THE HEAVY LIFTERS - Stanstead College

humanitarians
simplistic.
But Dr. Nahra revealed that Frost was actually influenced by
Latin poets, capturing ordinary life without ever sounding vulgar
or crude.
“It takes a master to do something so effortless,” she said. “If
there were an Olympics for poetry, Frost would win all the gold
medals for subtlety.”
Frost, she said, wanted to be accessible and wanted to write
poems that had “the sound of sense” – in other words, the way
people speak.
*
A top Ottawa immigration lawyer, Warren Creates has made it
his mission to help the Afar people, a nomadic population living
in dire conditions in the Horn of Africa. Mr. Creates spoke at the
Academic Assembly on Tuesday, January 8, accompanied by his
friend and fellow humanitarian, Ahmed Mohamed, a member of
the Afar people living in Canada.
Mr. Creates spoke of the severe conditions the Afar people
find themselves living in, not just in terms of trying to survive in
what National Geographic described as “the cruelest place on
earth,” but in terms of the persecution the Afar suffer in
Djibouti and Eritrea. This is leading to a flow of refugees into
Ethiopia, which Mr. Creates described as “the bleakest situation
I have seen in my life.”
In 2007, Mr. Creates and Mr. Mohamed traveled to the
Danakil Desert to see how they could help. Together they have
established a foundation with ambitious goals, not only to provide
education and clean water to the Afar but also to negotiate
rights for the people in order to stop the flight of refugees.
Equipped with a plan to construct simple but effective water
purifiers, Mr. Creates’ team returned to Ethiopia in January.
*
In September, the school came together for an extra-polite
Dr. Allen Koop
Warren Creates Gwynne Dyer
lunch with Julie Blais Comeau of the Civility Group. Ms. Blais
Comeau led the students and teachers through a four-course
meal, describing proper etiquette for serving and dining and
touching on such matters as making conversation and how to signal
for service.
“Civility is about respect and leadership, taking the time to put
others at ease and thinking before you act,” said Ms. Blais
Comeau.
*
Journalist and writer Gwynne Dyer began his February presentation
to senior students by referring to a press conference
held several years ago by the then British Minister of Defence.
The minister was proposing a massive investment in that country’s
nuclear deterrent. Mr. Dyer, like most of his fellow journalists,
could not see the rationale behind such a huge expenditure
to renovate a system that was still functioning quite effectively
and capable of doing so into the near future, particularly given
the absence of any immediate threat such as that which had been
posed by the former Soviet Union.
However, he later came to realize that the impetus behind such
a policy was the consequences of global warming that would
place countries like the United Kingdom under threat from other
nations to share dwindling resources of food and water as well as
require them to resist the pressures of enormous population
movement – the creation, in short, of “Fortress Britain.”
All this is predicated on conservative estimates of the rate,
extremity and consequences of further global warming. Indeed,
Mr. Dyer painted a quite gloomy picture of the middle to near
future for humankind. The one energy source which he held out
real hope for was nuclear power since it does not contribute to
greenhouse gases.