Bøker utgitt av Darvin Babiuk

A small band of friends inhabiting the margins of Vancouver society go about their lives, helping each other cope with the trials that come with living in a city that doesn't seem have much room for them. Book 2 has the group combing the city for the indigenous niece of one of their band. She has run away from her northern community to the city, where not one but two serial killers prey on young indigenous women.---------------Go had made a mistake. She knew that now. She couldn't figure out the city, what people were doing, how they lived. Was what they were doing called living? For the first time since leaving Q'umk'uts, doubts were creeping in. Whole layers that were missing. It was like trying to listen to a Canucks hockey game through the static on the radio being broadcast 700 kilometres and three mountain ranges away. Life had let her run like a Chinook salmon for seventeen years, playing her, tiring her out, before it jerked the line tight and set the hook. It seemed that everyone else had come into the world with a set of instructions but her. She felt like she was wearing moose-gut snowshoes and everyone else had ballet slippers on. She had no idea what to do here; she felt like a hotheaded Katniss Everdeen in a Hunger Games book she had read and discarded in grade school. As the bus made its way through Vancouver's streets, she took every STOP sign on the street as advice to go home.

Mired in a pit of depression so deep that he doubts he'll ever pull himself out, Matt Hoveling finds himself pushed up against the farthest edge of the North American continent possible, where a group of marginalised Vancouverites take him in as one of their own as they work to improve their own lives and the city around them. (345 pages) ------------- "What is wrong with you people?" Naz demanded to know. "How the hell did you win the Cold War? Cops like that are like shark's teeth. Break one off and another will just grow in its place. Stop acting like Rocky and Bullwinkle. Let Natasha - Where is my Boris? Why don't I have a Boris? - do the thinking for you. The solution is simple; you have a disappeared woman you want back. This Jewish Effie. You have a bad cop you want disappeared. The so-called Detective Dick. The answer is simple. Switch them. Disappear the cop, bring back Effie. Paint the town black." "What do you mean, 'Paint the town black?'" "Simple. I'm from Kazakhstan. Bad men have been making people disappear into Kazakhstan since Alexander Nevsky and his grandson, Ivan Kalita - 'little moneybags' -- bribed the Mongols' Golden Horde to leave Moscow alone and focus on rape, pillage and beheadings in Kazakhstan."Ivan the Terrible, Vasily the Dark, Stalin: they all sent their problems to disappear and die in Kazakhstan. There's only one solution when shits like your cop stain society so badly they can't be erased. You can never make it pure and white again. But that doesn't mean you can't do anything to start over. All you have to do is start from the other direction. Paint the whole thing black. You can paint over black just as well as you can paint over white."

Welcome to the rich and flavorful world of Ukrainian cuisine! Ukraine, a country steeped in history and culture, boasts a culinary tradition that reflects the diverse landscapes and bountiful harvests of its vast territory. Its culinary traditions reflect its rich tapestry of influences over the centuries, reflecting the country's geographical location, climate, and historical interactions with multiple cultures. A collection of delectable and delicious recipes for the Ukrainian table, from Traditional to Soups and Stews to Main Courses to Fish and Seafood to Side Dishes and Salads to Breads to Pastries and Sweets to Beverages and Holiday Dishes.

Similar in family background and education, from different cultures but the same generation, working at comparable levels for their respective governments, one born in Soviet Russia, the other in Imperialist Japan, two iconoclasts dedicate their lives to improving life in their countries and not just following orders or improving their personal positions. They come together at the United Nations in New York in the 1950s, later again in Far Eastern Siberia, and finally in Japan in the early 1990s as the Soviet coup d'etat against Mikhail Gorbachev threatens to undo their efforts to improve lives in both their countries. Recent political events from around the world have shown us what happens to Foreign Service Officers, public servants and patriots when they act with integrity and dedication towards the best interests of their fellow citizens instead of their putative "superiors." Russia has once again thrust itself onto our collective consciousnesses and it might be informative for people to see how we got here and the kind of people we need to get us out!

People's lives can change by the smallest of circumstances, turning left at an intersection instead of right, sitting beside an unknown person in a crowded lecture hall, filling in at work for a colleague while they go on vacation. My life changed when in my last semester of Graduate study, I saw an ad posted by the Japanese government to come work in the Land of the Rising Sun. The idea was that I'd have a bit of an adventure, make some money, and take the time to consider whether I wanted to get a Doctorate degree or not. Three decades years later, I was still doing it, finding a fertile niche working in post-secondary institutions and as a trainer for Oil and Gas operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. As the Japanese proverb goes, I'd already eaten the poison, so I might as well lick the plate.I've lived under absolute monarchies, constitutional monarchies, a number of "Presidents-for-Life," civil wars, foreign military occupations and outright terrorist dictatorships. Along the way, I've played Duck, Duck, Goose with Japanese elementary school students; become a bit of a media celebrity for no earthly reason other than the accident of my birthplace; witnessed the aftermath of a crucifixion in Yemen; seriously thought I was about to be kidnapped for ransom; had three colleagues shot dead a football field away from where I was standing; was within spitting distance of where modern drone warfare was born, and commuted to work in an armoured convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers, wearing full body armour and accompanied by up to a half dozen armed private security members.So it began playing Duck, Duck, Goose and progressed to trying to avoid the terrorism, revolutions and uprisings.---There is an empty, sickening feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you realize that you've done something incredibly stupid and it is too late to do anything about it. I had that feeling now. I couldn't think of a single reason why a strange, heavily armed man would so obviously be following me so openly. Until I thought about it. Tentatively, I paused, looked over my shoulder and gave a timid wave.Fertility festivals, are held in many parts of Japan in the spring. The most famous one is held in Komaki. The festival's main features are Shinto priests playing musical instruments, a parade of ceremonially garbed participants, all-you-can-drink sake, and a giant, 620-pound, 96-inch, centuries-old wooden phallus carved out of cypress wood. Ceremonies begin at Tagata Shrine, itself home to a giant, phallic-shaped suzu bell. At 10:00 a.m., a procession of volunteers start handing out free cups of hot sake and dried seaweed to people along the parade route. Much sake is consumed. At nearby Kumano Shrine, giant banners showcasing genitalia, portable Shinto shrines and other religious palanquins are set out in preparation. Food carts are scattered over the parade route. Much sake is consumed. There are booths everywhere selling candies and trinkets shaped like male and female genitalia. The festival participants are dressed in traditional regalia. Many participants go so far as to dress up genitalia-related costumes. Much sake is consumed. At 2:00 p.m., the main procession begins moving from the Kumano to the Tagata shrine along the streets. Priests salt the road to purify the path for the mikoshi bearers. Much sake is consumed. The star of the procession is a giant wooden phallus carried on its own mikoshi. Much sake is consumed. Around 3:30 p.m., a crowd starts to gather in an open square for the final event of the day, local dignitaries throwing mochi rice balls from a raised platform to the festivalgoers. Much sake has been consumed.

A collection of traditional Japanese recipes from the author's time in Japan

Internal collapse and a succession of varying Russian governments in 1917 necessitated the need for British policy makers to re-evaluate their attitudes toward Russia. It is well-known that this ultimately evolved into hostility towards Bolshevism. What is not so evident is how this decision was arrived at. Nor was it as clear-cut as one might believe. This book makes use of both primary sources and primary sources contained within secondary ones to argue that Britain's policy towards Russia at this time cannot be understood without first exploring the "missing dimension" that intelligence played in shaping the policy makers' final decisions. Unfortunately, at precisely this time, when valid and verifiable information was required from intelligence gathering agencies, these same agencies were suffering from severe handicaps. Official diplomatic relations with the Bolsheviks had been cut off, unofficial representatives did not adequately replace the official presence, covert intelligence operated with little or no accountability to policy, and the system of independent analysis of intelligence designed to provide checks and balances in the decision-making process were inoperative during the First World War. The study is not balanced. It concentrates much more carefully on the British than the Russian side, although Russian policy is explored where it illustrates the ineptitude of British intelligence. As such, it uses the Gregorian rather than the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. By looking at intelligence and analysis related to the March and November Revolutions, Allied intervention, and the decline of British representatives from diplomat to spy the cognate essay confirms Professor Keith Neilson's thesis. Rather than looking at British questions during World War One through the two classic views of civil-military relations or easterners versus westerners, the alternative approach of exploring Britain's relations within its alliance system should be given more attention. As part of an alliance system, British decisions had to be made in light of those alliances. In the case of Russia, intelligence was vital in ascertaining the best possible approach to be taken in the fluid and teetering Russian internal situation. Intelligence thus took on a role even more important than it normally might.

The collection of Seki City folktales called "The Love of a Silver Fox" became very popular in Seki when originally published in Japanese. Readership and popularity have since spread. This collection was created by local writers who have studied the legends, old tales and fairy tales about and relating to Seki. The writers wrote down the stories which have passed from generation to generation orally in Seki since long ago.This time, in order to help educate our children who live in an international society, a five-volume series of the "Love of Silver Fox" collection has been published in English. To make this five-volume series, Mr. Darvin Babiuk, who worked for Seki City Hall as Coordinator of International Relations from 1991-1994, tackled the problem of writing an English verstion that Japanese students of English could understand. To have this easy-to-understand English series close at hand, to use initially as a textbook, makes me very happy. Furthermore, I hope this series of Seik folktales can be spread throughout the world by having the series with us whenever we meet people of other countries. Finally, from my heart, I want to thank Mr. Darvin Babiuk, the writers of the Japanese version, the English version committee, and Seki's teachers of English for their work in publishing this series. Seki City Board of Education SuperintendentMasaichi Funato

A collection of short stories dealing with Japan, from both the native and outsider's perspectives.

Snowden Nastiuk has gone to Russia after the time of the fall of Communism to bury himself, a loser in a loser nation in a world that wants only winners.Buried in a job working as a Document Controller in a Russian oil camp near Noyabrsk, Snow is - not happy, but at least content sitting out his life in a setting where he thinks he won't have to feel any more pain. He has a job where he only has to interact with paper, not humans; a setting far from family and friends; and enough vodka to dull anything that threatens to get in past his defences.Until the woman walks into his life, literally. Magda Perskanski - physicist, gulag survivor, brothel madame, overseer of the Deficit Exchange Club, psychic capable of reading people's pasts, mathabeautician - simply barges into his porta-cabin one day when Snow refuses to answer her knocking and kicks the legs out the crutches he's come to depend on; she recognizes something deep inside the foreigner that she knows is inside herself and refuses to let another human being suffer the same way as she has done.Little by little, Magda draws Snow out, first the story of what has caused him so much pain - the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy and the mindless death of his young girlfriend by a falling tree in the forest on a camping trip - then out of his torpor and the start of his first tentative steps back into the landmine-filled world of personal relationships. Not only is there Magda, there is Kolya, the unrepentant Communist who works with Snow in Document Control. And there is Pig -Porfiry Makahonic - the camp boss who rules everything in "his" oil camp with an iron fist, including his pet Doctor.There is also the mysterious sickness that keeps affecting and even killing the labourers in the oil camp's pipeline/pigging system and laboratory, something which concerns Magda deeply, but which Snow doesn't care about until Kolya ends up dead protecting the integrity of "his" documents against the crimes going on in camp.Crawling out of his vodka bottle long enough to go digging inside the day-to-day documents of the oil camp, Snow and Magda find evidence that Pig and the Doctor are hijacking radioactive cesium used in oil well-bore reading equipment and medical instruments and smuggling it out of the camp through the pig in the pipeline to terrorists who plan to use it in dirty bombs in Manhattan, Manchester and Mumbai.Before they can get the information to the authorities - no one is sure whom to trust in a still-reeling Russia run by the siloviki and absent rule of law - Snow is found half-frozen outside of his cabin on a cold winter's night. Did somebody try and kill him or did he decide to follow his mother and ex-lover into death? In the end, Magda manages to bring Pig to justice and guide Snow back to a life he deserved all along.