Taking It All In

Living away from soul and from the present

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:51:06 GMT

I found this blurb elsewhere on another blog (http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-000574.htm):

Controlling the Outcome

I live with the illusion that if I try hard enough, think hard enough, work hard enough and plan well enough, I will be able to control the outcome of a given situation. Soul tells me to take the action and let go of the results. When I feel that I can control the outcome, I live in the result rather than the process. "Life is what happens when you are making other plans." Trying to control results dams up the waters within me. My energy is spent on managing rather than living. When I feel that I am somehow responsible for the outcome of a situation, I get tangled up in a tedious maze of micro-management. I try to determine other people's feelings, perceptions and actions in an attempt to anticipate all the possibilities, so that I can better manage them. Living in the outcome is a way to avoid the present; consequently, it becomes living away from soul.

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:53:16 GMT

ZERO HOUR

It was the hour of simply nothing,
not a single desire in my western heart,
no ancient system
of breathing and postures,
no big idea justifying what I felt.

There was even an absence of despair.

"Anything goes," I said to myself.
All the clocks were high. Above them,
hundreds of stars flickering if, if, if.
Everywhere in the universe, it seemed,
some next thing was gathering itself.

I started to feel something,
but it was nothing more than a moment
passing into another, or was it less
eloquent than that, purely muscular,
some meaningless twitch?

I'd let someone else make it rhyme.
- Stephen Dunn
Different Hours

"How did 100,000,000 women disappear?" - Toronto Star Cover

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:41:58 GMT

How did 100,000,000 women disappear?

Jun 06, 2009 04:30 AM, NICOLE BAUTE, STAFF REPORTER

In India, China and sub-Saharan Africa, millions upon millions of women are missing. They are not lost, but dead: victims of violence, discrimination and neglect.

A University of British Columbia economist is amongst those trying to find them – not the women themselves, who are long gone, but their numbers and ages, which paint a sad and startling picture of gender discrimination in the developing world.

The term "missing women" was coined in 1990, when Indian economist Amartya Sen calculated a shocking figure. In parts of Asia and Africa, he wrote in The New York Review of Books, 100 million women who should be alive are not, because of unequal access to medical care, food and social services. These are excess deaths: women "missing" above and beyond natural mortality rates, compared to their male counterparts.

Women who are dead because their lives were undervalued.

Around the world boys outnumber girls at birth, but in countries where women and men receive equal care, women have proved hardier and more resistant to disease, and thus live longer. In most of Asia and North Africa, however, Sen found that women die with startlingly higher frequency.

His research began a flutter of activity in academic circles and by 2005, the United Nations produced a much higher estimate for how many women could be "missing": 200 million.

From her office at the University of British Columbia, economics professor Siwan Anderson has been crunching numbers to try and understand why so many women are dying. "If you're interested in gender discrimination, it's really one of the starkest measures of discrimination, because it's women who should be alive, but aren't," she says.

The 40-year-old researcher recently co-authored a paper with New York University's Debraj Ray, focusing on figures from China, India and sub-Saharan Africa for the year 2000. What they discovered flew in the face of existing literature and commonly held beliefs about the missing women phenomenon.

"Previously, people had thought that they (the missing women) were all at the very early stages of life, prenatal or just after, so before four years old," Anderson says. "But what we found is that the majority are actually later." Female infanticide has been endemic in India and China for some time, which she says led researchers to assume that it was the source of all the missing women. But the truth is much more complicated.

Once she and Ray broke down the numbers by age group, they found that the majority of excess female deaths came later in life: 66 per cent in India, 55 per cent in China and 83 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.

One of their colleagues in the economics department at the University of British Columbia says this finding is striking, and points the way for future research and advocacy.

"Why would there be excess mortality of, let's say, 45-year-old women versus 45-year-old men?" asks economics professor Kevin Milligan. "And what they find is ... they have the same set of diseases, they just seem to die more frequently. The explanation that seems most consistent with that is differential access to health care. And so that's a really striking finding."

Anderson says that lack of health care is likely a big part of the problem, but that there are numerous cultural and social factors at play that can be difficult to pinpoint.

In their "elementary accounting exercise" published this February, Anderson and Ray began to plot the causes of excess death in 2000 by age group, and produced some interesting figures.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the dominant source of missing women was HIV and AIDS, the cause of more than 600,000 excess female deaths each year.

In China, Anderson says, most of the 141,000 excess female deaths by injury were suicides, making China the only place in the world where women are more likely than men to kill themselves, often by eating pesticides used for crops.

And in India, a category called "injuries" yielded ominously high figures: 86,000 excess deaths in the age group 15-29 in 2000 alone. Anderson has done extensive research in India, and says the numbers beg the question of exactly how many deaths were so-called "kitchen fires" – often used to mask dowry-related killings, the result of a new bride being tortured by her new family until her parents pay their debts.

Contrary to what you might expect, Anderson says, dowry prices have not dropped off with improvements in education in India. Instead, they have gotten worse, with educated brides and their families willing to pay even more for high-quality grooms.

Anderson says dowry payments can be six times a family's annual wealth – an excruciating price, especially for poor villagers. The implications of this hefty sum trickle down to the first moments of a child's life. While conducting recent field work in India, Anderson asked villagers about selective abortions and found them open about the fact that they use ultrasound to determine the baby's gender and help them decide whether or not to keep it.

"They see no other options," she says. "They really cannot afford to have a daughter."

Future research will delve deeper, seeking answers to questions such as: How often are men given mosquito nets to protect themselves from malaria, but not women? How many women die because they are not taken to the hospital when they are sick?

Anderson is using data gathered primarily from the World Bank, the United Nations and the World Health Organization, but admits that getting the figures can be a huge challenge. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, many deaths go undocumented, and in India, it is virtually impossible to know how many "unintentional" deaths are actually dowry killings, because they are not accurately reported to the authorities.

It is also difficult to separate direct gender discrimination from biological, social, environmental, behavioural and economic factors. That will be part of the task as Anderson works on calculating missing women by region in India, and isolating gender discrimination from other factors that might contribute to uneven male-to-female ratios.

When asked what can be done to combat such deep-seated inequality, Anderson pauses. Even when governments outlaw root causes, such as the Indian dowry system, violence persists, she says. "It's too embedded in the system in their world."

Devious Journal Entry

Sun, 17 May 2009 23:21:44 GMT

Go your own road by ~alltelleringet on deviant ART

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:42:16 GMT

One of the best tracks I have "discovered" on the interweb is a live, acoustic version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" by Pearl Jam. Quickie research tells me the performance took place at "Gorge '06" -- somehow, 2006 shouldn't feel so long ago but it does. The song in the original is great (the delivery of the chorus, especially), but I love hearing Eddie Vedder's lone voice rising up quietly with the faintest guitar accompaniment -- love it.

Lyrically, I believe it was intended as song about political/social adversity. That's fine, but I take my personal anthems where I can grab them.

LiveJournal does not permit me to embed my actual track, but I found something better... love him.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:40:57 GMT

Mantra

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:17:24 GMT

All things are well
And all things are well
And all manner of things are well.

-- 14th century prayer

Toronto-based dentist wins torturous desert race

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:19:17 GMT

Toronto-based dentist wins torturous desert race

PHINJO GOMBU
STAFF REPORTER

A Toronto-based Canadian Forces dentist has won a gruelling weeklong, 250 kilometre footrace across Chile’s Atacama Desert beating out more experienced runners from more than two dozen countries including several Olympians.

“Yes (Mehmet Danis) has won the race,” race spokesperson Zac Addoriso said via an email sent to the Star this morning. “He had a spectacular run.”

The Atacama Desert race which concluded today is part of a four deserts race organized by racingtheplanet and takes place in a landscape considered one of the most parched places on earth, an area characterized by scorching hot days and teeth-chattering cold nights.

Danis’s victory was sealed after he won the fifth stage of the race, considered the toughest and longest stretch, which some contest contestants took almost 26 hours to complete.

After five days, the final 10-kilometre stretch into the town of San Pedro today was a breeze.

“I just can’t believe it,” said his wife Sara Madhavi, who has been following the race in Toronto through spotty email exchanges and updates on the race website. “It’s only his second try.”

Danis, an amateur athlete, trained eight months straight for the race, running the equivalent of a weekly marathon a week and spending hours on a treadmill at an army base near Downsview Park.

It was his first foray into extreme racing. He took home first place in his age group, was the top Canadian and placed second among North American competitors. He’s running the Atacama to see if he can improve.

For Danis, the race was a mission of compassion by which he said he hoped to inspire others to step out of their comfort zones and make a difference in the lives of others.

Last year, he ran the Gobi Desert in support of the United Way of Kingston, where he and Mahdavi were living, and raised $4,000. His goal is $6,000 this year. So far he has raised $3,550.

“I’d been giving to United Way for years, " he explained. "United Way helps people help themselves.”

Most donors simply write a cheque. That didn’t cut it for Danis, who said he wanted to go that extra mile, challenging mind, body and soul for an important cause. After conquering the Gobi, Danis said he knew he had to push himself farther.

oronto-based dentist wins torturous desert race

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:18:49 GMT

So much for Mike Duffy being non-partisan

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:37:35 GMT

The Guardian editorial,from Saturday, Feb. 7

Ill-advised remarks by a new senator

Senator Mike Duffy's remarks do little to advance the interests of Islanders.
The honeymoon appears over for P.E.I. Senator Mike Duffy following the swirl of national controversy over his ill-advised comments in the past week about Island Premier Robert Ghiz and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

Mr. Duffy first voiced his opinion about an "alliance" between Mr. Ghiz and Mr. Williams over federal transfer payment cuts during the annual meeting of the P.E.I. Progressive Conservative party last Saturday. In a surprisingly partisan speech, he launched into a tirade about the two premiers being in bed together, and that when two men get into bed, one gets the shaft. His message was that Mr. Ghiz is making a mistake by supporting Mr. Williams in his battle with Ottawa. He certainly could have made his point without lowering the tone of the conversation.

Those comments drew a mixed reaction from the people on hand in Winsloe last Saturday. Making such comments in that setting was questionable, but when Mr. Duffy rose in the Senate on Tuesday to make his maiden speech, and made essentially the same comments although with some minor changes, it caused a national firestorm. Mr. Duffy seemed genuinely surprised that his remarks, intended to be funny, actually caused offence. In trite and unapologetic remarks Thursday in the Senate, Mr. Duffy said if his metaphor caused offence, he would withdraw that metaphor. There was no hint of an apology or recognition the comments were bordering on offensive and vulgar.

When P.E.I.'s newest member of the upper chamber was appointed in late December, Mr. Duffy was seen as a welcome newcomer, essentially non-partisan, who was expected to bring a breath of fresh air to the stuffy red chamber.

Duffy said that when he was appointed, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's only question was whether he supported Senate reform. The answer was yes and that apparently clinched his appointment. Concerns about his residency were brushed aside as Mr. Duffy proudly declared he was an Islander, despite having lived in Ottawa for years.

P.E.I. Conservative leader Olive Crane has expressed concern with Mr. Duffy's comments, saying our politicians must maintain decorum and work on behalf of all Islanders. It's a message Mr. Duffy should listen to. As a TV commentator he routinely criticized politicians, but now Mr. Duffy is a politician with a mandate to work on behalf of all Islanders and plead their case here and in Ottawa. Mr. Duffy should be working with our premier and other Island politicians to support the province because we are going to lose millions of dollars in changes to the transfer formula. He cannot become an apologist for the prime minister and be seen as being more interested in doing his bidding than in defending P.E.I.'s interests.

His comments will not improve his relationship with our premier. He had a chance to stay above the fray and employ a non-partisan approach to his work in the Senate on behalf of Islanders and indeed all Canadians. Instead, he appears to have chosen to become the prime minister's pit bull and political funny man. With the economy in recession, this is not the best time for P.E.I. to lose up to $20 million a year. There is nothing funny in that. As Mr. Ghiz said, if Mr. Duffy wants to be a senator from Prince Edward Island, he should act like one.
07/02/09

Cue half-light, downstage right.

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:20:48 GMT

There is no script. Not even a scene list. Definitely no one calling cues or blocking movement in advance. It is therefore impossible to rehearse. So improvise, girl, improvise... forget feeling around for a role or the perfect phrase or action. Just perform. Naturally. But with feeling. And don't be boring. Disregard the butterflies inside...

The bonus is that there are no lines to memorize or forget or stumble over -- it is all your own words and actions, off the top. Drawing a blank is a possibility, and never good, but this doesn't need to happen if your timing is good and if you can work off the people around you. Missed timing is tragic but rhythms can be picked back up again. Just don't let anyone speak for you, like a ventriloquist. Do project and enunciate clearly, so even the literally and metaphorically deaf can hear and understand.

Another reduced pressure: there really isn't a fixed audience either, at least nothing static or passive. Everything is completely interactive. And ongoing. And about as live as it gets. But not all eyes are lying in wait, so odds are that a slipped word or a mistake is not the end of the whole shebang. Just keep rolling like it never happened. If you get a laugh, enjoy it.

This is the sometimes scariness of life. Holy adrenaline, and are those lights ever hot on the skin.

Mantras

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:44:58 GMT

Source: A Thought for Today, and Tomorrow site, "Courtesy of fffound and Operation Nice"

Operation Nice is my happy new interweb discovery. I am glad, as I had been considering toning down my inner need to be nice all the time, but I have rather decided that I am not going to water down who I am because some people can't handle the concept (note: I am not suggesting that Toronto/Ontario people can be lumped into the above category so generally, but there is decidedly a different proportion of guardedness and cynicism here which is, I will admit, hard to keep from rubbing off on me at time).

When the Islanders Came to Help Dig Toronto Out...

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:56:05 GMT

"10 years later, Mel Lastman proud he called in army"

From The TO Star, January 11 2009

As Environment Canada predicts more snow this week and temperatures plunging to -22C, Mel Lastman is warmly recalling his decision 10 years ago to call in the military to fight a snowstorm.
(big chunk of background info cut out)

Perhaps most fondly, Lastman recalls the 100 trucks and volunteers that came in from Prince Edward Island to free the congestion that plagued the city. Lastman says in between chuckles, "Let me tell you, they worked like hell."

When he asked how he could repay them for their services, Lastman remembers: "Out of the 100, 99 said they wanted to go to a hockey game." He called his good friend Steve Stavros, then owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and demanded 100 tickets.

"I said to him, Steve it's not my problem that you think it's unreasonable; these people are making it possible for you to have a hockey game on Saturday night, and for people to get there... and let me tell you, these guys had the time of their lives."

(smaller chunk of text cut here)
He pauses for a moment, and replies: "Would I do it again? You're darn right I would!"

-With files from The Canadian Press

Lite-Brite Night Flight Over Eastern Canada

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:20:08 GMT

The take off is the hardest bit of the return trip. Maybe even harder than the actual physical goodbyes and movements apart, before I enter security and my people can no longer see me and I can no longer see them. These are the small, incremental degrees of removal.

It is sitting in the plane, feeling the force of this long capsule pushing off and up, and knowing that I am not on the same ground anymore. In the most definite sense, I am "away" once again -- actually, it is a little like not being anyplace at all for a couple of hours.

This flight is in darkness, but clear skies allow me to see the ground below as patterns of light which suddenly look like "Lite-Brite" pictures. Charlottetown, and all of the little towns radiating out and from it, looks big enough but it is an intensely familiar pattern. I can pick out very specific landmarks as the ground below scrolls along beneath.

As the plane floats along and moves over the Confederation Bridge, there are whists of snow and cloud which distort the orangey light so that the whole thing looks like a string of flames. Bridge on fire. In the summer, the white arches look like sewing stitches connecting one patch to another on top of a deep blue tapestry.

There is darkness then, for several minutes, and one remembers that it is still a detached island and there is still a lot of dark water and ice between. And then the shores of New Brunswick, and patterns of light which can only be guessed at. Lonely four-way stop intersections in rural highways look larger than they are, like their own distinct places.

I stop watching for a while, but after an hour it becomes impossible to miss the grid layout of Quebec City and then Montreal -- you know what they are from the sky without checking the LiveMap (or maybe I've just done this flight too often now).

Near Ottawa, there are masses of darkness and then the oddness of a few carefully crafted images which someone evidently planned to be seen from the sky, like Peru's Nasca Lines. Not certain of the meaning or intent behind a long, cloaked figure with the halo, a small tree in hand - I am not seeing things.

And sporadic illuminations follow until the ridiculous vastness of Toronto and its satellites. Labyrinths within labyrinths, and the blinding blobs demarking shopping centres and malls.

Charlottetown feels that much smaller and further away. Quainter, and simpler. At least, from the right distance, my eyes can actually take that whole city in at once. Toronto is too big, in contrast, to see in anything but installments.

Not all brooding here -- the energy and busyness below is catching and not entirely unattractive.

And we're here again.

"Snow" -- Louis MacNeice

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:04:33 GMT

Snow

The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes –
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of your hands –
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

- Louis MacNeice

Levee-lovers will have to wait until 2010

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:46:55 GMT

From The Guardian

"Islanders who look forward each New Year’s Day to participating in the grand old tradition of the New Year’s levee will have to wait until next year to make their rounds. Thursday’s blizzard forced the cancellation of virtually all of the major levees in the province and indications are that only one is being rescheduled."

Merde! I have never been to the PEI levees, and suddenly I wanted to go to see what they were like -- free food and drink sounded good too! On PEI, all of the bars, legions, social clubs, and major gov't bodies open up for a few hours to welcome everyone into the New Year - they are usually open to all who venture in. Micheal, my Ontarian fiancé, had never heard of them so I suspect this is another regional thing.

I poached the following from Peter Rukavina's site, Ruk.ca:

If you are a levee virgin, here’s a friend set of pointers that you might find useful to get you over your own fears and into the levee habit:

* While children generally aren’t taken to levees, everyone else is welcome, regardless of religion, gender, social class, noble rank, etc. Certain levees may feel unusual for certain people for different reasons, but I’ve yet to see anyone not warmly welcomed at each and every levee I’ve attended.
* The proceeding is the same at every levee: you show up at the appointed time and get in line (the later you show up, the longer the line will be). Sometimes you’ll be offered the opportunity to check your coat, sometimes not (it will be obvious). The line generally leads to a receiving line of Important People — the Mayor and Councillors, or the President, or the Premier or the Bishop — who shake your hand and wish you a Happy New Year. At the end of the line there are refreshments on offer.
* The refreshments are vary greatly from levee to levee: sometimes there’s alcohol on offer, sometimes not. Some levees have sandwiches and snacks, some just sweets. You don’t have to pay.
* After milling about for what seems like an appropriate amount of time, you gather your coat if you’ve checked it, and head off to the next levee.
* The role of the “calling card” is to allow the person running the receiving to whisper your name into the name of the Important People (or, sometimes, to just hand them the card so they can greet you by name). Some levees have blank cards and pens available for those without; if you end up without a card, fear not, as you can simply introduce yourself in person.

I was hoping to hit a few of the following:

THE LEVEE OF… HELD AT… STARTS ENDS
Campbell Webster Timothy’s World Coffee 9:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.
Lieutenant Governor Fanningbank (Government House) 10:00 a.m. 11:30 a.m.
Polar Bear Swim Foot of Pownal Street 10:30 a.m. 11:00 a.m.
City of Charlottetown Charlottetown City Hall 10:30 a.m. 12:00 Noon
Canoe Cove Community Association Old Canoe Cove Schoolhouse 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m.
HMCS Queen Charlotte 10 Water Street Parkway 11:30 p.m. 1:00 p.m.
Haviland Club 2 Haviland Street 12:00 Noon 1:00 p.m.
Town of Stratford Stratford Town Centre 12:00 Noon 1:30 p.m.
University of PEI McDougall Hall (at UPEI) 12:00 Noon 2:00 p.m.
Queen Charlotte Armouries Foot of Haviland 12:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m.
Seniors Active Living Centre CARI Pool Building 12:30 p.m. 2:00 p.m.
Masonic Temple 204 Hillsborough St. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
Diocese of Charlottetown Holy Redeemer Parish Centre 1:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m.
Town of Cornwall Cornwall Town Hall 1:30 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
Royal Canadian Legion 99 Pownal Street 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
Benevolent Irish Society 582 North River Road 3:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
Premier Robert Ghiz Confederation Centre of the Arts 3:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.
Charlottetown Curling Club 241 Euston Street 4:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.
Charlottetown Firemen’s Club Charlottetown Fire Hall 6:00 p.m. onwards

Well, next year I guess...

"The Cutting-beam" -- Denise Levertov

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:20:42 GMT

The Cutting-beam

Imagine this blur of chill, white, gray, vague, sadness
burned off.
Imagine a landscape
of dry clear sunlight, precise shadows,
forms of pure color.
Imagine two neighboring hills, and
your house, my house, looking across, friendly:
imagine ourselves
meeting each other,
bringing gifts, bringing news.
Yes, we need the heat
of imagination's sun
to cut through our bonds of cloud.
And oh, can the great and golden light
warm our flesh that has grown so cold?

- Denise Levertov

Beyond Copywriting -- Seth Godin

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:36:42 GMT

Yesterday, the same day that this was posted at Seth Godin's blog, the manager of the local Starbuck's visited our office with two containers of complimentary Espresso Truffle specialty beverage and cups for sampling -- a mid-afternoon pick-up. I'm not much of a Starbucks person, or at least my tight budget cares little for it, but it was tasty stuff. When you read to the end, the coincidence will make sense:

The power of smart copywriting

Consider this riff from a professionaly printed freestanding sign in front of a Peet's in San Jose:

"Unlike Any Coffee You've Ever Tasted Before."

Wait. Why the capitals?

"Unlike any coffee you've ever tasted before."

"Before" is redundant.

"Unlike any coffee you've ever tasted."

Too negative. And why is "unlike" a positive trait? I mean, boiled leech guts is also unlike any coffee I've ever tasted, that doesn't mean I want to drink it. How about:

"The best coffee you've ever tasted."

Well, the thing is, the only coffee that matters is coffee I've tasted, right, so we could get shorter still:

"The best coffee."

The problem with that is that it's nothing but bragging. Of course you think it's the best coffee. So what? You're lying. And even if you're not lying, how do you know it's the best? Compared to what?

This is where the smart copywriter becomes a marketer.

"Better than Starbucks."

Well, it's still bragging. This is the moment where the marketer becomes a smart marketer and realizes that changing the offer or the product is more important than changing the hype.

"FREE TASTE TEST
Are we better than Starbucks?"

Invest $20 in espresso in little cups, and maybe, just maybe, your sign will make some magic.

Beyond copy...

Poem du Jour -- Billy Collins, "Days"

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:52:12 GMT

I love this one.

DAYS

Each one is a gift, no doubt,
mysteriously placed in your waking hand
or set upon your forehead
moments before you open your eyes.
Today begins cold and bright,
the ground heavy with snow
and the thick masonry of ice,
the sun glinting off the turrets of clouds.
Through the calm eye of the window
everything is in its place
but so precariously
this day might be resting somehow
on the one before it,
all the days of the past stacked high
like the impossible tower of dishes
entertainers used to build on stage.
No wonder you find yourself
perched on the top of a tall ladder
hoping to add one more.
Just another Wednesday
you whisper,
then holding your breath,
place this cup on yesterday's saucer
without the slightest clink.

- Billy Collins

Untranslatable Word -- "Weltverbesserungswahn"

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:17:35 GMT

First of all, I suck at being home sick. I can't help myself from playing with the laptop, while lying on the couch and underwhelmed by TV. One can only nap for so long. I could read, but my attention span is not great. I hate being home doing nothing. So I crawl the interweb looking for mind candy, like a good geek girl...

I love untranslatable words -- words in other languages which have no equivalent in my own mother tongue. I just wish I knew German enough to pronounce this. This is posted on Ron Nurwisah's "Boy Reporter":

Weltverbesserungswahn

Translated loosely, it’s the belief that the world can be better.

With all of the craziness in the world, the fact that this word exists (sadly, only in German) is a small bit of comfort.

Poem by May Sarton

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:22:07 GMT

I am not available
At the moment
Except to myself.

Downstairs the plumber
Is emptying the big tank,
Water-logged.
The pump pumped on and on
And might have worn out.

So many lives pour into this house,
Sometimes I get too full;
The pump wears out.

So now I am emptying the tank.
It is not an illness
That keeps me from writing.
I am simply staying alive
As one does
At times by taking in,
At times by shutting out.

- May Sarton
A Winter Notebook

Sunday Shopping and PEI

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 01:44:24 GMT

The longer I live in Ontario, the less I find Sunday shopping odd -- in fact, I have come to plan my time with it in mind and taken for granted. As a teenager working in tourism, I used to love registering the shock of silly mainlanders who couldn't fathom not being able to buy stuff on Sundays (esp. booze).

In Prince Edward Island, it still only exists on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas (and for certain small tourist or 7/11-style shops). A philosophy prof from my university submitted this reframing of the debate.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 12/12/08

Sunday shopping: how we got where we are
PAMELA COURTENAY-HALL
Commentary

Although it seems quaint to many observers, P.E.I.’s debate over Sunday shopping is deeply symbolic.

The issue of Sunday shopping was first framed as an issue about individual liberties — those of store owners and eager consumers, versus those of Sunday-observing Christians.

But by the 1990s, this framing became outdated. Enlightened by pluralism, people in the religious mainstream began to acknowledge that the two most popular shopping days of the week — Friday and Saturday — fall on the primary congregational days for Muslims and Jews respectively. It seemed time for Christians to step down from their hegemony, and let others shop on Sunday if they wish.

This late 20th century re-framing of the debate was congenial to large retail corporations, who stood to profit from the erosion of the longstanding Maritime tradition of closing up shop on Sundays. But once again, it was a framing not adequate to the complexity of the issue.

For one thing, treating Sunday as a holiday is not just a religious tradition. It is more broadly a cultural tradition, an observance of time out from the rush of everyday life for many Maritime communities. The depth and power of this tradition is plainly evident to people from ‘away’. Nothing in the tourism literature prepares newcomers for the phenomenon of seeing downtown streets empty out, mall parking lots drain, and people everywhere retreat to the resuscitating world of home, family gatherings, or hanging out with friends.

Sunday holidays enhance mental health and social cohesion in a community. The economic
significance of these benefits is all the greater when one considers the role that ‘a more relaxed pace of life’ plays in the tourism literature of many regions in Atlantic Canada — regions whose uniqueness recedes with every big box store that moves in.

An even more important complexity is that ‘consumers’ and the corporate agents who want their Sunday dollars are not the only people impacted by Sunday shopping. People much more impacted are the employees who will have to work on Sundays whether they want to or not. This may not be a problem for some employees, but for those who value their family time or who need a day off each week, Sunday shopping can mean having to choose between giving up this valued time, or courting tension with their employers — in some cases, losing shift privileges, or even losing their jobs.

Framing the discussion around consumer/store-owner choice rather than around individual liberty for workers is a reflection of the power dynamics that underlie and prefigure this debate. People who don’t have to worry about being called in to work on Sundays might not notice that workers’ rights are being ignored in the rhetoric of consumer choice.

Corporations wanting to open their stores on Sundays are well served by this tunnel vision. But social justice is not. How well can any workers’ rights legislation protect an employee against the discrimination that can result when she refuses her boss’s demands to be ‘a good team player’ and help out on Sundays?

Further, to construe ‘individual liberty’ as being primarily about ‘consumer choice’ is to misconceive the fundamental role of individuals in a society. It is not to consume or to own stores. It is to build a good life in community with others. There are many different ways to define ‘a good life’, but no democratically acceptable definition can involve ignoring the rights of workers to be equal voyagers on this quest for a good life, with equal rights to some common time away from work.

The recent morphing of the terms of the Sunday shopping debate into ‘giving all stores a level playing field’ has proven even more congenial to large retail corporations. It was the primary theme behind the 2006 overturning of Nova Scotia’s Sunday shopping restrictions.

Thanks to weaknesses in the square-footage approach that Nova Scotia’s Conservative government took, the rights of large supermarket chains to compete ‘on a level playing field’ with large drugstore chains trumped all competing arguments. How major corporations could claim to be on ‘a level playing field’ when small locally owned businesses are among their competitors is a question no one answered. And once major retailers are able to open up shop on Sundays, small businesses are compelled to open too, if they want to hold onto what little market share they have left.

How did things get this way? How did large corporations come to matter so much more than the health of local communities? How did people become complacent about keeping retail workers out of the equation of citizen equality? How did the discourse of western societies come to represent individuals as consumers foremost, and as citizens only on election days?
The answers to these questions would involve tracing out the power of commercial forces from ancient times to the present — our strange present, when nations can no longer set the terms of their own environmental, economic and health policies without deferring to trade agreements motivated by transnational corporations and enforced by international bureaucrats with no accountability to democratically elected governments.

It is no surprise that New Brunswick’s 2005 decision to ‘let municipalities decide’ led to the prevalence of Sunday shopping there. What town council won’t give in when faced with the threat of major retailers to locate their new stores elsewhere if they don’t get their way?

Make no mistake about it. There is a battle of giants going on in our time, becoming only more intense as Wal-Mart enters the field of grocery superstores in Canada. All of them are competing to become The One — our one and only source for food, clothing, toilet paper, drugs, small appliances, and on and on. Unless we engage in civic action to preserve local economies, we will become their helpless dependants, relying on their suppliers and their underpaid workers in countries overseas to feed us. To say no to Sunday shopping isn’t going to save our communities from the fallout of globalized capitalism. But it is to exercise the kind of community intelligence and local control that can.

This was not likely the motivation of the Ghiz government in rejecting year-round Sunday shopping. Premier Ghiz sent clear signals that his concern was simply to occupy a compromise position, a balance between those who want Sunday shopping and those who do not. But he acknowledged also that he might reconsider the decision if it is challenged by large retail corporations, as happened in Nova Scotia. And that refrain too is deeply symbolic: the big box stores made me do it.

Pamela Courtenay-Hall is associate professor in the philosophy department and environmental studies program at the University of Prince Edward Island.
12/12/08

A little cocoa powder works a self-confessed grinch into an elf.

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:55:21 GMT

Like many, I tend to fiercely resist the early onset of pre-Christmas fuss. Shudders wrack my spine whenever the first festive commercials creep in, and my inner grinch cringes as stores like Shoppers Drug Mart go full-throttle Xmas immediately after, if not before, Halloween. This initial marketing push just seems to bring out the more commercial, synthetic elements.

And I usually don't quite get people who get way into it months before the actual holiday.
I can appreciate their passion.

But I don't get it.

My personal line is anything before December 1st -- I like my Christmas in December. Open and close brackets. Mike and I put up our hypnotic fibre-optic minitree, and some lights on the balcony, and then I start planning -- not before.

I am facing an exception this year -- I signed up to volunteer with a group called "Santa in the City". I will go a few Saturdays, for four hour stints, leading up to Christmas, working as an "elf" in a self-described "Santa's Workshop". I am not 100% altruistic: pragmatically, I have wanted to do more volunteer work as a means to gain more experience and make contacts, as well as to contribute to projects that interest me.

I was told, when I arrived, to let my inner Santa out.

The organization collects letters to Santa which have been written by kids living in shelters in Toronto or who are living in poverty or with other special needs.

They are kids who probably don't normally have a chance to find much in the way of presents under the tree, and I imagine it must be stressful and tough for their parents or grandparents to not be able to provide those wishes on their own. It is hard enough to get by and provide the basics, let alone any small treats, for so many.

Individuals or organizations "adopt" letters, buy the toys, and bring them to the workshop where we wrap them up and discretely deliver them. The point is to give the kids that special surprise at Christmas, and to allow them room to dream for big things and to have them come true.

This past Saturday, we were preparing goodies for those who donate -- small, plastic swag bags of hot chocolate mix, chocolate chips and marshmallows, tied up with cranberry-coloured twist-ties. The other volunteers were sweet, and with old Christmas music in the air and hot cocoa all over me... it was hard to resist the Christmas pull.

But this was November 29th! I broke my rule, and downloaded Christmas music that same night...

I blame the cocoa.

Anyway, I think this is healthy for me...

"Man living in his van is homeless no more" -- article from PEI newspaper

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:13:17 GMT

Wow.

Man living in his van is homeless no more
JIM DAY

The Guardian

Phillip Coleman has found a home.

Coleman will be moving into an apartment today, just one day after his plight of being left to spend cold nights huddled in his old van was highlighted in The Guardian.

Islanders called and e-mailed with offers of support. Some wanted to donate clothes. Others wanted to offer advice on possible affordable accommodations. One couple was even ready to open their home to him.

But many also wanted to know why the province would let a 64-year-old man fend for himself with no assistance from government.
Turns out all Coleman needed to do was ask for help.

He says he met with someone from social services Tuesday who learned of his situation through the newspaper article. That meeting led him to being set up with a one-bedroom, bachelor apartment in Charlottetown that he moves into today.

The rent of $220 per month plus lights will be covered by Social Services.
He says he can stay as long as he wants.

“It feels like a thousand pounds have been lifted off my head,’’ he said.

“I just didn’t know what to do. When you can’t read or write, it kind of makes things limited for you.’’

He had been living with his daughter in Stratford for several months but she moved out of the rental unit at the end of October, leaving Coleman unable to find a place to live. He managed to spend the odd night here and there in a few different dwellings but also found himself sprawled in his van for about nine nights.

He slept in his van again Monday night with the temperature dipping down to -13 Celsius.
“It wasn’t too bad,’’ he said.
“I started the van up a few times.’’

Now he has a warm place to stay without having to worry about turning the ignition on for heat or waking up homeless again.

Some Islanders learning of the good turn of events for Coleman has offered to help him furnish his apartment.

Nancy Smitheram of West Covehead is willing to do more than just buy him a lamp or two. Knowing that Coleman can’t read or write, she asked him Tuesday if he would like to learn how to read.

“He said ‘Yes, yes I would,’’’ said Smitheram.

“If that is something that he wants for whatever reason...what a gift to give someone. It’s never too late.’’

Smitheram said she was outraged to read of Coleman’s predicament.

“I just really got angry,’’ she said.

“In this province where people are so generous, we just can’t have people living in their van.’’

Two Wolves

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:28:08 GMT

(I've read this before, but it got posted by a friend so I wanted to reshare it):

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people He said:

"My son, the battle is between 'two wolves' inside us all:

One is EVIL. It is anger ... envy ... sorrow ... jealousy ...regret ... greed ... arrogance ... self-pity ... guilt ... resentment ... inferiority ... lies ... false pride ... superiority ... ego !!

The other is GOOD. It is joy... peace... love... hope... serenity... humility... kindness... benevolence... empathy... generosity... truth... compassion... faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one you feed."