Diversity Is Our Strength

Tempus Fugit

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 07:52:00 -0700

Time really does fly. It is October 2011 and we are planning to move AGAIN!!! My contract at Newport News Shipbuilders finished at the end of September, so now I have my resumes out everywhere from here in Southeast Virginia to Detroit. We are concentrating on Pittsburgh - it is half way between our kids. Matthew and his family are in Alexandria, Virginia, and Katy and her family are in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Virginia has been a lovely, mellow place - we are very close to the Atlantic Ocean and 20 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg.

Greek Baklava Is My February Recipe

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:20:00 -0700

The recipe in my International Dessert Calendar for February is Baklava. I first tasted Baklava in Greektown in Detroit in 1968 at New Hellas Restaurant, one of my favorite restaurants. I went there with my dear, sweet friend, Georgia Fontrolakalas, a Canadian born Greek woman who married Steve Fontrolakalas, an American born Greek and then moved to the U.S.

She advised me to have the mousaka, which was awesome. My husband, Bill has recently perfected a mousaka in our crockpot which I defy anyone to beat. Anyway, back to Detroit. Georgia took a few of us from the office where we worked on Washington Boulevard to Greektown. We took a taxi, and it was such a wonderful experience. It was my first foray into Greektown, but far, far from the last. Bill and I have eaten there so many times since. Georgia advised us to have Saganaki – the famous flaming cheese all Greek restaurants in Detroit are famous for, followed by Greek salad with Greek bread, Mousaka, and then the wonderful baklava. We didn’t have any wine because we were on our lunch hour, but Georgia advised me to have Mavrodaphne – Mother’s Milk next time, which I did, and it is a fabulous wine – a sweet,red much like marsala. So we ate all that great food, and then we waddled back to work. A perfect meal!

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and much of central and southwest Asia. It is a Greek favorite that makes everyone think you are a master chef and is so easy to make. We are so fortunate in our day and age because the phyllo dough for this recipe is found in the freezer section of most grocery stores. The original makers of the dish had to spend hours making the parchment thin pastry, but we just need to buy it and use it. The origins of Baklava are like the origins of most recipes that came from Old Countries to enrich our dinner tables in the United States. It is hard to trace it’s exact origin because every ethnic group whose ancestry goes back to the Middle East has a claim of their own on this scrumptious dessert.

At around the 8th century BC widely believed, that the Assyrians were the first people who put together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers, added some honey and baked it in their primitive wood burning ovens. This earliest known version of baklava was baked only on special occasions. Baklava was considered a food for the rich until mid-19th century. Even to this day in Turkey, one can hear a common expression often used by the poor, or even by the middle class, saying: "I am not rich enough to eat baklava every day".

Before the recipe reached Greece, Greek seamen and merchants traveling east to Mesopotamia discovered the delights of Baklava. They were so impressed, they brought the recipe to Athens. The Greeks' developed this pastry further by creating a dough technique that made it possible to roll it very thin, compared to the rough, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks, which means "leaf" in the Greek language. The father in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” must be laughing at that fact.
In a relatively short time, in every kitchen of wealthy households in the region, trays of baklava were being baked for all kinds of special occasions from the 3rd Century B.C. onwards. The Armenians, as their Kingdom was located on ancient Spice and Silk Routes, integrated for the first time the cinnamon and cloves into the texture of baklava. The Arabs introduced rose-water and cardamom. The taste changed in subtle nuances as the recipe started crossing borders.
I know you will love it, and it is also very healthy, with no refined sugar in it at all. Be sure to order my International Dessert Birthday Calendar. It has 12 great recipes, and it useable year after year. Not only can you try some great desserts, but you can also keep track of important dates for your family and friends.
Check it out at http://www.annejantz.com

Australian Pavlova - January International Dessert Recipe

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:34:00 -0700

I've lived in Australia twice, the Lucky Land, as it's called by the Aussies. I consider myself extremely lucky to have lived there, for sure. Their signature dessert is called Pavlova, and trust me, I sampled it whenever and wherever it turned up. It is fabulous. The Aussies shorten many words in their Strine language, and Pavlova is no exception. It is affectionately called Pav.

We had a party going on one night in our apartment in Belmont, Victoria, Australia and there came a knock at the door connecting us to the landlord's apartment. I braced myself for a scolding because of of the noise we were making with our music and partying, but instead our landlady, a lovely older woman was standing on the other side of the door with a huge Pavlova. "I thought you might like a Pav for your party", she said with a huge smile. That's what I call loving your neighbor!

The legend goes that Pavlova was first created in 1925 by Chef Herbert Sachse of the Hotel Esplanade in Perth, Western Australia, to celebrate the visit of the great Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova. The Pavlova is essentially a large meringue with a light, delicate, crisp crust and soft, sweet center. The variation on America meringue is the additon of white vinegar and cornflour which gives the insides a marshmallowy texture.

Pavlova is served with a crown of freshly whipped cream topped with a wide choice of toppings. The most traditional topping is passionfruit, but it is totally up to you what you want to use. Mangoes, strawberries, kiwifruit, bananas, papaya, you decide. Fresh fruit is the best,and canned or frozen also works well, but I also had it with chopped up chocolate mints, and that was also yummy. Even rhubarb can be used. All delicious. You can get the recipe on the Internet, or you can buy my International Dessert Recipe Calendar - Pavlova is just one of 12 decadent dessert in my calendar.
You can order your own copy on my website: http://www.annejantz.com.

Learning Languages

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:12:00 -0700

I just want to talk briefly about learning other languages. I tried to learn French when I was in Junior High. That was an unmitigated disaster. Our teacher had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was a very able instructor, but I had a lot of trouble wrapping my voice around the language, and never got very far. I managed to transfer out to Spanish, and I did better then.

Later I took some German in college, and it was pretty good for me. Bill and I tried to join the Peace Corps right after I graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit. We went to Hemet, California for training in an agricultural project bound for India. I learned some Hindi at that time. Very interesting.

Language learning for me really started though when I went to live in Germany. That was the way to really learn a language, to be totally immersed in it. Next I moved to Sweden and began Swedish lessons. I actually got pretty good in Swedish, and could carry on a conversation after studying it for a year. I also took lessons in Dutch while we lived in The Netherlands.

I studied Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) for a month in London, England, and got a certificate. I later taught English to a darling Greek woman in Australia.

I am living in Arizona now, only 2 hours from Mexico, so I want to learn to speak Spanish. I have heard great things about the Rosetta Stone Method of learning, so that is what I intend to use.

I would like to offer some advice to anyone trying to learn to speak a language. Have you ever seen those posters that were all the rage for a while that were actually a picture, but all scrambled up, and you had to stare slightly past them and relax your eyes, and suddenly the image would materialize? Well, for me speaking another language is just like that. When another person is speaking to you, you need to relax and let the whole sentence roll past you. Don’t hang on each word for meaning, because it is possible to get the idea of what someone is saying without actually knowing every word they are saying in their language. Their body language is also very helpful. Speaking on the phone in another language is really difficult, because you don't get the benefits of body language from the person you are speaking with.

You just need to mix it up, make some errors, butcher the other language, make
a fool of yourself for a little while in order to get to fluency. It’s alright. Most people are totally thrilled that you are taking the trouble to learn their language. The only way you will get fluent is to speak, speak, speak and listen, listen, listen. I find that laughing at myself as I speak the language eases the situation - people often want to help you to correct you grammar and pronunciation, so if you are laughing and enjoying the experience, they are more likely to help out.

Speaking another language is a window into that culture. I wish I had the time to learn a lot of languages. I work for a German company, M&W Group, and I am surrounded by Germans at my job in Phoenix.I revel in it!

I encourage you to get out there and try!!!

So Much Computer Stuff, So Little Time

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:51:00 -0700

The past few weeks have been wild! I've gotten a lot of things accomplished, but I have not gotten any interviews completed yet. I had the first one all set up for last week, made a huge pan of lasagna and a salad, and waited for my three guests. One by one they called me and had conflicts, so they couldn't come. I had invited my good friend, Jenny and her children to come over and be the audience for our Podcast, and they did make it. Bill was here too, of course, so we grabbed my awesome next-door-neighbor, Darlene, and we 6 ate some of the lasagna. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. I had made so much, so I froze the rest of it, and we will have lasagna all ready for the Podcast guests....whenever. I told Bill that I was sure Oprah has had days like that.

I did get my International Dessert Recipe Calendar finished, and Bill took it to the printer. I will be doing the downtown Chandler Art Walk December 2, 2009, and I should have the calendars in time for that.

I also created a new Website http://www.annejantz,com. So, as I said, I have gotten a lot done. I also got the introduction taped for the series and I put it on Youtube It is called "Introduction: The Diversity Is Our Strength Podcast". I will let you know as soon as I get the first interview on tape as a follow-up to the Intro.

Kickoff Podcast Taping

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:03:00 -0700

We have set up October 3rd as our kickoff Podcast taping. Our focus will be Vietnam, and my guests will be Dong Mach and Scott Le, two of the Designers I work with at M+W Zander in Phoenix. My employer is a perfect place to start, since M+W Zander employs so many different nationalities. Of course, it is a multinational company based in Stuttgart, Germany. I found out recently that their home office is only a few miles form the village, Korntal, where Bill and I lived while he worked for Porsche in Zuffenhausen, a suburb of Stuttgart. Such a small world!!!

I went to the Mesa, AZ swapmeet last weekend (flea market) and bought a sash with coins on it for my Belly Dancing class - it makes it so much easier to feel how I am moving in the class. I also bought some Arabic music on CD, and I play it in the car a lot. I rode to class again in my friend Terri Shoemaker's orange Lotus. She took pity on me coming home and took the top off the car. It is so much easier to get in and out of the car without its top on. I called Bill to let him know we were headed home, and told him - We are out on Route 101, and we are driving topless. It is so much fun riding in her car!!!!!

Is My Belly Dancing Fast Enough?

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:40:00 -0700

A few weeks ago, a couple of the young ladies I work with at M+W Zander in Phoenix were talking about classes they have taken. Then Lindsay, a tall, blonde, beauty from Nebraska chimed in that she was about to take a class in Belly Dancing, and did we want to take it with her. My first thought was, "Who are you kidding? I can't do Belly Dancing." But then I thought about it for a while and I decided, "Why the Hell not?!?!"
So now all three of us are driving to Scottsdale Community College on Monday and Wednesday nights for 1 1/2 hours of crazy active dancing. I really love it, and it really plays into my Diversity mania. We actually do have a lovely lady from Brazil in the class, and I am going to ask her if she would like to do a show for my Podcast. I have already bought one CD of Arabic music, and that sure helps you swing those hips. There is another grandmother in the class, so I'm not the only older person in the class. I am going to put a picture of one of our teachers on the sidebar of this blog.

My Name Is Maria

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:43:00 -0700

I wrote this poem while I was working at Freedom House, that wonderful place I have mentioned before in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. which is a shelter for political refugees. My ancestors came to America in the 1600's, but I can still imagine how exhilarating and frightening it must have been to leave the "Old Country" and set out for the "New World".

We all came here at different times and by different routes, but we are all in the same boat now, so we need to learn how to row together.

My Name is Maria
by Anne Jantz
Copyright 2004

My name is Maria, Anita or Carlos,
I come from South of the Rio Grande’s flow.
I wear a mantilla or a cooling sombrero,
I worship Christ Jesus in cathedrals of stone.
I left Metamoros or Sabrinas Hidalgo,
I left persecution under poverty’s heel.
I struggled North towards a bright, new tomorrow,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is Sasha, Achmid or Rahima,
I come from the mountains where the Tigris begins.
I wear a burnoose or a fez made of scarlet,
I worship Allah and the prophet Mohammed.
I left Halabjah or Ali al Gharbi,
I left persecution from war’s cruel sword.
I came West for a bright, new tomorrow,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is Abraham, Lev or Naomi,
I come from the steppes by the great Volga’s edge.
I cover my head when I enter my synagogue,
I worship my God there, the mighty Jehovah.
I left Kamyshin, Gorki or Volgagrad,
I left persecution for serving my God.
I came West for religious freedom,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is Mai Ping, Chang Lim or Jasmine,
I come from the banks by the great Yangtze’s great course.
I wear quilted jackets and sandals of bamboo,
I worship in temples where Buddha is God.
I left Chungking or Wuhan or Shanghai,
I left persecution for just being alive,
I traveled East at the beckoning of freedom,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is Promila, Shuva or Sirghit,
I come from the land by the Ganges great banks.
I wear silken saris or gleaming white turbans,
I worship in temples where Vishnu is Lord.
I left Calcutta or Rampur or Delhi,
I left grinding hunger, disease and despair,
I traveled West in my search for a haven,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is Amadu, Kareem or Mahalia,
I come from the floodplains beside the wide Nile.
I wear a dashiki or robes of cool cotton,
I worship in mosques to my great God, Allah.
I left Debre Markos or Sinjah or Kigali,
I left the bloodshed and fighting behind.
I traveled West to find peace and freedom,
I came like so many to America’s shores.

My name is John, Nancy or William,
My ancestors came here three centuries ago,
They wore powdered wigs and shoes with large buckles,
They worshiped their God in a church painted white.
They left Jonkoping, Hamburg or Limerick,
They left persecution and famine behind.
They sailed to the West towards the promise of freedom,
They came to the New World on America’s shores.

My name is Brave Wolf, Moon Calf or Red Cloud,
My ancestors came here an eon ago.
I wear a suit or a dress from the mainstream,
I worship wherever the Great Spirit goes.
I stood on the shore when they all started coming,
I showed them the ways of the woods and the plains.
I lost my grasslands, my deer and my bison,
I lost the ways of my ancestors brave.
I need now to find a way through the future
Like all of the others on America’s shores.

Dong to the Podcast's Rescue

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:10:00 -0700

I was feeling pretty discouraged this week in terms of getting the Podcast off the ground, because I don't have a video camera, and I don't want to spend any money right now on camera equipment. First of all, we're not rolling in money, plus I don't know yet what I need in terms of equipment. I was talking with Dong Mach, one of my co-workers at M+W Zander, and the person who will be my first guest, and I told him my problem. Sweetheart that he is, he chimed in "I have a video camera I'm not using. You can borrow it."
I take after my Dad, he would never borrow or rent anything - he always went out and bought it. I understand that impulse, but I also realize that people like to help other people out, and it makes a lot more sense to use a friend's camera until I get my sealegs.
Dong is a darling. He was born in Vietnam, but came to America when he was 2. I am using him as my first victim for the "Diversity Is Our Strength" Podcast. Scott Le who sits next to me at work is also from Vietnam. He has offered to help me with the research behind the scenes for my Vietnam podcast. I am also going to urge him to be on camera.
So Dong has saved the day in terms of my Podcast idea. Stay tuned for the next chapter in the Saga of the Diversity Is Our Strength Podcast.

Podcasting Diversity Is Our Strength

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Fri, 3 Jul 2009 14:56:00 -0700

I was filling out a questionnaire about my heroes the other day. After listing my mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, and Oprah Winfrey, it suddenly hit me that I could do a talk show too, and I will focus on Diversity. So I am now researching the technology involved. It will celebrate the contributions of foreigners to our country as well as Native Americans and also native born Americans with alternative lifestyles. I see it right now as a one hour format. Using "Wayne's World" as inspiration, (they did a TV show from their basement) I am planning to use my patio for the interview portion of my show. It will start off with an interview with a person or persons of the chosen nationality, and I will ask them about contributions their country has made to the USA. I am going to invite people I know, that live in the Phoenix area. Then we will have a combination of remotely filmed segments, possibly a visit to a restaurant of that nationality where we will film a cooking segment showing how to make one of that country's signature dishes, or a dance studio where people dance typical dances, or a fashion show of the costumes from that country, etc. I am looking at starting off with Greece, Vietnam, Nigeria and Argentina in the first set. I am very geeked about it.

I LOVE MAPS !!!!!!!!!

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Wed, 4 Feb 2009 20:31:00 -0700

I am very attracted to maps – I believe it is an outgrowth of my xenophilia. Maps of any sort interest me, and I have created them in many media. I used a map as the basis of my final project for my Master’s Degree in Art Therapy at Wayne State University, and I will describe that soon in a post to this blog – it was constructed from plywood. I have also painted maps and created contour maps in art classes I have taught.

My most ambitious map by far however is a 10 foot tapestry that I wove on my Swedish floor loom. I learned how to weave while Bill was working at Volvo in Gothenberg, Sweden, and then bought a loom there before we came back to the States. I’ll get deeper into weaving soon too, but for now I will do my best to stay on track about this woven map, because this past weekend I got a very lovely package in the mail from a University in Europe, and I want to talk about that now.

I chose a Swedish tapestry technique Rollaken which is used for rug making. I set off weaving the map at great speed, but later began to slow down. I have other looms beside the behemoth one, as most weavers do, so I had other projects going besides the map. Gradually I slowed down, and it seemed like I was stalled in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for months. The tapestry was on my loom for over two years. We moved three times with it still on there. Eventually I finished it and then spent a couple of months finishing off the front side of the piece. It turned out very beautiful. Of course the design was created by a Master far more talented than I will ever be, but I enjoyed interpreting God’s design in yarn.

I loaned it to the International Institute in Detroit for several months and they hung it behind the desk in their foyer. It was also displayed at the Michigan State Fair in the Community Arts Building. I am very proud of it. When I built a website for my art business http://www.greatwallsmurals.com , I devoted a page of the website to the mural.

A couple of months ago, I got an Email from Utrecht University in the Netherlands from graduate student, Dorottya Nagy who was writing her thesis on the migration of Christian Chinese people to Hungary and Romania. Dorottya believes that people create communities just like weavers make tapestry – that the intermingling of peoples around the planet creates a human tapestry. She had seen my tapestry on the Internet – our latest and greatest weaving device- and she asked me for permission to use my world map tapestry for the cover of her thesis. I was thrilled!

Of course I gave her my permission and emailed her digital photos of the finished tapestry and also photos of the backside of the piece- which is unfinished so all the tails of the yarn are hanging out. I asked her to please send me a copy of her thesis when it was finished, and she agreed.

So this past Saturday I was at the pool at our apartments and Bill showed up with a package – it was the book! Dorottya did such a great job with the book – she used a portion of the front of my tapestry for the front cover, and she used the same portion of the backside of the tapestry for the back cover. Now how clever is that? She also had a bookmark made which uses the entire width of the tapestry. It has her name and the book’s name in the left corner and she attributes the map to me in the other corner. She also gives credit to me inside the front of the book. Classy and well done. She is an incredibly devoted scholar – she learned how to speak Mandarin so she could interview people in person for her research!

It is very cool too that Bill and I have lived in Holland not so far from Utrecht. I actually bought a small tapestry loom in Holland. I also studied weaving next door in Belgium – so it is such a sweet journey that I learned my craft there in that part of the world, and now my work has been published there. I am very, very pleased.

The Diversity Is Our Strength Mural

annejantzmedia@yahoo.com (Anne Jantz) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:55:00 -0700

In the summer of 1995 I was volunteering at Freedom House, a wonderful place in Detroit, Michigan that offers shelter to political refugees from all over the world. It is a non-denominational organization which is nurtured by the Catholic church in Detroit as well as many other religious and secular organizations. I spent 2 1/2 years there. It was a great experience in my life so far, and it lead to a PEAK experience for me - the coordinating of the mural at Los Galanes Restaurant in Detroit's southwest section. That area of Detroit is the Latino area for the city, and like the Latin countries, there are many murals in the community.

I had located Freedom House while I was completing a Master's Degree in Art Therapy at Wayne State University in Detroit. Because Art Therapy can be a non-verbal experience - "A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words" kind of thing for both the client and the therapist, I had deduced that Art Therapy would be perfect for working with Political Refugees. Then to my delight, I found out that Detroit had a shelter for that community. You can ask in the far-flung regions of the world, and people will tell you about Freedom House, but the vast majority of people in Michigan have never heard of it. Anyway, I will expound and elaborate on Freedom House, in another posting - back to the mural. In my research for my thesis: "Mapping the World:Art Therapy with Political Refugees", I spoke to the director of a similar shelter in Toronto, Canada, and she told me they had done a mural as a community project. It was when I mentioned it to the director at Freedom House, Janet Rey, that Janet decided it would be a great idea for us to do in Detroit. So, she asked me to do one, then she found the wall and a gang of us did it. One of my best friends, Sharon O'Hara-Bruce agreed to ride shotgun with me, and Elizabeth Medallin also coordinated it with us. It was just like they said in the movie "Field of Dreams" - "If You Build It, They Will Come"- we backed my van filled with paint and brushes up to the wall every day for five weeks, and people appeared and painted. We had over 70 people of such fabulous diversity and beauty contribute to the mural. For a lot more details - go to my website: http://www.greatwallsmurals.com and click on Mural Journal.