who try and bring about change for this. I have been very much inspired by the amazing House of Cards advert created by Leo Burnett featuring Radiohead for the charity ~ Shelter


Online I have been moved by numerous stories of how virtual communities are coming together to help the homeless.

Here’s one example of how a “FlashMob” was organised in Vancouver, after just one Tweet in December 08, to provide blankets for those sleeping rough. (Twitter helps Homeless)

Sometimes it takes more than that ~ its recognising that those on the streets are the most invisbile and disregarded by society and its hearing their stories that brings us closer to undertsanding their needs.They come from all walks of life but often have simply lost faith in their abilities to face the world.The greatest things you can do is befriend.

I also discovered a new video blog called Invisible TV that gives a voice and face to the homeless documenting their stories across the web.

“To have the confidence to actually do something about where you are is especially hard because you have to build up that confidence. By the end of the time you come on the streets you've lost all confidence in yourself and you think I cant do it even if I try I'm not going to be able to do it.”

~ Rebecca, a once homeless woman, who set up the charity in Australia Rebecca’s Community


This week I gave several pairs of socks to the homeless person who made this photograph.

This photo was taken the day they went homeless.

October 31st 2008.

I know them personally and try to help where I can. This person is my friend and someone I respect a lot. It’s a situation that can face anyone, regardless of stereotypes.

I too was homeless for a short time when in between jobs in Asia. I slept in a hovel, with several others, men and women, toilet and shower were shared with strangers, no privacy whatsoever. It was frightening and it reduces your dignity. No air conditioning, windows were open and my body was covered in mosquito bites after sleeping on the not so clean sheets. I felt incapable but at the same time my pride made me feel I couldn't ask for help. One wonders how people can end up in such a vulnerable situation, but it happens. Fortunately for me, some friends intervened, offered a temporary place to stay, until I found a job. I was grateful to have had the benefit of an education that secured me employment within a short space of time. To this day I won't forget the stench, of sweating bodies, lonely for a resting place in the sticky tropical humidity.

This is the bathroom I shared with about 15 others.

"When we bear witness, when we become the situation — homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death — the right action arises by itself. We don’t have to worry about what to do. We don't have to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we listen with our entire body and mind, loving action arises.

-- Bernie Glassman

Passion

“ There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living ~ Nelson Mandela

SOULEYMANE DIAMANKA

Today I fell in love with this wonderful poet ~ Born in Senegal, Souleymane Diamanka, who grew up in France, where he began working on words & poetry that was to become his intimate style.

Hear his beautiful voice here In Marchand de cendres

Nicole Vienneau نيكول

An ancient Bedouin saying states, “The way to keep a trail alive is to walk on it.”

I just heard of Nicole Vienneau last week. She is someone I don’t know personally, but whom I have come to know through the love & care of my good friend in Canada, who once dated her. Just this week he found out that Nicole (Canadian) is missing…almost two years to the day and is deeply upset about this. You can imagine the shock.

I know that feeling as I too, being a traveller across continents, have “lost” people, unique people, soul people, people who only come into your life once in a lifetime & never completely go away. Nicole seems to be one of those people. Nicole is a traveller. A seasoned and responsible traveller. She has survived many terrains and countries over the course of her 34 years. Now after two years and intensive searches by her family and friends including a detailed weekly web log by her brother, there is still not a trace of what happened to her…

See the dedicated webpage ~ Find Nicole

Nicole was last seen in the Cairo Hotel in Syria on March 31^st 2007. Her belongings left behind intact. She was gone with just her light day travel ruck sack. Since this date her bank account has remained untouched, her email inactive and with no communication to anyone she knows.

Afew days before her disappearance she made a “long bike ride into true Bedouin territory” into the ancient ruins of Palmyra, known as the Bride of the Desert, located in an oasis 215 km along the road from Damascus. My Canadian friend, who knew her well and once travelled with her, has observed all the searches & has an instinctive feeling that if she is alive she could well be with the Bedouin.

The word ‘Bedouin’ - derives from the Arab “bedu”, which means “inhabitant of the desert”. The Bedouins are ancient travellers that have existed for thousands of years, long before Islam or biblical times. There are only "100,000" still living in Syria. They still live much as they would all those years of years ago, in animal skin tents with few possessions. Due to the harsh desert environment they hold passionately to values of justice & bravery. The Bedouin sing ancient poetry accompanied to handmade instruments such as the simimiyya (which is a five stringed lyre), a flutelike shabba and the rababa (a one-string violin). The lyre was introduced to Ethiopia by King Solomon himself, following his marriage to the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba.

The Bedouins are renowned for their hospitality. They easily shelter strangers and they would take care of someone like Nicole without asking questions.

Interior of a Bedouin Tent

You don't need any possessions or money. If she is alive it certainly seems that this is a likely possibility. The only other is that she has been the target of foul play or a fatal accident.

Nicole was the sort of person who lived frugally. She cherished her freedom & was a lover of the world. My friend says she would have found the Bedouin lifestyle attractive ~ a life style of the most basic possessions but one that maps journeys to starlight.

To follow this line of search we are asking for any photographers of Bedouin, who may have seen anything unusual, to provide us with contact details. Any other information on the whereabouts of Nicole is also welcome.

Bedouin flutist

The lightly burdened shall be saved Bedouin proverb