有志者 事竟成

[Guest]

美婦人 進入伊拉克當記者
尹德瀚/綜合報導

伊拉克動亂不止，許多當地人都準備遷居往國外，但六十四歲的美國加州婦女珍．
史提瓦特卻想盡辦法要進入伊拉克。

史提瓦特女士是嬉皮世代出身，已經當了祖母，她在加州少年感化院擔任教師，並且
經常在部落格發表批判伊拉克戰爭的文章，後來決定要親身前往伊拉克，為此她省吃儉
用一年，買了一張機票飛往科威特，要求美軍讓她擔任隨軍記者。

部落格興起之後，出現很多自封的「公民記者」，在自己的部落格撰文臧否時事，史
提瓦特女士就是其中之一。美國軍方本來並不歡迎史提瓦特，但因她有德州一家地方報
紙的推薦，軍方最後勉強答應，讓她隨軍進入伊拉克。

史提瓦特進入巴格達克已一星期，但因她沒有明確的採訪計畫，自己又沒有交通工
具，至今一直待在有美軍重兵駐守的「綠區」，至於被美軍稱為「紅區」的巴格達其他
地方，她一步也未踏入，更無緣見到巴格達以外、戰火下的伊拉克真面目。


http://news.chinatimes.com/2007Cti/2007Cti-News/2007Cti-News-Content/0,4521,110504+112007041200085,00.html


BERKELEY WOMAN'S IRAQ QUEST
Sleeping bag in tow, she hopes to embed with Army and blog
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 29, 2007

Jane Stillwater is a 64-year-old Berkeley woman who left for Kuwait on
Wednesday, hoping to embed with the U.S. military there and in Iraq as a
blogger. And if she is refused? She's got a sleeping bag and plans to
sleep on the beach in Kuwait until her return flight in three weeks.

Protection? A Berkeley city councilman tried in vain to get her some body
armor; she's accepting online donations through PayPal so she can buy
some in Kuwait.

Credentials? The military said the prolific blogger needs to be sponsored
by a media outlet. No problem: The Lone Star Iconoclast, a 900-circulation
liberal weekly in President Bush's vacation getaway of Crawford, Texas,
is sponsoring her. Not that it's paying her. Then again, nearly all of the
dozens of online columns Stillwater has produced over the past seven
years for various publications have been labors of love.

Money for Arabic translators? Unnecessary. "I've been all over the world,"
she said, "and you always find people who speak English."

Stillwater's is the tale of one citizen journalist's quest for the truth in the
Middle East. No matter what happens, it is bound to become a story.
Conversations with Stillwater are punctuated every 45 seconds or so with
the phrase, "That reminds me of a story." About selling 60,000 Girl Scout
cookies with her daughter over the years. About meeting a blind imam in
Afghanistan last year. About being asked if she wanted to appear on
"Judge Judy" regarding a neighbor dispute.

Stillwater said she's going to Iraq to write about the war for "real people."
She's tired of getting news from TV journalists who throw on a khaki vest
for a few photo ops before flying home first-class. She has lived in Section
8 housing in Berkeley for 27 years, and she saved for her $1,072 airline
ticket the same way she has saved for other exploits.

"All I eat are peanut butter sandwiches," she said. She bikes everywhere,
keeps her 17-year-old Toyota Tercel chugging along and wears clothes
she finds discarded on the street -- like the green jeans and soccer jersey
she wears now. "This sweater I bought at Goodwill, though. Maybe 2
bucks. These socks? I think my kids outgrew them."

"I don't go to movies, I don't do anything," she said. "You can save a lot
of money that way."

So why did she book a ticket without getting the Defense Department to
bless her coverage? She couldn't pass up a ticket at that price. Karma will
take care of the rest.

A slight 120 pounds with silvery hair pulled back into a ponytail and round,
brushed-metal-framed glasses, Stillwater calls herself a "responsible
flake," someone who can be flaky and "take care of business when I have
to." She proudly cops to being very "Berkeley" -- but old-school
Berkeley.

"I'm more Berkeley in the way it used to be -- before the yuppies moved
in and started buying $600,000 houses," she said. She got a master's
degree in city planning from UC Berkeley in 1966, a time she called "the
best time of my life, bar none," and worked as a legal secretary for years.

She's never been married, but she had children with four different men.
Each was a story.

Stillwater described herself as more of an "old hippie" than a grandma. In
fact, she said she regularly communicates with three of her four adult
children but has little contact with her grandchild. "One of my greatest
accomplishments were my kids, and one of my greatest failures were with
my kids," she said with a note of regret.

But other children are a part of her life. She's an emergency foster care
parent, providing temporary housing for kids. She's a substitute teacher in
a juvenile hall. And she befriended Berkeley High School students when
she lobbied to get a crosswalk painted near their school; she was upset
they kept getting tickets for jaywalking.

"She talks about tiny issues and big, serious subjects, but she always
mixes her brand of humor in with it," said Berkeley City Council member
Kriss Worthington, who tried in vain to obtain body armor for Stillwater.

Her farewell party for the Middle East on Tuesday night was subdued. Her
27-year-old son, Joe, and his girlfriend stopped by with the intention of
taking her out to dinner. Afterward, they planned to do laundry at her
place. Instead, they just chatted for a while before Stillwater shooed them
away so she could finish packing.

The next morning, she took BART to the airport by herself. Cheaper that
way. Joe Stillwater said, "My mom may seem like a flaky Berkeley lady."
But through a combination of luck, common sense and, he said, good
karma, she always seems to come out OK. Which may explain why her
friends aren't worried that among Stillwater's travel reading is the Lonely
Planet guide to Kuwait, which she borrowed from the library a few days
ago.

"We never had a lot of money growing up, but we were always going on
these wild trips and adventures," Joe Stillwater said.

To Mexico. To a Buddhist retreat in Oregon. On a Caribbean cruise as a
reward for selling all those Girl Scout cookies. The adventures are
remembered in photographs taped across the walls of her two-story
townhouse. A sign that reads, "Welcome to the Stillwater Museum," hangs
on the front door.

If it's called a museum, Stillwater said, "then I don't have to keep it all
tidy. I can just curate it."

Last year, she went to Afghanistan on a Global Exchange tour. To help
pay for a ticket, she held a sign soliciting money at various liberal activist
events and demonstrations.

This is the first time she's gone overseas solo. Stillwater isn't scared,
though. She may walk stiffly up a flight of stairs, the by-product, she said,
of doing 100 jumping jacks every day of her life. But she can still run and
is confident she'll be able to shoulder the 30 pounds of equipment she's
lugging.

Her pack doesn't include a laptop. She plans to transmit stories from
Internet cafes. If she finds them. Her editor awaits the results.
"I would like a source that doesn't necessarily adhere to the company line
about what the soldiers are facing over there," said W. Leon Smith,
publisher of the Lone Star Iconoclast.

He'd be disappointed if she doesn't get an embedded spot. "I'm really
hoping she gets some interviews with people there."

As Stillwater waited for her plane at the airport Wednesday, the Army was
still trying to find a unit in which to embed her. "Oh, yeah, her application
looks fine," said Army Spc. J. Wyatt Harper, a media embedding
coordinator for Iraq. "We're just trying to find a unit anywhere that will
take her. There's a lot of people out there now."

Even City Council member Worthington worries about how she'll be able
to leap the language barrier without being able to afford an interpreter.
"But by the power of her personality and uniqueness, she might find some
stories that other reporters might just overlook," he said. "And people
tend to open up to you when you're a peace activist."

Stillwater's sense of mission goes back to the day in 1976 when she asked
a hypnotist to look into her future. The hypnotist said she didn't predict
futures. Oh, come on and try, Stillwater said. So the hypnotist offered two
scenarios. In one, Stillwater was told that she wouldn't die until she's 88
as long as she kept seeking the light of truth. In the alternative scenario,
she dies while lying on a couch, inflated by a life of gorging on junk food.

"So everything I've done in my life since then goes back to that scenario,"
she said. "How do I want to live my life? Sitting on the couch or seeking the light?"

Stillwater makes little effort to hide her progressive politics and has drawn
scorn from conservative bloggers for her commentary and activist stunts.

On July 4, 2002, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to serve an eviction
notice -- "Three-day Notice to Perform or Quit" -- on President Bush
"based on multiple violations of their lease, The United States
Constitution."

In her last blog post (www.jpstillwater.blogspot.com) before she left for
Kuwait, Stillwater confronted what could happen next with her usual mix
of self-deprecating humor and biting commentary.

She told readers that she was headed to "Baghdad to write fabulous
stories for YOU all about how our brave troops are doing a bang-up job
over there despite the fact that their bosses in the White House are
sadistic bastards, terribly inefficient crooks and totally nuts -- or I will
spend three weeks wandering the streets of Kuwait City waiting for my
flight home, searching for internet cafes and trying to sell bootleg Girl
Scout cookies."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/29/MNGUHOTSHD1.DTL

[Guest]

Tales from the Press Room: Camping out with journalists in Iraq

Here I am sitting around the press room in the Green Zone, waiting to go
out into Baghdad and find some STORIES. And then suddenly it occurred
to me that there are about 25 really interesting stories hanging around
within ten feet of me here, just waiting to get discovered. Your fearless
reporter Jane is on the job!

I'm typing this from inside a room the size of a large trailer -- actually it
sort of IS a large trailer. There's a table for this computer, a table for
food, some hook-ups for laptops, four sets of bunk beds, two couches and
eleven cots. Journalists are typing, sleeping, eating Cheerios, sorting
through their dirty laundry, chatting and shrugging into their Kevlar to go
out on an embed.

http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

[Guest]

2007.04.22
德國貪汙大不易 國會議員失業 改當清潔婦
張筱雲/慕尼黑

當過兩屆國會議員的社民黨從政者居然淪落到當清潔婦？這是千真萬確的事。當然，
「有辦法」的政客都要竊笑她「沒本事」，尤其是亞洲地區許多國家，「無官不貪」已
經成為慣例，簡直無法想像，一個當了七年的國會議員竟然沒有撈到一點油水？

雖然德國人也覺得有點訝異，但完全可以理解，因為合乎當地社會運作和邏輯慣例。這
位利洛•弗里德里女士，失去國會議員職位時已經五十五歲，這種年紀找工作本來就不容
易。

按照德國法律規定，當國會議員七年可以領七個月的過渡期津貼，每個月七千歐元，之
後，就要等年滿六十五歲，才有資格拿每月一千六百歐元的退休金。 一般來說，老婆工
作賺的錢是補貼家用，主要收入還是靠一家之主，國會議員職位沒了，就回家吃老公
吧！但弗里德里女士的丈夫因殘疾被迫提前退休，他原來是舖瓷磚的藍領階級，收入不
豐，退休金只會更少不會多。

斂財沒機會 求職沒人要

要養一家八口（六個孩子），每個月還要付房貸，那點錢根本不敷使用，退出政壇的弗
里德里女士馬上面臨現實的壓力。

德國法治健全，民主上軌道，即使身為國會議員，斂財機會可以說絕無僅有。為了養家
活口，五十五歲的弗里德里開始努力謀職，半年內她寄出一百多封的求職應徵信，卻毫
無斬獲。公司人事單位拒絕她的理由是：太老、太活躍、太自信、太低就了、可塑性
低。當然，當個政治人物，也許是很好的人格特質，但是一般工作則不然，當然最主要
原因也是怕從政經驗豐富的她不好駕馭。

一家大百貨公司高層經理甚至露骨地表示，願意出錢和她一起度假、看電影，但不會雇
用她。

----(1)

[Guest]

國會議員失業 改當清潔婦 (2)

【面對現實 捲起衣袖】

不少從政者下台後，運用在位期間的商業界關係，被聘為顧問，但她只有國中畢業
（德國學制的十年級）學歷，專業是裁縫師，企業界是現實的，沒有一技之長，又無實
際經驗，很難獲青睞。當然，弗里德里最大專長是人際關係，有些公司想利用這點，請
她拉保險，但弗里德里拒絕了。

「英雄不怕出身低」，想當年，弗里德里雖沒受過高等教育，打著護衛弱勢團體旗
號，加上能說善道，肯上進，從社民黨地方社團起家，一路往上爬，她擔任國會議員期
間曾經說過：「只要有意願，一定找得到工作」，這句話如今應驗在她身上，輪到她失
業了。 連連碰壁之後，弗里德里的母親認識許多不願住進療養院的老人，他們通常家事
自己做不來，因此建議她為這些老人服務。弗里德里聽從母親的話面對現實，五十七歲
那年，曾經政壇風光一時的前國會議員放下身段，捲起袖管開始當清潔婦。

【只要有意願 一定有工作】

清潔工難找，尤其是本地的更是炙手可熱，由於大半德國人不願意屈就這種低層工
作，雇主通常只好找東歐或俄羅斯籍的工人替代，但這種事實際上德國人做得最好，大
家也最喜歡找本國人，因為即使是打掃，她們也不忘發揮日爾曼精確徹底精神。

所以，弗里德里根本不愁找不到雇主，甚至生意興隆到一個人忙不過來，還要雇請
兩、三位幫手，她強調「只聘請五十歲以上的」，現在進一步擴大規模，成立「清潔仙
子」公司。弗里德里果然言行一致，「只要有意願，一定找得到工作」。

http://news.chinatimes.com/2007Cti/2007Cti-News/2007Cti-News-Content/0,4521,110504+112007042200056,00.html

[Guest]

輪椅女郎 綻放玫瑰人生
張卉梧雖得靠輪椅代步，但她生性樂觀，笑容燦爛，被喻為輪椅女鬥士。
〔記者張協昇／台中報導〕

10年前，她在一場車禍中脊椎損傷，下半身癱瘓，從1名活潑開朗的少女變成憂鬱症患
者，過著陰鬱灰暗生活，10年後，她回心轉念，堅強樂觀面對人生，成為1家知名保險
公司的處長，還擔任住處大樓主委，穿梭人群服務，被喻為「輪椅女鬥士」。

現年29歲、擅長電話行銷的張卉梧目前還經常在保險公司演講，以自己的人生經歷現身
說法，告訴學員們人的幸福與快樂是靠自己創造出來的，鼓舞了許多人。

台中市南屯社區活動場合中，最近出現了1名坐著電動輪椅的年輕女子，穿梭會場，她以
開朗笑容、自信眼神，親切遞上名片，令人印象深刻。

張卉梧是彰化人，父母離異，19歲高商畢業那年發生車禍傷及脊椎，下半身癱瘓，讓正
值青春年華、原本個性活潑開朗的她，人生跌落谷底。

張卉梧表示，雖然她是樂天派的人，但遭逢這樣的變故，仍讓她有長達3年多的時間無法
接受自己，一邊復健，一邊還要服用抗憂鬱的藥，那段期間她看了伊甸社會福利基金會
創辦人劉俠女士著作的許多勵志書籍深受感動，告訴自己就算無法站起來，也要走出
去。

張卉梧說，於是她到1家飯店擔任會員卡電話行銷人員，從工作中獲得成就感，也慢慢忘
了自己是名殘障者，並遇上生命中的貴人，當時在保險公司服務的丈夫陳春松鼓勵下轉
行投入保險業，第1年就突破百萬年薪，並曾獲得代表保險業界最高榮譽的百萬圓桌會議
會員（MDRT）。

迄今仍需每天復健的張卉梧說，許多人常問她如何突破生命困境，她總是告訴他們，1個
人成功或失敗，取決於個性及態度，只要當下心態改變，人生就會改觀。

http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2007/new/apr/23/today-so11.htm

[Guest]

大學生推銷 吃過千人閉門羹
2007/04/25

連續被一千多人拒絕，滋味鐵定不好受。國立中山大學企管系四年級的林珮雯，大一時
打工推銷套裝音樂，雖然屢遭拒絕，但她沒有放棄，最後締造四十五萬元的業績，成為
銷售成績南台灣第一、全台第四的工讀生。

「只要肯堅持到底，一定可以開啟另一條路」。林珮雯表示，經過這次打工經驗，她已
經不怕任何失敗，而且畢業後不排斥繼續從事業務工作。

三年前，林珮雯讀大一時，成為金革唱片的工讀生，負責推銷有鳥鳴、瀑布聲的心靈套
裝音樂，當時唱片公司還為全省工讀生舉辦為期兩週的銷售比賽。

比賽第一週快過去了，林珮雯看盡別人臉色，但業績還是掛零。「我騎機車經過成大球
場，情緒惡劣到了極限，索性把車子停在球場旁邊，連口罩都沒有脫下來就放聲大哭。」

林珮雯完全不懂如何推銷，她只知沿街拜訪店家推銷，她說：「那時我至少被一千多人
拒絕。」工讀期間，林珮雯放鬆自己的方式是寫日記。

林珮雯的日記多半寫著「加油！被拒絕又不會怎樣」、「別因此被打倒」等鼓勵自己的
話，或在日記最上面寫下今天要達成的目標，夜闌人靜時再檢視自己有沒有辦到。

連續的失利，林珮雯並沒有因此被擊倒。她曾躡手躡腳地潛入成大醫院職工宿舍，鼓起
勇氣去敲護士房門，雖然還是被拒絕，但她終於遇一個趕著出門上班的護士，對方讓她
進房間，一邊上妝準備出門、一邊聽她介紹產品。

「沒想到對方喜歡非主流音樂，也可能想打發我走，不到十五分鐘，我向她推銷售價三
萬六千元的最大套音樂，她也沒有試聽就決定要買了！」那天開始，林珮雯的推銷工作
就相當順利，賽期兩週她的業績是廿二萬元，暑假總銷售成績是四十五萬元，成為工讀
生中的超級業務員。

【聯合報/校園特約記者張舒婷報導/20070425】
http://pro.udnjob.com/mag2/pro/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=161&f_SUB_ID=222&f_ART_ID=32982

[Guest]

美95歲阿嬤，大學畢業
〔編譯陳泓達／美聯社堪薩斯州海伊斯二十七日電〕

已屆九十五高齡的美國老嫗諾拉．奧克絲，五月將參加堪薩斯州海伊斯一所社區大學的
畢業典禮，締造一項新的金氏世界紀錄，成為歷來全球最老的大學畢業生。

目前的金氏紀錄保持人是莫茲莉．李察森老太太，她在二○○四年取得奧克拉荷馬州大學
新聞系學士學位，當時已九十歲。

堪薩斯州議會二十六日表揚奧克絲，全體議員起立鼓掌向她致敬。一九七二年，結褵三
十九年的老伴過世，奧克絲開始參加社區大學的課程，就這麼一門課接著一門課，不知
不覺過了三十幾年。現在她只要再上幾個小時的課，便可取得學士學位。

奧克絲根本沒想過要打破世界紀錄。去年秋天，奧克絲離開她的農舍，搬到約一百六十
一公里外的一棟公寓，以便參加海伊斯堡州立大學最後三十小時的課程。

更讓奧克絲高興的是，她將和二十一歲孫女亞歷珊卓一起畢業。拿到證書後，奧克絲打
算去旅行，或在社區大學聽更多的課。談到以後的打算，她笑著說：「我要到遊輪上找
份差事，給遊客們講講故事。」

http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2007/new/apr/28/today-int5.htm

95-year-old earns a degree
BY CARL MANNING
Associated Press

HAYS - Sitting on the front row in her college classes carefully taking
notes, Nola Ochs is more likely to answer questions than ask them.

That's not the only thing distinguishing her from fellow students at Fort
Hays State University. She's 95, and when she graduates May 12, she'll
be the oldest person in the world to graduate from college.

She didn't plan it that way. She loved to learn as a teenager on a
Hodgeman County farm, and as a teacher at a one-room school on the
plains after graduating from high school, then as a farm wife and mother.

"That yearning for study was still there. I came here with no thought of it
being an unusual thing at all," she said. "It was something I wanted to do.
It gave me a feeling of satisfaction. I like to study and learn."

The record Ochs will break, according to Guinness World Records, belongs
to Mozelle Richardson, who at age 90 in 2004 received a journalism
degree from the University of Oklahoma.

On Thursday, the Kansas Legislature honored Ochs, with the House and
Senate praising her efforts and giving her standing ovations.

Ochs is proudest of being the matriarch of a family that includes three
sons -- a fourth died in 1995 -- along with 13 grandchildren and 15
great-grandchildren.

Ochs started taking classes at Dodge City Community College after her
husband of 39 years, Vernon, died in 1972.

Last fall, Ochs moved the 100 miles from her farm southwest of Jetmore
to an apartment on campus to complete the final 30 hours to get a
general studies degree with an emphasis on history.

She walks purposefully down hallways with her books in a cloth tote bag.
Students nod and smile; she's described as witty, charming and down to
earth.

"Everybody has accepted me, and I feel just like another student," she
said.

Todd Leahy, history department chairman, wondered at first if Ochs could
keep up with the other students. After her second week, all doubts were
gone.

An added joy for Ochs is that her 21-year-old granddaughter, Alexandra
Ochs, will graduate with her.

Ochs said she looks forward after graduation to helping with the wheat
harvest. After harvest, she might travel or take some more classes.
After that?"I'm going to seek employment on a cruise ship as a
storyteller," she said, smiling.

http://www.kansas.com/228/story/56607.html