Vancouver Sun

FOUNDATION DELIVERS CLEAN WATER TO NEEDY IN SOUTH SUDAN

- MALCOLM PARRY malcolmpar­ry@shaw.ca 604-929-8456

EAU YES: Water Street is where Treana Peake produces her wholly owned Obakki firm’s womenswear, which is carried by Holt Renfrew and other North American retailers. But water delivery is her great passion. So far, her Obakki Foundation (obakkifoun­dation.org) has drilled 900 wells in South Sudan. They deliver safe water to a million villagers who previously walked to distant sources, sometimes swamps. The foundation has also built 12 schools and two clinics, and is renovating three orphanages in Cameroon. Inaugurate­d in 2009 with $500,000 from the Nickelback band — Peake’s husband Ryan is guitarist — the foundation has no administra­tion costs. Its revenue comes from donations, six-figure volunteer fundraisin­g contests, and such fashion-firm projects as 500 batches of different-coloured $29 scarfs that benefit individual villages. Launching now, the foundation’s The Essential line of women’s and men’s T and button shirts will also fund specific projects. Peake’s commercial enterprise is advancing, too. In March, she’ll add the lower-priced O by Obakki womenswear line that includes the still-unnamed dress in the accompanyi­ng photo. Firm and foundation derived their name from the Japanese word obake, meaning “friendly ghost.” Friendly, yes. But for many of Africa’s poor, no phantom. THAT’S THE BREAKTHROU­GHS: Naming Chrystia Freeland as minister of foreign affairs may smooth Ottawa-Washington relations. It could entail soft-soaping ultra-thin-skinned incoming president Donald Trump, or Donal’d Kozyr as coy campaign aide Vladimir Putin may call him. As for senior-level diplomacy in Vancouver, the consuls-general of five major nations are now women. Three were posted in 2016: Japan’s Asako Okai, Mexico’s Ana Berenice Diaz Ceballos Parada, and the U.K.’s Nicole Davison. Both recent U.S. postings have been to women. Anne Callaghan left in 2014 when Lynne Platt arrived from being an embassy official in London. Meanwhile, China’s consul-general Liu Fei also holds the rank of ambassador.

France started the female consular ball roll rolling with always-Paris-coutured Maryse Berniau, and later posted Evelyne Decorps.

Economizin­g now sees some residing more modestly than in since-sold ritzy-district houses. But China, Japan and the U.S. still maintain Shaughness­y mansions. Happily, none have conservato­ries as their present tenants tend to shatter glass ceilings.

IN THE FAMILY: The Cinematheq­ue kicked off its Canada on Screen series by showing writerdire­ctor Sandy Wilson’s girlhood memoir, My American Cousin. A tribute to Canada’s 150th birthday, the program will feature 150 homegrown works, many with free screenings at the Howe-offHelmcke­n facility. There was nothing gratis about Wilson’s 1985 feature film, which copped its title from an 1858 farce titled Our American Cousin. It required a $400,000 commitment from CBC TV-drama head John Kennedy to ensure the $1.3-million film’s small-screen future. Kennedy, who attended the recent screening, gracefully concurred when battler Wilson secured theatrical release. She likely inherited that foot-in-the door determinat­ion from her British great-grandmothe­r. The Hon. Evelina Haverfield was a militant suffragett­e who, imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, complained about tardily delivered hot-water bottles. Cooling further, she headed an allfemale transport column supplying wintertime pre-revolution­ary Russians. Wilson’s proposed next picture is about a picture. It’s painter Thomas Sully’s 1831 Miss Swan and Miss Bryan that hung on the family wall. Wilson now wants its subjects to review the world in a flick titled The Clutching Sisters.

BOTTOMS UP: The Feb. 11-19 Vancouver Internatio­nal Wine Festival’s Canadian theme will be reflected at a Blue Water Cafe promotiona­l tasting Jan. 16. Attendees will sample B.C., Nova Scotia and Ontario vintages, plus those of 12 other countries. So said festival chief Harry Hertscheg while watching CinCin restaurant’s Shane Taylor win the best sommelier of B.C. title recently. New Brunswick, Newfoundla­nd and Quebec will participat­e in the main event, Hertscheg said. Absent will be P.E.I., which makes some grape wines, and the Prairie provinces, which rely on fruit and berries.

WASTE NOT: Launching the Italian Cultural Centre’s seven-day Italian Film Fest Vancouver at Vancity Theatre, ICC executive director Mauro Vescera laid on enough tasty chow to feed the crew of Fellini’s opening-night movie, Roma. The ICC’s Giulio Recchioni and Vancouver Internatio­nal Film Festival’s Tom Charity followed through by programmin­g a mix of classical and contempora­ry Italian pictures. The fine-food motif faded at a screening of director Peter Svatek’s Theater of Life wherein stellar chef Massimo Bottura and 60 colleagues turn dumpster food into flavourful dishes for Italy’s disadvanta­ged and homeless. Vescera invited Acorn restaurant chef Brian Luptak, The Arbour’s Robert Clarke and Royal Dinette’s David Gunawan to do the same. Primed by producing Ugly Duckling dinners with day-old bread, spent coffee grounds and vegetable and meat “odds and ends,” Gunawan simmered lamb bones in risotto by-product fluid and clarified it with eggshells and egg whites discarded from pasta dough. With pumpkin seeds, squash butter and Gunawan’s know-how added — Delizioso!

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Given Ottawa’s fighter-jet policy, it may replace our military’s 1940s-era Browning pistols with 1873-model Colt Peacemaker­s.

 ??  ?? While designing fashions at her Gastown-based Obakki firm, Treana Peake has raised funds to bring safe, clean water to a million South Sudanese villagers.
While designing fashions at her Gastown-based Obakki firm, Treana Peake has raised funds to bring safe, clean water to a million South Sudanese villagers.
 ??  ?? Giulio Recchioni and Tom Charity programmed Italian Film Fest Vancouver’s classical and contempora­ry movies screened at Vancity Theatre.
Giulio Recchioni and Tom Charity programmed Italian Film Fest Vancouver’s classical and contempora­ry movies screened at Vancity Theatre.
 ?? PHOTOS: MALCOLM ?? CBC TV-drama head John Kennedy first funded Sandy Wilson’s 1985 My American Cousin that opened this year’s Canada on Screen series.
PHOTOS: MALCOLM CBC TV-drama head John Kennedy first funded Sandy Wilson’s 1985 My American Cousin that opened this year’s Canada on Screen series.
 ??  ?? Royal Dinette’s David Gunawan served fare similar to stellar chef Massimo Botturo’s dumpster-derived dishes in the movie Theater of Life.
Royal Dinette’s David Gunawan served fare similar to stellar chef Massimo Botturo’s dumpster-derived dishes in the movie Theater of Life.
 ??  ?? The U.K.’s Nicole Davison is the most recent to arrive of the five major-nation consuls general who head delegation­s in Vancouver.
The U.K.’s Nicole Davison is the most recent to arrive of the five major-nation consuls general who head delegation­s in Vancouver.
 ??  ?? Ana Berenice Diaz Ceballos Parada had barely landed from Mexico City when heading September’s independen­ce-day celebratio­ns.
Ana Berenice Diaz Ceballos Parada had barely landed from Mexico City when heading September’s independen­ce-day celebratio­ns.
 ??  ?? The second consecutiv­e U.S. female consul general here, Lynne Platt, succeeded Anne Callaghan when posted from London in 2014.
The second consecutiv­e U.S. female consul general here, Lynne Platt, succeeded Anne Callaghan when posted from London in 2014.
 ??  ?? China’s head of consular post Liu Fei also holds the rank of ambassador and heads her nation’s facilities located in Shaughness­y.
China’s head of consular post Liu Fei also holds the rank of ambassador and heads her nation’s facilities located in Shaughness­y.
 ??  ?? After serving at Japan’s embassies in Australia, the Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the U.K., Asako Okai became consul general here.
After serving at Japan’s embassies in Australia, the Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the U.K., Asako Okai became consul general here.
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