A Social Serum

"You had the power all along, my dear"

-- Glinda, The Wizard of Oz

The sweet harvest

7 JUNE 2016       AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE      - RIJASOLO

SAMBAVA, MADAGASCAR (AFP) -- Every year around this time, the lush green hills of this corner in northeastern Madagascar fill with the unmistakable, pungent smell.  You can't get away from it, it seeps into your clothes, your hair and for the uninitiated like me, it can make you dizzy at times.  It wafts through the streets of Sambava, especially those around the warehouses where the origin of the aroma is stored, before its journey to all corners of the globe.  It's vanilla harvesting season.

Vanilla is one of the things that my island nation has become known for, as it produces some 80 percent of the world's second-most expensive spice (saffron is the first).  Funnily enough though, we don't use it in cooking.  In my house, we'll stick a pod into a jar of granulated sugar to flavor it, but that's about it. 

That's because the spice isn't native to the land.  It was brought by Westerners, who discovered vanilla in Mexico in the 1500s and introduced it to Europe along with chocolate.  But today the beloved spice so ubiquitous in cooking elsewhere, it is the main way for make a living for many Madagascans. 

... The hills around Sambava are dotted with villages and basically in every village you have a vanilla farmer and during the season, he hires what sometimes seems like an entire village to harvest the vanilla.  Which gives the whole affair a family atmosphere. 

And that's what struck me, is this family ambiance.  The people are warm and welcoming.  They're doing hard work, but the atmosphere is generally happy and relaxed.  They often sing as they work in groups.  The people in the town of Sambava are more stressed. 

And because you have this warm, relaxed atmosphere and the same people working for the same person year in and year out, there is a more intimate relationship between the farmer and the workers.  For example, when I was there, one of the workers had a child with health problems and the farmer gave him money so he could treat the kid. Read More

Flash mob of 7,000 people converge on Parisian square for Diner en Blanc

9 JUNE 2016       JAPAN TIMES

PARIS, FRANCE (AFP-Jiji) -- It's the world's classiest flash mob, when a highly selective group of guerrilla gourmets armed with picnic baskets and linen napkins take over a famous landmark.

The latest Diner en Blank (Dinner in White) took place in Paris Wednesday when some 7,000 people dressed in white from head to toe descended on the swanky Place Vendome to dine al fresco on fine food and wine in the heart of the capital's luxury district. 

The venue of the annual event -- which has now spread across the globe from Stockholm to Mumbai and Shanghai -- was kept tightly under wraps until the last minute. 

Last year 13,000 took over the court of honor of the 17th-century Palais Royal in the French capital, sitting down to eat at rows of tables laid along the length of the square. 

... Having dined and then danced their fill, members of the group -- which attempts to re-create the glamor and elegance of bygone French high society -- go home on the stroke of midnight. 

The organizers demand that guests "conduct themselves with the greatest decorum, elegance, and etiquette. 

And they pride themselves in tidying up afterward, leaving the venue just as they found it. 

The phenomenon began in the French capital nearly three decades ago long before social media kick-started the trend for flash mobs, and it has since spread to 70 cities worldwide. 

Only people invited by Diner en Blanc members can attend the gatherings, which are run with almost military precision, with the guests as well as the authorities only alerted to the precise venue at the last minute. 

The movement was founded by the French businessman Francois Pasquier in 1988 who dreamed of eating in the open air in unusual places.  The first dinner was held in the city's Bois de Boulogne park. Read More