Monday 29 December 2014

Living on a Dollar a Day



"With an introduction by the Dalai Lama, the 10 chapters focus on issues such as “Children at Work” and “Health Care.” The stories enlighten detractors who think poor people are just lazy, a recurring argument spewed by the privileged.

The chapter “Women at Work” provides countless examples to counter that argument. Jacaba Coaquira, an 80-year-old Bolivian farmer, works from 7:30 a.m. to dusk, gathering oats and green beans. Unable to feed her cow and donkey, she walked five hours to the closest town to sell them. Then there’s 25-year-old disabled single mother Jestina Koko and her 5-year-old daughter Satta in Liberia. Crippled since childhood, Koko scoots around by dragging herself on her arms. She survives by doing laundry, selling cookies and begging. Her only wish is to make enough money to send her daughter to school. Their temporary home is a sliver of dirty floor where they squat in a doorway." Truthdig, Liesl Bradner

Friday 26 December 2014

Fracturing the Human Heart

Today on Facebook I read how two cars did a sudden U-turn quickly in front of an oncoming car to get into the ferry line-up.

There is a special loop for cars to turn into so they can safely turn into the ferry lane. There are signs to alert the drivers where to turn if the line is full  past that loop. Clearly the sudden U-turns are dangerous for oncoming traffic blindly coming around the corner.

Decades ago rules of the road were created to keep us from reckless danger. Decades ago laws were created to protect workers, consumers, citizens and children from unnecessary harm. Even international laws were created to keep nations from mindlessly slaughtering one another.  Do these laws matter today?

A recurring topic at dinner parties is the lack of ethics and principles in public places by customs officers, police, politicians, and other public servants. There is a perception that stakeholders have given up on caring, that we have no allegiance to anything beyond ourselves.

The media readily headlines brutality and injustice all over the world but doesn't spend much print or air time on conversations that seek to correct them.  The common understanding is that viewers and readers are only interested in the sensational news and will not spend time investing in ideas to correct this. The media is for entertainment not for guidance or education. Not for informing society. Corporate sponsored media shies away from 'values' of any kind other than consumerism. Media that attempts to engage an audience on the nature of civil society will not be supported by advertising.

Somehow we have been convinced that there is no such thing as society or the common good.  It has crept up on Western nations since the end of World War II and each generation seems more jaded than the last. It's too bad but what can we do?

The human heart is not merely broken in this environment it is shattered.  It is removed from ethical concerns and appears to no longer care about justice or fairness. Isolated within our egos we zip through our days "getting and spending" not seeing how our culture has eroded. Our tribes become smaller and our loyalties narrower.

So those who drive as though they are above the law may be picking up on the signals they see and hear around them. Are these signals really true? Do they represent the middle in human nature or the lowest common denominator?




Wednesday 17 December 2014

Poverty



"The latest poverty statistics were released by Statistics Canada last Wednesday, and the data once again shows that British Columbia has one of the highest poverty rates in Canada.

Using the Low Income Cut-Off – After Tax (LICO-AT) as the poverty line, 1 in 10 British Columbians are living in poverty. That's 469,000 people struggling to make ends meet. In relation to the rest of the country, B.C. is tied third with Quebec after Ontario and Manitoba."

Trish Garner, Rabble. December 17, 2014.



And an absence of real justice ...

"But most frightening of all is that a crime in America seems to be becoming more what authorities say it is, rather than what the law says.

The most obvious example is the prosecutors who appear to have guided grand juries away from indicting police who killed unarmed citizens, even when there was no obvious need to deploy that kind of force." Neil Macdonald, CBC.ca

These are the signs of illegitimate power at work.

Friday 28 November 2014

Clean Drinking Water

"Canada is among the world's wealthiest nations, but our wealth is not equitably distributed. Many communities, particularly northern and Aboriginal, suffer from poor access to healthy and affordable food, clean water, proper housing and other necessary infrastructure. An ironic example of this disparity is at Shoal Lake, about two hours east of Winnipeg. There, two First Nations, Shoal Lake 39 and 40, are next to the City of Winnipeg's main drinking-water supply, but Shoal Lake 40 has been on a boil-water advisory for decades" David Suzuki Foundation.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Rabble: "Militarism degrades, disrupts and destroys democracy"

Headless Armless Soldier
"As the Canadian government plays at fighting wars in Iraq/Syria and in eastern Europe, we see daily examples of how militarism ultimately degrades, disrupts and destroys democracy. Indeed, we are subjected to a gravitational pull of obedience to martial values that blinds us to a series of uncomfortable realities that are visible in plain sight but unmentionable in mainstream discourse. While a slavish media hangs on every General's word, Ottawa refuses to release the costs of its overseas adventures. Politicians who voted against the Middle East mission now say we must rally around the troops." Matthew Behrens. Rabble.

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Visit Planet SARK

If you feel Planet Earth has been hijacked by Planet Mars you might want to visit Planet SARK

It was built by Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy and she explains her mission as "international well-being and transformation". Her purpose is to be "a transformer, an uplifter and a laser beam of love" and she has created an inspirational playground for all who visit her website.  You can get newsletter and other stuff here:
image created by SARK

Her art and posters you will find re-posted on Facebook - they are delicious and wise.


Friday 3 October 2014

Five Reasons B.C. Should Say No to the Site C Dam


1. It's bad business.
2. There are cost-effective alternatives.
3. The power isn't needed.
4. We can't afford to flood farmland.
5. The Peace has paid its price.

visit the post by Emma Gilchrist on Desmog Canada

(Credit: Gerry via Flickr) www.davidsuzuki.org
"B.C. First Nations chiefs recently travelled to Ottawa to urge the federal government to pull the plug on the costliest infrastructure project in the country. At an estimated $7.9 billion and growing, the proposed Site C Dam on the beautiful Peace River in northeastern B.C. has been criticized for spiralling costs, questions about whether the electricity it would produce is even needed, and concerns about the environmental and social impacts of flooding thousands of hectares of prime farmland, irreplaceable cultural sites and wildlife habitat. The government is expected to make a decision in October."

Wednesday 17 September 2014

What is Love?

Beginning with Paul's letter to the Corinthians, love is patient, kind, it does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonour, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.

So that is pretty straight forward. There are six things that love is and seven things it is not according to this Biblical passage. 

For Will Shakespeare - "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds ... it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests ... and is never shaken.

You have to be older than twenty to appreciate Shakespeare's instruction. It is an idealistic notion and I can see how this might be true and how it might not. However he does carry some authority because of all the plays he wrote that we still love because his characters resemble a timeless authenticity. He has earned his credibility.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
Lao Tzu

In my life this is true. As a young child I was loved and so grew to be an adult, then was loved again. These are markers in my life where I could have discounted the love I received because it was less than perfect, or the courage to carry on when my love was also imperfect.


“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”
Robert Fulghum, True Love

Weirdness is another word for the unpredictable, for diversity of experience.  Love does not attempt to prove that it exists, it is not a chemical compound, the GDP, or "jobs and the economy".  Is love the reason for these things? Not exclusively but perhaps to allow love to remain.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” 

And so the most powerful people on earth might have been successful at locking away their hearts to leave a clear head for strategy - to keep their lovers on a leash to use at their convenience. Or the most broken people on earth have locked away their hearts because their experience leads them to believe that is the only way they can survive. This is what Karen Armstrong calls the "reptilian brain".

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
Mahatma Gandhi

There are so many friends around, so many people who base their work on love and truth. We are not famous because we are abundant. We don't remark on them as something distant like a news headline because we know them. Diverse, imperfect - we need your help. Need you to be clear in mind and heart so that we can get behind the trends that lead us to more happiness and less suffering.

Yes all these quotes but one are from men. Why is that? Why did I choose men rather than women? I chose those who were well known in many nations and women are not as celebrated globally in that sense. However I will end with a quote by Hannah Arendt which I think is the most profound.

"Love, by its very nature, is unworldly, and it is for this reason rather than its rarity that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical forces." Hannah Arendt.

Monday 25 August 2014

In These Times - review of This Changes Every Thing by Naomi Klein


1. Band-Aid solutions don’t work.
“Only mass social movements can save us now. Because we know where the current system, left unchecked, is headed.”

2. We need to fix ourselves, not fix the world.
“The earth is not our prisoner, our patient, our machine, or, indeed, our monster. It is our entire world. And the solution to global warming is not to fix the world, it is to fix ourselves.”
3. We can’t rely on “well-intentioned” corporate funding.
“A great many progressives have opted out of the climate change debate in part because they thought that the Big Green groups, flush with philanthropic dollars, had this issue covered. That, it turns out, was a grave mistake.”
4. We need divestment, and reinvestment.
“The main power of divestment is not that it financially harms Shell and Chevron in the short term but that it erodes the social license of fossil fuel companies and builds pressure on politicians to introduce across-the-board emission reductions.”
5. Confronting climate change is an opportunity to address other social, economic and political issues.

When climate change deniers claim that global warming is a plot to redistribute wealth, it's not (only) because they are paranoid. It's also because they are paying attention.”

In These Times: 5 Crucial Lessons for the Left From Naomi Klein’s New Book. Ethan Corey and Jessica Corbett.

Friday 15 August 2014

Holy Crow Church


Yesterday evening the opening of Jeff Molloy's art show "Reverence" at Artworks on Gabriola was an opportunity for me to view religion more broadly.

Beginning with a piece that shows a priest with a forked tongue cutting off the hair of a young naked child, surrounded by boxes containing shapes like young children behind bars - you know this show will not be sentimental.

Further along there is a series of poles made up of driftwood, canoe paddles, nails and animal bones. Each one contains a message which I hope will become clear to me if I stare at them long enough. On a couple of the poles the driftwood represents crows. One has a crown, they all have majesty, attitude. One pole is topped by a nativity scene complete with a star, holding several found objects like old brushes, twigs and such. The pole furthest to the right is adorned with a bishop's hat made of a hip joint from some creature who left this plane some time ago. I attempt to understand. It's in a language I haven't yet learned. But I am reminded that this must be how the aboriginal people tried to understand the teachings of Christianity.

Theology made of wood, bones and long nails, is not as primitive as the church who set up residential schools to warehouse First Nations' children to 'cleanse' them of their culture through ritual abuse, torture and rape.  Behind the ornaments and devices of the Christian church is the history of European exploitation.

Take away the mythologies of glory -  they came to the new world with booze, guns and germs to take the land, the bison, the logs, beaver pelts, metals and minerals.

In the anthropocene, the way to conquer the world is to wipe out the heart and mind of humanity and replace it with a dehumanizing ideology that turns them into obedient robotic soldiers trained to kill and be killed for coins, trinkets and a hoped for afterlife.

I'm not suggesting that this view is the intention of Molloy's art because I don't wish to impose my thoughts on someone else's creations. This is how I internalize the language of all things, arising as it does out of the violence of our past.

But art does contain the future too. It asks the viewer to think about what the past has to say about the future. In this art, what is made precious is the nature that surrounds us, that is washed up on the shore, how we make meaning of things that are otherwise mute. And how do we preserve it? This is the meaning of the holy crow, the holy twig, the holy paint, and the inquiring mind.



Monday 11 August 2014

Where I am Folded I Am a Lie


Rainer Maria Rilke respectfully declines to review or criticize poetry, advising the younger Franz Xaver Kappus that "Nobody can advise you and help you, nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself."[1]


I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough
to make every moment holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough
just to lie before you like a thing,
shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will,
as it goes toward action;
and in those quiet, sometimes hardly moving times,
when something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
and I never want to be blind, or to be too old
to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
and I want my grasp of things to be
true before you. I want to describe myself
like a painting that I looked at
closely for a long time,
like a saying that I finally understood,
like the pitcher I use every day,
like the face of my mother,
like a ship
that carried me
through the wildest storm of all.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Wednesday 6 August 2014

The Power Continuum


It seems to me that power exists on a continuum. On one end is power-from-within which we all possess to varying degrees, and at the other there is power-over. The stations between these are complex, as we learn to negotiate with others in the universe. No doubt, students of political science, sociology and psychology will have more refined descriptions than the following which comes mostly from my observations.
I see power-from-within arising from thoughts, feelings, imagination, learned skills, the arts and self-discipline. Words like express, share, understand, design, empathize, inspire, indicate to me a power-from-within.
 
Power-over resides in social position and opportunity. Parents have power over their children, teachers over their students, managers over employees, police officers over city streets, etc. Words like teach, enforce, control, limit, protect, withhold, give, take, coerce, extract – indicate power-over. 
 
Power-over is not necessarily an abuse of power, and power-from-within is not always harmless. A functioning civil society requires a sophisticated awareness of how and where power is expressed or used for the greater good. As we become more mature we are more empathic and conscious of the way we use our power and the effect it has on others. We learn to be more specific in dealing with conflict seeking outcomes that satisfy all. 
 
When societies become stressed, it’s easy to fall for a quick fix, dismissing and discrediting the complex structures that have taken centuries to evolve. The default quick fix focuses on “who is to blame”. Nature becomes a menace to be controlled. Diversity intolerable. 

When meaningful debate is discouraged and replaced with slogans and propaganda, the human conscience loses its voice. The individual feeling powerless may side with hard-line political movements for a spurious sense of power by association and a false confidence. 

When power-from-within no longer dialogues with power-over, as in times of war, power becomes a misanthropic ritual marching towards an ever greater contempt for life. It is estimated that between 136 to 148 million deaths occurred through wars and conflicts in the 20th century. This year alone there have been nearly 50,000 fatalities due to conflict.

However, there is no indication among my neighbours, friends and peers that suggests we want to murder others. So what is the cause of war? 

Retired minister, Rev. John Alexie Crane, in his sermon on Human Nature and War asks us to look more closely “at the most crucial of war’s causes, namely, the actions and ambitions of the alpha males who continue to hold positions of leadership in the nations of the world.” Leaders who have been led to believe by their supporters, that their power is all there is and they alone are responsible for saving the world.

How does power-from-within meet the alpha ego? 

When we stop asking “what is wrong with the world”, and ask instead “how can we build a livable one?” For all the territory and wealth that has been fought over and for all the lives lost and being lost, the very least we can do is to learn how power works for and against life – examples are everywhere. 
 
Power-from-within meets the centre of the continuum in community before it reaches a critical mass where the conscience reminds the discouraged mind that it can’t afford to shut up.

(First published in The Flying Shingle, August 4, 2014)

Friday 1 August 2014

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on Privatization of Schools

The Edible School

"Math wars", attacks on teacher unions, old-fashioned commercialism, standardized assessment, and surveillance: debates over education have always been heated. But these days, the very concept of public education, the students who are served by it and those employed in this sector are in many ways either being neglected or are under sustained attack by political and corporate elites. And as a result, privatization is no longer "creeping"--it is stampeding through entire school jurisdictions. And while the damage is all-encompassing and ultimately we are all made worse off by this onslaught,  it is the most vulnerable among us who are being hurt the most."

Erika Shaker, Salim Vally, Carol Anne Spreen. Our Schools/Our Selves: Summer 2014. Privatization of Schools: An International View.

Saturday 26 July 2014

What's Happening Here?

"Something has shifted in Israeli discourse. Dehumanization sets in insidiously, not just of the Other but of oneself." Rick Salutin

"Earlier this week, PEN became the latest charity to face a massive tax audit as part of a sweeping clampdown that appears aimed at intimidating groups critical of the Harper government ... (joining) Amnesty International, the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada Without Poverty, the United Church and other groups, that having criticized an array of Harper policies, have been obliged to devote precious resources to defending themselves from a special probe of charities ordered by the Harper government." Linda McQuaig


"As First Nations prepare to take legal action against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, an alliance of B.C. residents and non-governmental organizations has launched a grassroots fundraising initiative that aims to help First Nations cover their legal expenses." Emily Fister


“Green Mama” (written by Manda Aufochs Gillespie and sold out before the US launch date) is a how-to book, but it’s also a manifesto of sorts: a manifesto declaring that no corporation or manufacturer is the boss of you, and that you have more control over the development of your family than an advertise-and-buy economy would have you believe." Jordan Yerman


"Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida offshoot that seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month, has warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or risk severe punishment." The Guardian

Canada-EU free trade deal to be rejected by Germany: "Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws." CBC

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Broken Ground

image from frackingcanada.ca
"Canada lacks environmental protections enjoyed by similar nations around the world. We’re at or near the bottom in many rankings of wealthy, industrialized countries, placing 24th out of 25 on environmental performance indicators in a recent survey of Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries."  says David Suzuki, brokenground.ca

His article about the families who moved to Alberta reveals the sudden changes to their lives when oil drilling began, and within three years found themselves and their farms and homes surrounded by more than 100 rigs - without any stakeholder engagement. 

Globally the nightmare is magnified. Michael Klare writes in Twenty-First-Century Energy Wars (which first appeared in TomDispatch and now appears on Bill Moyers' site) "Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the East and South China Seas: wherever you look, the world is aflame with new or intensifying conflicts. At first glance, these upheavals appear to be independent events, driven by their own unique and idiosyncratic circumstances. But look more closely and they share several key characteristics — notably, a witch’s brew of ethnic, religious and national antagonisms that have been stirred to the boiling point by a fixation on energy." 

Klare points out that "control over oil and gas ... translates into geopolitical clout for some and economic vulnerability for others." 

So our hunger for power has made us pawns in the wars over non-renewable resources and we may end up like those nations breaking under brutality and injustice, siding with whichever tribe we identify with for the spoils. If we continue to believe that "jobs and the economy" means jobs for us and a better economy for us, we only have ourselves to blame. 

Monday 30 June 2014

The Importance of Being Albert

Albert Einstein (credit Lucien Chavan public domain)
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein


"Our failure of imagination regarding the ever-increasing production and use of fossil fuels will, over time, kill billions of us and irreversibly change all life on the planet. It is a failure of imagination not at a policy level but at the level of civilization. It’s not a lack of knowledge – we have a staggering amount of information and analysis, a frightening compendium of what we are doing to ourselves and every other species on the planet. We keep piling it on, study after study, dire warning after dire warning, irrefutable science, actual evidence of melting ice-caps, the virtually unprecedented level of agreement on the part of science about where we are headed. Additional information is already hitting up against the principle of diminishing returns."

Murray Dobbin

Friday 27 June 2014

First Nations hold final 'healing walk' in oilsands

"For the fifth year straight, we will smell the crude oil and toxic plumes, especially if the wind 

pushes back south. Some walkers, as in past years, will be forced to stop walking due to 

breathing difficulties or bloody noses.  We will walk at ground zero of the oilands, surrounded 

by vast oil sands mines."


By Eriel Deranger, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, for CBC News Posted: Jun 27, 2014 10:41 

AM ET


Read the full article here

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Acronyms

CETA: Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement
TTIP: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
NGO: Non-governmental Organization
ISDS: Investor State Dispute Settlement
EC: European Commission
EU: European Union
NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement
CCPA: Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives
TTP: Transpacific Trade Partnership


Thanks to the Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives I am creating a list of acronyms as a quick resource to help me understand policy and political blogs.

Friday 6 June 2014

Misogyny

But, said Tahir, militarism and its impact on women is “not specific to Pakistan.” Even the U.S. Pentagon’s own report found that violent sex crimes committed by active U.S. Army soldiers have increased by 50 percent, reflecting a rate that is far higher than in the general population. “When Pakistani men commit such crimes,” said Tahir, “it’s called ‘honor killings,’ and we condemn entire cultures for it.” But “when it’s Western men who commit such crimes we tend to look for psychological explanations.” So, the Isla Vista killer, Elliot Rodger, was described as a “troubled kid with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome,” and U.S. soldiers committing sex crimes are seen through the lens of post-traumatic stress disorder from the battlefield.  

Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig

Monday 2 June 2014

Plutonomics

"Ajay Kapur, global strategist at Citigroup, and his research team came up with the term “Plutonomy” in 2005 to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality. According to their definition, the U.S. is a Plutonomy, along with the U.K., Canada and Australia." Robert Franks. 

Read more here.
Read Edward Fullbrook here
Or rational wiki here.

In France, the U.K., and the U.S., the share of total income currently appropriated by capital is thirty per cent. The top 0.1 per cent of income earners own twenty per cent of wealth. The top one per cent own 40 per cent. The top ten per cent own 80 to 90 per cent. The bottom 50 per cent own a mere five per cent of wealth.

Al Engler - Capitalism actually widens economic disparity, rabb.ca.

Monday 26 May 2014

Re-blogged from Woodlake Publishing Inc: Something There Is That Doesn't Love a Teacher

by Susan McCaslin

Some serious teacher bashing is going on in British Columbia right now. Shelly Fralic, a journalist for theVancouver Sun, recently exploited her personal issue of teachers parking their vehicles on a public street in front of her house as a means of arousing hatred against teachers for their “sense of entitlement.”¹ Teachers, she suggested, are lazy buggers who work from 8 till 3 and then get the summers off. Her piece was perfectly timed to arouse animosity, coming out just after the BC Liberal government had threatened that if teachers proceeded with their intended job action, the government would retaliate by cutting, not increasing, their pay.
First, I must come clean as a retired educator who taught at a local college in B.C. for 23 years, and before that as instructor, sessional lecturer, and teaching assistant. I began teaching in 1969 but knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was in grade 8. Teaching has been for me not just a job, but a vocation (a true calling) and a passion. So I am not simply a bystander, but still believe I can be objective based on my long experience within the teaching profession.
My sense is that most educators are idealistic folks who received encouragement from a teacher at some time in their lives and wish to encourage and support youth in return, or, for some other reason, care about children and young people and wish to nurture and support them in their formative years. Though there are a few wastrels in any system (legal, government, business), the majority of teachers of my acquaintance are rather diligent and conscientious, people who entered the profession, not so much for its respectability or potential financial remuneration, but for the opportunity to help young people evolve into mature, civic-minded, fully human, integrated individuals. After all, one can go into law, medicine, accounting, business, and have prospects of a much higher income and more respectability than in teaching.
Unfortunately, here in BC, and in many other places in the world, public education is underfunded and undervalued. In B.C., teachers and local government are currently heading into a collision of apparent irreconcilables.
Clearly, our public education system is in crisis. Due to burgeoning class sizes, an increasing numbers of “special needs” students, the elimination of teachers’ aides, and lack of classroom resources, teachers are stressed to the maximum. Some of them are leaving the profession because they can’t cope with the pressure. Marking and preparation, extracurricular activities, class room management issues, and administrative responsibilities conjoin to take a toll.
The B.C. Liberal government’s position is that the need to balance the budget precludes the provision of classroom resources, smaller student to teacher ratios, and a raise in pay for teachers. Repeatedly, when teachers have demanded better working conditions, the government has legislated them back to work. Refusing to negotiate, the government continues to generously fund corporate interests. When public education deteriorates, Premier Christy Clark puts her child in a private school. One has to wonder if the B.C. government wishes to allow the public education system to become dysfunctional in order to privatize education completely.
The question that recurs is “why?” Why such an adamant stance against teachers, students, parents, and anyone who desires a decent public education system for our children? Why such obvious distain of teachers? One would think such disrespect might be grounded in negative experiences with teachers in high school. Or perhaps the public has ingested the stereotypic depictions of teachers in the media.
And there is another reason for a lack of sympathy for teachers: a lingering, media-fed, irrational fear and hatred of unions. Yet without some kind of collective bargaining clout, how can teachers have any power at all to put forward not only their needs, but those of their students?
To my mind, the deepest reason for animosity against teachers is fear: the government’s fear of citizens who possess critical thinking skills. Historically, when right-wing dictatorial governments rise to power, the first to be targeted are poets, writers, activists, and educators. This is because, traditionally, educators and artists include those who have the long view, those who are not motivated simply by pragmatism and greed. Educators in the arts, sciences, and social sciences have a legacy of examining the human condition in a larger context, asking about its meaning and purpose beyond that of immediate gain.
“Something there is” (said Robert Frost in his poem “Mending Wall”) that doesn’t want the masses asking questions. “Something there is” that wants to turn out cookie-cutter consumers who will support the corporate status quo.
In my case, and that of many others, teachers helped us think and feel for ourselves. My grade 12 civics teacher helped me realize I could someday make the world a better place when he encouraged me to write on the United Nations and efforts toward world peace. A history professor showed me history wasn’t just about memorizing facts, but about asking what we can learn from the past. An English teacher in grade 7 taught me not just to memorize a poem, but to participate in the poetic mode of being, to be creative.
Now that I’m retired, this capacity to enter the creative process enriches my life as a writer. Without the encouragement and support of memorable mentors and educators while in school, I might be in a materialist’s void. Because of one particular teacher who told me I was a writer when I was 12, I am a full-time poet and writer. Because of a professor in grad school who introduced me to the power of myth in contemporary poetry, I am recreating myself through language and offering my gift to others. I am not just a consumer, a bored retiree, but fulfilled. Teachers proffered me the opportunity to truly be and to live more holistically.
Isn’t this what we want for ourselves and our children, as well as to earn a living and meet the necessities of daily life? Critical thinkers aren’t just passive victims of social patterns and corporate powers, but movers, shakers, activists – exactly what some governments most fear.

 Susan McCaslin is a prize-winning poet and author of eleven volumes of poetry. Susan is Faculty Emeritus of Douglas College where she taught English and Creative Writing for twenty-three years. She lives in Fort Langley, British Columbia.

Thursday 22 May 2014

What's Happening Here

TragiComic Masks
May 14, 2014
Dr. Robert Buckingham, a tenured professor, Dean of the School for Public Health was fired and escorted off campus for publicly criticizing a restructuring plan at the University of Saskatchewan. Crawford Killian, The Tyee.

May 19, 2014
Cecily McMillan was sentenced to 3 months in prison. The Occupy activist was grabbed from behind by a plainclothes policeman, and responded by elbowing him in the face. She was severely beaten and handcuffed to a hospital bed, by police. Chris Hedges. Truthdig. 


May 20, 2014
New research shows more than 20 million people worldwide are working as modern-day slaves and generating billions of dollars worth of illegal profits annually. Jacqueline Nelson. Globe and Mail

May 21, 2014
Amnesty International reveals legal scholar and human rights activist, Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to four years in jail for organizing "Same-city Eat-drink gatherings". Amnesty International

May 22, 2014
Effective Monday, May 26, BC Government will dock 5 % of teachers pay for participating in stage 1 of job action. 10% if teachers launch their rotating strike next week. CBC News

May 22, 2014
Tim Hudak pledges to eliminate 100,000 service jobs if he forms the next government. Duncan Cameron, rabble.


Wednesday 14 May 2014

Chris Hedges on The Power of Imagination

Othello and Iago
"Shakespeare portrays the tension between the premodern and the modern. He sees the rise of the modern as dangerous. The premodern reserved a place in the cosmos for human imagination. The new, modern, Machiavellian ethic of self-promotion, manipulation, bureaucracy and deceit—personified by Iago, Richard III and Lady Macbeth—deformed human society. Shakespeare lived during a moment when the modern world—whose technology allowed it to acquire weapons of such unrivaled force that it could conquer whole empires, including the Americas and later China—instilled through violence this new secular religion. He feared its demonic power."
Truthdig May 11, 2014

Friday 2 May 2014

On CF-18s for NATO operation in Eastern Europe

From Tom Mulcair:
To be clear, the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea and provocations in Eastern Ukraine are as unacceptable as they are illegal. And like our allies, we've been unequivocal in condemning Russia's military intervention and in calling for a diplomatic solution to this crisis.  However, after turning their backs on international engagement for years, the Conservatives have now severely constricted our country's ability to play a constructive role.

We must reassure our partners in Eastern Europe of our firm commitment to their sovereignty, stability, and security. But it's not enough for Canada to simply posture and take potshots. Instead, we must step up our diplomatic efforts in the region because a political resolution remains the only path to long-term stability.

Canada's reputation as an independent and principled member of the international community was a cornerstone for some of our country's greatest accomplishments in the twentieth century. That legacy of international responsibility—now profoundly tarnished by the Conservatives—was fundamental to how we saw ourselves and how others saw us. Looking forward, our New Democratic team will not give up until Canada has reclaimed its role as an unyielding voice for peace on the world stage.


Thank you for copying me on your letter to the Prime Minister about Canada sending CF-18 fighter jets to Eastern Europe as a “show of strength.” It boggles the mind that we have gotten to the point where the Prime Minister deems it appropriate to send a mission of over 200 soldiers without first consulting Parliament. We used to live in a country where we took missions like these seriously and where the constitutional supremacy of Parliament was recognized in making decisions of this importance. In contrast, Members of Parliament only heard about this after the decision had been made.

Canada used to play a crucial role on the world stage. We used to be the honest brokers, known for our success in diplomacy when it seemed that force was the only option. We are now transitioning towards a nation that sends fighter jets to flex our muscles and to intimidate, not thinking about how that will affect our diplomatic credibility. Though it is the Harper Conservatives who are pushing this agenda, the other opposition parties have also signed on. Even when Parliament is allowed the courtesy of a vote on our military missions, as in the vote to extend the military mission in Libya, mine was the only dissenting vote.

In sending these jets, not only was the democratic process not respected, it is also very unclear what the terms of the mission are. In the words of Lt.-Gen. Yvan Blondin “There is a lot of uncertainty about what we're going to be doing over there.” We know that we are sending jets, we just are not exactly sure why.

While we should be pushing for dialogue and diplomacy, we are sending an open-ended mission with unclear terms. Instead of playing a key role in resolving the crisis in Ukraine, we are opting for empty force. Parliament could have told Harper this. If only he had asked.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday ruled out military intervention in the dispute with Russia over Ukraine and said she was counting on a diplomatic resolution to Europe’s worst crisis since the Cold War ended. ARNO SCHUETZE FRANKFURT — Reuters





Friday 18 April 2014

Common Sense and Orphan Wells



Commonsense Canadian: Despite admitting there is an increasing trend of inactive well sites awaiting reclamation, the BC Oil and Gas Commission has slashed its budget for its orphan site reclamation fund from $4.83 million in 2013 to just $1 million in 2014.
According to the Orphan Well Association, “an orphan is a well, pipeline, facility or associated site which has been investigated and confirmed as not having any legally responsible or financially able party to deal with its abandonment and reclamation.”

A second chance for humanity

 The Biblical story of Adam and Eve has been used to support male dominance over female.  Eve is the temptress who is curious even though &q...