Peter Foggin

Joint meeting of the two boards (Canada and Scotland), the Council of Reference and some of the key leaders and friends of Plateau Perspectives

9/2/2014

The two boards (Canada and Scotland), leaders and friends of Plateau Perspectives (www.plateauperspectives.org) met for two days of meetings (August 9-10) designed to envisage the direction of future work (looking, for example, at our overall purpose as well as at the geographic scope of our programmes) of this Canadian-Scottish NGO. Happily, some members of our Council of Reference were also present for these discussions which were enormously interesting and fruitful. We met in the delightful context of a hunting lodge on the edge of a loch or lake in the Highlands of Scotland. Here are a few photos of Sallachy Lodge where we met. It was really a wonderful time where colleagues from Canada, the UK, the US, China, Kyrgyzstan and Austria met, many for the first time. Many enduring friendships and relationships were formed or further strengthened. This experience seemed to me to forge a unity and vision in the work and life of Plateau Perspectives far beyond what we previously sensed. Plateau Perspectives' purpose is to support conservation and community development in the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asian Highlands. For those interested in more detail and colourful photos please view or download Plateau Perspectives' 2013 Annual Report at: http://www.plateauperspectives.org/en/about/downloads/ .

The Lodge's website describes the geographic context of our meetings as follows: "Sallachy Lodge is located on a private Highland Sporting and Fishing estate extending to 10,500 hectares set within breath taking scenery along the bank of Loch Shin. The Estate is located within the county of Sutherland in the North of Scotland and lies north west of the small, picturesque, rural village of Lairg . Holidaying at Sallachy Estate provides the ideal location to enjoy the beauty and the tranquility of the Scottish Highlands, an ideal holiday destination for all." ( http://www.sallachyestate.co.uk/ ).

Spring of 2014 - A 'repositioning' cruise

9/2/2014

Beth and I flew to Fort Lauderdale in late April and got on the Celebrity Line's Constellation the next day. It was a great crossing and Beth gave a series of fantastic talks; some were on the history of the explorers going out from the Iberian peninsula. Her visuals (highly developed powerpoint presentations) are tremendous and a lot of people came out each day to hear and see her talks. Our first stop was Lisbon - the weather was fabulous for our day of touring around and visiting the city. We had been there about 3 years ago when we went on a 2-week land tour from Madrid to Portugal and then on to Morocco. But that was January and this was the beginning of May. Quite a difference. Then after another sea day we arrived in Dover where we spent a lot of time visiting and experiencing both the famous Dover Castle and the town itself. Very windy! The next day we were docked in Le Havre (France) just across the English Channel. After exploring the town of Le Havre we took a bus to the coastal/river (the Seine) town of Honfleur. It was a beautiful place, and not at all spoiled by the bus loads of tourists that were arriving from Le Havre. The final day was spent at Zeebrugges (the port of Brugges). However, instead of going to the inland city of Brugges we took a very efficient inter-city light rail (tram) to the Belgian coastal city of Oostend. It was the weekly market day and so it was a most interesting time, in spite of the poor weather. We arrived in Amsterdam on May 9th and had a transfer straight to the airport (Shipol) to catch our plane to Chicago and then on to Vancouver. It was great to be home again as we made our way towards White Rock by train (straight from YVR) and bus using the amazing public transit system that's available to us here in the Vancouver area.

Summer of the 10-year Family Reunion

9/29/2013

This has been an amazing summer with relatives coming together here in B.C. from China, Germany, Australia, the U.S. and, of course, Canada. The focus of this reunion that took place at the beginning of August was at the home of Dave and Marianne Cameron on the edge of Lake Kawkawa near the little town of Hope, 170 km east of Vancouver. Below are a couple of photos of this venue for our Family Reunion, plus the ones on the right which can be enlarged by clicking on each one.

John, Peter's brother, and Carly Foggin came from West Australia; Bernd and Jutta Schuppener and Christoph and Bergit Schmidt (cousins) came from Germany; Carol Tabor and Brian (also cousins) and (son) Caleb Dotson came from the States. Tim and Eva and Hannah and Rebecca Foggin and Marc and Marion and Alistair Foggin all came from China where they live and work (but on opposite sides of the country!). And all the others from Edmonton (the Mike Cameron family and Darryl Cameron) and the Toronto area (Bryan and Joy Karney; Adrienne and Tim Havercroft, Christina and Alex Karney) and from Burnaby (Judy Cameron) and White Rock (Beth and Peter). In the midst of various travel commitments and summer plans, they all managed to be together on the weekend of August 2nd at Dave and Marianne's home by the lake in Hope, B.C. See the photo of the 4 older generation siblings (Joy, Marianne, John and Peter) in Manning Park. There are two group photos of the three generations (see the first two on the right). It was truly a wonderful time of catching up with each other. We are all so grateful to Dave and Marianne for being such amazing hosts!

Dave and Marianne's home: Adrienne Karney-Haverscroft, Rebecca Foggin and Christina Karney. Photo on right: Kawkawa Lake and dock: looking out from the house

July 23rd, 2013

7/23/2013

Okay, here I am after about 3 years since my last posting. So sorry for my long 'absence' from the blog world! This website and blog used to be at www.peterfoggin.com. However, in view of my continuing interest in and research on the cultural landscapes of southwest China and on the Tibetan Plateau, the name of this site is now ChinaLandscapes.org. My latest field trip was in southeast Guizhou (in May 2013) among the Hmu Miao people of that region (which is occupied to a large extent by the Miao and Dong minorities). In Chinese it is referred to as the QianDongNan region. This time I stayed in the regional capital, Kaili, and radiated out from there on long day trips to various Miao villages. Here are several photos of cultural landscapes and of people, taken at that time.

Who are the Miao ?

The Miao designation as one of China’s 56 'nationalities' (i.e., the 55 ethnic categories plus the Chinese Han) includes four major ethnic groups. Nevertheless, and perhaps surprisingly, the very existence of this official category appears to engender a sense of identity that transcends to some extent the basic ethno-linguistic divisions existing within itself (Foggin and Carrier, 2010). The Miao currently correspond to the fifth most populous nationality with a population of just over 9,426,000 or .71 % of China’s total population at the time of the 2010 census (NBS, 2012) and are concentrated for the most part in southwest China, particularly in Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Sichuan provinces and in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Figure 1). However, they are made up of some significantly different linguistic and ethnic sub-groups.

To describe the four major Miao ethno-linguistic groups, starting in the east, there are the Ghao-X[i]ong, also called by two other names, the Xiangxi Miao or the Red Miao, in western Hunan province. Their language or dialect has two main vernaculars, the western dialect for over 90 per cent of the speakers and the eastern version comprising less than 10 per cent. The Hmu, also known as Qiandongnan (“Southeast Qian”) or as the Hei (Black) Miao of southeast Guizhou, have three very distinct dialects: the northern with 65 percent of the speakers, the eastern with 15 percent and the southern with 20 percent” (Enwall, 1995).

The A-Hmao is the third major grouping of the Miao. The A-Hmao people are separate and different from the Hmong (the language of whom is officially called Chuan-Dian-Qian, or C-D-Q). Those speaking A-Hmao are spread over perhaps the largest contiguous territory of any of the Miao linguistic groups. The A-Hmao language is spoken in northwest Guizhou and northeast and central Yunnan.

Finally, Hmong language dialects are spoken by between a third and a half of those classified as Miao in China. In a telling commentary Lemoine says: “Back to the anthropological facts, ethnic (H)mong of China are but a part of the Miao political minority nationality and I see no logical way that other Miao (like the Ke Xiong [or Gho Xong], the A Hmao or the Hmu) could pretend to be considered as belonging to the same (H)mong ethnic group or change (H)mong from an ethnic name into a category name equivalent to Miao." They live primarily in central and western Guizhou and in southeastern Yunnan province. Some also live in Sichuan.

Travelling in Southwest China/Voyage au sud-ouest de la Chine (le français au 2ième paragraphe)

6/3/2010

I took the bus back from Zhaotong to Kunming today (6 hours). The weather up there in the northeast was terrible. However, I had an amazing day high up in the mountains yesterday in the Shi Men Kan area (over the line in Guizhou province). The people there are the A-Mao (Big Flowery Miao) ethnic group. I was invited into a family there, and they were extremely warm-hearted and welcoming. They invited me to share a meal with them, which I did. Their oldest son, Wang …, 22, was there with his young wife - they had just delivered their first baby 14 days before, right in the house. I went into the bedroom to see the sleeping baby - he was beautiful! The young Wang also guided me to another neighbouring village. It had poured the night before so that the mud was dreadful, and terribly slippery. If it hadn't been for Wang I would have been humiliated in the mud many times. I don't know how they keep a footing in the clayey mud up the steep slopes. He stuck with me till I was able to get back to the road and hail one of the last micro minivans (carrying ten or more passengers!) down the winding, rough mountain road (about 2 hours) to Zhongshui on the main Guizhou-Yunnan highway. There I jumped into one of the fairly frequent buses for Zhaotong (half an hour). So, all in all, in spite of poor conditions for photography, it was a great day!

Le séisme de Yushu (Chine) / The Yushu (western China) earthquake (English in second paragraph)

4/19/2010

Je suis rentré d’Haïti samedi soir – en effet, ça a été un temps remarquable et, je l’espère, une contribution utile dans la réponse globale au séisme dévastateur du 12 janvier dernier. Le nouveau point de mire pour nous, étant donné nos liens avec le Plateau tibétain, est le tremblement de terre dans la préfecture de Yushu dans le sud de la province de Qinghai, la région où Plateau Perspectives est à l’œuvre depuis plus de 10 ans. (Docteure) Marion dirige et organise des équipes de professionnels de santé allant à Jiegu (ville de Yushu) et Marc (basé à Xining) semble être le porte-parole pour certains des médias internationaux, par ex.: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1982170,00.html . De plus, Plateau Perspectives a construit un nouveau site web afin d’informer sur la situation courante: http://yushuearthquakerelief.com/. Si on s’intéresse à aider les gens sinistrés par le séisme de Yushu, on peut donner via le site web suivant : http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s80660.

I arrived home from Haiti on Saturday night – it has been a remarkable and, hopefully, helpful and useful time of response to the January 12th earthquake in that devastated country. The new focus for us, given our connection with the Tibetan Plateau, is the earthquake in Yushu Prefecture in southern Qinghai province where Plateau Perspectives has been working for over ten years. (Dr) Marion has been organizing and directing the medical teams going to Jiegu (or Yushu town) and Marc (based in Xining) has become a spokesperson for international media coverage. For example, you might like to read the Time mag. article at: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1982170,00.html. Plateau Perspectives has put up a special website: http://yushuearthquakerelief.com/.You can view footage there (under April 16) of the devastated area (97 % of Jiegu has been flattened). If you are interested in helping victims of the Yushu earthquake, you can give on line via Plateau Perspectives at the following website: http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s80660 .

Mobile clinics for all ages / cliniques mobiles pour tous les âges (le français au deuxième paragraphe)

4/11/2010

Here’s a photo of a lady who came to our mobile clinic on Saturday. The needs are tremendous – typically we see between 100 and 300 patients per day, depending on the size of any given medical team. Often there are huge numbers of children – and in these cases we distribute supplies of children’s multi-vitamins and ‘6-packs’ of baby food. Malnutrition is very common.

Voici une photo d’une dame qui était venue dans la clinique mobile de samedi dernier. Les besoins sont immenses mais nous voyons, typiquement, entre 100 et 300 patients dans une journée, dépendant des effectifs disponibles pour les cliniques. Souvent, il y a beaucoup d’enfants et dans de tels cas nous distribuons des vitamines variées (pour enfant), ainsi que de la nourriture pour bébés.

Hospitality from an IDP camp / l’hospitalité d’un camp de PDI (le français au deuxième paragraphe)

4/5/2010

The last IDP camp (named Apad, in the Croix-des-Bouquets area) to which our mobile clinic went was very special. They had prepared a 3-sided tent structure for us to use (as the pharmacy). It was made up of over 270 families. When we arrived several ladies were sweeping the hardened dirt surface of the tent floor and the surrounding space and then sprinkled water to keep the dust down. A big jovial man, a camp leader named Volma, introduced himself and said he would look after the question of maintaining order in the line-ups through the day. And he did. The whole clinic surface (including their tent, the additional open-sided tent that we brought, as well as a fairly large area outside both which was mainly occupied by benches that served as a waiting area for the patients) was in the welcome shade of a huge mango tree. Around 1 o’clock, the camp people brought cold soft drinks to the health workers. All in all, it was one of the best ordered and friendliest of all the camps that our mobile clinics have been working in. The people knew our Haitian partner very well and I’m sure that was one of the reasons for this exceptional reception.

Le dernier camp de PDI (nommé Apad, dans la zone de Croix-des-Bouquets) auquel notre clinique mobile est allée a été vraiment spécial. Ils avaient préparé une tente à 3 parois (qu’on pouvait employer comme la pharmacie). Plus de 270 familles sont recensées dans ce camp. Lorsque nous y sommes arrivés quelques femmes étaient en train de balayer le plancher fait de terre battue, ainsi que l’espace environnant; elles arrosaient légèrement le sol afin de réduire la poussière. Un des chefs de file du camp, un grand monsieur, très jovial, s’était présenté pour nous rassurer que lui, il s’occuperait du maintien de l’ordre tout au long de la journée. Et il l’a fait. Tout l’espace de la clinique (incluant leur tente ainsi que celle que nous avions apportée, plus une aire assez étendue occupée principalement par des bancs qui servaient très informellement d’une salle d’attente) se trouvait sous l’ombrage d’un immense manguier. Vers 13 heures des gens du camp ont apporté des boissons froides pour tous les travailleurs de santé. Somme toute, c’était le camp le plus accueillant et convivial de tous les camps où nous avons pu travailler. Les gens connaissaient très bien notre partenaire haïtien et cela a contribué sans aucun doute à cette réception des plus chaleureuses.

More emergency patients / Plus de patients à l’urgence (English in the second paragraph)

4/1/2010

Un mot rapide ce soir. Ça a été une journée remplie de l’imprévu! D’abord amener quelqu’un à l’aéroport international, ensuite un saut à l’hôpital Miami-Dade pour voir qu’est-ce qui s’est passé pour nos deux patients, admis à l’urgence (ER!). Ils étaient tous les deux partis pour la maison, accompagnés dans chaque cas par un membre de la famille. Ensuite une rencontre (presque ratée) pour suivre les responsables vers une distribution alimentaire pas loin de la route de Delmas. Plus tard, un deuxième voyage à l’aéroport pour deux autres départs, suivi par l’admission (à l’hôpital Miami) d’un bébé qui était très, très malade (la petite Marie Lynne), et une autre petite (4 ans) qui avait chuté sur son coude (Esthère). La première est surveillée pour la nuit dans la clinique d’urgence Miami-Dade, l’autre fut renvoyé à la maison, après une consultation entre un jeune médecin et un chevronné pédiatre-chirurgien orthopédique. J’étais estomaqué devant le dévouement et la compétence professionnelle d’une poignée de professionnels de santé qui y travaillent tous les jours de 7 h à 19 h! De plus, notre équipe a pu, aujourd’hui, (à Chambrun) monter deux grandes tentes qui vont servir de salles de classe lorsqu’on redémarre l’école d’ici fin-avril!

It’s been a day full of the unexpected! First of all, it started out by taking someone to the International Air Terminal, followed by a fast in-and-out at the ER of Miami-Dade (trauma hospital) to check on our patients, only to find that both of them had been sent home. Great news! Then an (almost missed!) meeting of leaders who led us to a food distribution just off Delmas Highway. Later, a second trip to the airport – 2 others were leaving. This was followed by the admission at Miami-Dade of a very, very sick little girl, Marie Lynne, and a 4-year-old (Esthère) who may have broken her elbow in a fall yesterday. Tonight Marie Lynne is still in the hospital under observation while we were able to take Esthère and her mom home at the end of the afternoon. Did they ever enjoy the simple meal that was given to them in the ER! I’m always amazed, and moved, by the compassion and professionalism of the health care volunteers (they come down for one or several weeks of continuous 12-hour days) in the trauma hospital. One more thing: our team was able to set up two big tents today (at Chambrun) which will be used as classrooms as school starts getting underway later this month.

Refugee (IDP) Camps / Camp des réfugiés (PDI) (le français au deuxième paragraphe)

3/29/2010

Let me try to describe one of the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps by looking at one specifically - the Croix-des-Bouquets camp (see the 3 new photos to the right). This one is relatively small, compared to the vast ones in the bigger category - approximately 400 families and 1500 people. This is one of the least served camps - they have had only one food distribution since the earthquake forced them here, and we were the first mobile clinic they have had (last week). The 'tents' are not really tents, but a collection of bits of cloth, flapping in the wind. Unlike some of the most visible (from the road) camps, they have received no modern tents. When it rains, as it did two nights ago, they must flee to the makeshift church for shelter - it is made of a structure of poles covered by basket weave mats which is a lot more protection than the zero protection of their cloth-covered temporary dwellings. In one of the 3 pictures (to the right), you will see the typical bed setup - no mattress, only cinder blocks covered by a thin sheet. I went back to this camp today to try to find where to take a young boy back who we had taken to Miami-Dade ER hospital on Friday. His leg had been septic and he may have lost his leg, or even his life. I hope to return him to his little orphanage tomorrow (his mom was killed in the January 12th earthquake).

Laissez-moi vous décrire un des camps PDI (personnes déplacées 'internes') par l'entremise d'un regard sur un camp particulier, soit celui de Croix-des-Bouquets (voir les 3 photos à droite). Celui-ci est relativement petit lorsqu'il est comparé aux camps gigantesques qui existent ailleurs dans la région urbaine de P-au-P. Celui-ci a environ 400 familles, et selon les estimations locales, plus ou moins 1500 habitants. Il n'a eu de distribution alimentaire qu'une fois. Notre équipe mobile de soins de santé est la première qui fait escale chez eux (la semaine dernière). Les 'tentes' ne le sont pas vraiment, elles sont plutôt des 'demeures' qui sont une collection de vieilles pièces de tissu qui flottent dans le vent. Contrairement aux camps plus visibles (de la route), ce camp n'a pas une seule tente réelle. Quand il pleut (des torrents), comme c'était le cas il y a deux nuits, ils doivent se réfugier dans un ‘bâtiment’ communautaire construit d’armure nattée suspendue sur des branches improvisées. Par ailleurs, vous verrez dans une des photos une disposition de lit assez typique, à savoir un drap étendu sur des blocs de ciment de construction. Je vais y retourner demain afin de faire rentrer un jeune garçon dont la jambe était sceptique – il risquait de perdre soit sa jambe ou sa vie et donc nous l'avions amené à l'hôpital d'urgence Miami-Dade de P-au-P où il a été opéré d'urgence. Sa mère a été tuée dans le séisme du 12 janvier.