In honor of Remembrance Day this November 11th, and with the greatest respect towards anyone who has written about this subject in the past, we celebrate the perpetuating existence of the Remembrance Poppy Day within the British Commonwealth countries (formerly ‘Empire’) should be credited to one person alone, Anna Guérin. Canadian John McCrea exists at the heart of every historical account as inspiration to Anna. The physician from Guelph, Ontario, wrote his historical poem ‘In Flanders … [Read more...]
DAKAR – Catch 22, ‘opium’ farmers need Alternative Livelihood
July 28, 2012 by
DAKAR, July 2012 (IRIN) - Upwards of 90 percent of the opium poppies in Myanmar’s northern region are grown in Shan State, even though farmers are aware that if they grow an illicit crop, it may be eradicated and they could lose everything Alternative livelihood support is needed if growers are to be weaned off this double-edged source of income. “Farmers grow opium poppy to buy food, pay off debt and have a cash income to pay school fees and health expenses,” Gary Lewis, regional … [Read more...]
HEROINE – History & Hope for Solutions
May 11, 2012 by
Heroin was first synthesized in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, an English chemist working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, England. He had been experimenting with combining morphine with various acids. He boiled anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride over a stove for several hours and produced a more potent, acetylated form of morphine, now called diacetylmorphine. The compound was sent to F. M. Pierce of Owens College in Manchester for analysis, who reported the … [Read more...]
MEMORIAL DAY – May 31, 2011
May 28, 2011 by
A Celebration of Women sends our respect to the fallen and prayers to the families left behind. There is also evidence that organized Women's Groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). … [Read more...]
