Hand Made with Love

My family is full of crafty folks. My mom owned her own craft store (Virginia's Variety) in the 1980s, which was a great place to gather in our small town.

I'm crafty too - crochet and cross-stitch, mostly, but some minis and other things occasionally.

And I love to support crafty folks. That's why I'm taking the pledge!

www.buyhandmade.org

Quick News Post - Women in Burma

Heart at Women's Space/The Margins re-posted information about the repression of women in Burma - a report released by the Karen Human Rights Group.

Quick News Post

Amnesty International has links to a variety of sources on ongoing events in Burma/Myanmar and a link for people to take action. Go! Do Something! Be the Change!

Ongoing Protests

Burmese military fires on protesters, arrests monks
I find it interesting that the CBC has now started to use "Burma" as opposed to "Myanmar" in its reports. I heard someone mention that Canada had never acknowledged the name change on their World At 6 radio show last night and wondered if they would make the change.

'Death to Canada,' outraged Afghans chant

Although Canadian authorities claim our forces were not in the area, and the protesters were more concerned with American forces, this is the headline we get. Get up on the sensational-y side of the bed this morning?

People Power in Myanmar

Update on the protests in Myanmar: Rein in monks or military will 'take action. The estimates from Monday's protests range from 30,000 to 100,000. The monks, meanwhile, have vowed to continue the marches until they've "wiped the military dictatorship from the land".

The Power of the People Won't Stop

Buddhist monks in Myanmar are holding peaceful protest marches against the government, who are reluctant to act against them. Today as they walked, police let them through a roadblock and they were able to stop and pray in from of Aung San Suu Kyi's house. People in Myanmar are joining in the protests alongside the monks, especially as the government is unsure how to react to them.

Will You Pass This Test?

Sometimes other people need to rant too. This was submitted by Linda Lannigan on September 4, 2007 - 06:46 - to Connecting and Sharing the Social Movement and I'm passing it on as requested.

You know what I can't stand? There are too many people complaining to each other about the problems in our society. How it's too hard to make ends meet these days ... How many of those people actually do something about it? They sit at the computer and send Jokes and Quizzes and yet they can't seem to Sign-an Online Campaign that is actually going to change the world!

As Canadians we sit back and take it! Why? Are you afraid someone will take all of your stuff away? They can't penalize you for your opinion! Be Good little people and say nothing! Is that what we are taught as Canadians! Let them Walk All Over Us! We Have a Say! We Have Choices! The Government is put into power through US! Sending a letter to the government won't result in anything accept CHANGE!!! Are you the one that is turning a Blind Eye! There are people DYING! There are HOMELESS PEOPLE! Do you think they chose that life!!!

We are not asking for your Money! Just your Voice to be added with the Millions of others across the world who are screaming through their computers! How easy is that! CHANGE IS BEING MADE!, but it's not enough! We need Everyone! If you believe it won't make a difference, It Won't Because YOU Won't HELP! Don't Be The Reason For People DYING!!

How can you complain if you don't do something about it! How can you sleep at night if you know you can make a difference and choose not to! http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/

READ THE MAKE POVERTY HISTORY PLATFORM! IT'S WORKING! WE NEED YOUR VOICE! Sign the ONLINE Campaign and Let's Make Poverty History.

If you think I'm annoying, How do you think the government feels about Millions of people just like me WHO WON'T GIVE UP!

Deja Vu Redux

Yes, yes, I know I blogged about this already... But I came across something yesterday and wanted to post the link to this item, ACTION ALERT - Say NO to "Support our Troops" decals, because it says all the things I would say if I could stop the rage-y feelings that rise whenever a certain alderperson starts talking....

Oh, and Calgarians, don't forget to VOTE on October 15!

Think Pink

Two Grade 12 students organized a school full of pink shirts in reaction to a Grade 9 student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. What a creative solution to an ongoing social nightmare! read more digg story

Breastfeeders vs. Facebook - Go Moms!

You can find the Facebook Group here.

Wearing Buttons May Indeed Be Enough

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was attacked by six capitol police today, when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill (for the Petraeus Hearing) because he was wearing a button that said "I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ". He’s in a cast (with a broken leg) and he’s being arraigned for assaulting an officer and disorderly conduct.

read more digg story

The Politics of Poverty

I'm not planning to blog much this summer; I'm spending most of my days hanging with The Kid and/or working on a project for RESOLVE Alberta. But I'm going to post a couple of the reviews/etc. that I've got hanging around my desktop. These will eventually be posted on the main site, once I finish the CSS changes.... which, at this rate, should happen sometime this fall.

Poor-Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion. Jean Swanson, 2001. Review originally published in the viec review 4(2), July-August 2003.

Jean Swanson, formerly of End Legislated Poverty (publisher of The Long Haul newspaper), writes from a place of experience, empathy, and activism. Her words are clear, as are her expectations: she wrote this book to challenge the notion of poverty in Canada.

Swanson’s analysis is detailed, especially when it looks at how the understanding of poverty has changed in the past decades. In one chapter, she contrasts “Income Security for Canadians”, a 1970 document which cited the importance of all persons having “an adequate income on which to live” and the role of the economy in supporting social objectives, with “Improving Social Security in Canada”, a 1994 document which abandons these ideas and instead extols the virtues of independence and initiative by individuals in their quest to rid themselves of poverty. In two short decades, she concludes, the blame for poverty has moved from the economy to the individual. This is consistent with the continual privatization and deregulation agendas of the provincial governments; there has been a complete shift in awareness, understanding, and expectation. It is in this type of climate that poor-bashing flourishes.

The simplicity of focusing on individuals in poverty prevents an analysis to develop around the conditions that keep people from employment, education and other dignities. Swanson cites Jo Grey, an activist with a Toronto anti-poverty group, in relation to this issue; instead of the continual “putting a face on the problem [of poverty]” sentiment that people have come to expect in media stories about poverty, Grey advocates for an analysis of the problem in the first place. Grey even coined a new word, poornography, to describe the “poor as victim” stories that dominate Canadian media; these stories re-victimize people in poverty as they reduce them to the category of “deserving” poor.

Swanson certainly does not shy away from the systemic issues: chapters include a look at the role of charities in poor-bashing, how people in poverty can self-bash, and what tools we can use to challenge poor-bashing as we encounter it. She is straightforward and does not hesitate in naming poor-bashing behaviour where she sees it. In the end, the reader is left not only with an enhanced awareness of poor-bashing behaviours, but also a variety of tools to use in challenging poor-bashing in its countless forms.

Sheep, in More Ways Than One

It turns out that you can “throw sheep” at as many people as you want, but sending a message to twenty or so of your friends about an organized effort by fundamentalists to promote controls on the majority of people in this country is not acceptable. Read More

I've been trying to stay away from commenting on The Great Canadian Wishlist experiment until it was over, but I've given up. It has been a frustrating mess, and it's not getting any better. There have been accounts disabled for weird reasons and others left alone after being reported; there have been fights back and forth with no end in sight; and, quite frankly, I have no interest in living in a Canada if the right-wing-nuts get their way.

I'm not pulling my support from the wishes (because I believe that the creators of said wishes made them honestly), but I am going back to using Facebook as it should be used.....

Update: Malalai Joya

News clip of protests from June 21, 2007.

There is also a new interview with Joya at The American Prospect:

"But this is the voice of the voiceless people of Afghanistan," she continues. "And they can't silence this voice and they can't hide the truth. And they understand that."

Happy Solstice!

And we can rise with the fire of freedom

Truth is the fire that burns our chains

And we can stop the fire of destruction

Healing is the fire running through our chains

(Reclaiming Chant)

Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, is a time for magic and change. Traditionally, it is the day when the Oak King and the Holly King do battle, with the Holly King emerging triumphant to rule until they meet again at Winter Solstice. Dianics mark the day to celebrate love and invoke justice for women in all forms.

Today, my ritual will include calls for peace, for support of First Nations Peoples (especially the Lubicon Cree and others involved in actions on June 29) and for Malalai Joya, as well as justice for women around the globe. So Mote It Be!

Streets are for Bikes Too

Sometimes people just need to take things into their own hands... TheStar.com - News - Bike activists going guerrilla.

I've been thinking about getting a bicycle for a couple of months. (My last bike was stolen from AUC's campus in 1991, and I just never got around to replacing it.) I'd really like an electric one, as there are a number of serious hills in my area, but the cost is a little much for us at the moment. (I've also thought about buying one and then converting it later, but I'm worried that if I don't have the electric option at the beginning I'll talk myself out of using it because of the hills.)

One of the other things that has been holding me back is the way cyclists are treated by drivers in this city. It can be pretty scary out there, especially as there aren't many bike lanes. (There is the bike path system, but to go anywhere I'd like to go to, e.g. grocery shopping, I'd need to ride on the actual road.)

So I can understand why the people in this article would be frustrated; to have the lanes promised and not happen in a timely fashion? And I think it's sad that the city decides to clean it off rather than be proactive. I wonder, what would have happened if they'd approached cyclists and asked for help in getting the lines painted? That would have been revolutionary.

Conference Crashing for Gaia

The Gas and Oil Exposition in Calgary was gate-crashed by the Yes Men, the combination theatre group and political activists. They pulled off an impressive con, pretending to be representatives from the NPC and Exxon. Andy Bichlbaum gave a talk, posing as Shepard Wolff of the NPC, where he admitted that the Earth is heading towards “huge global calamities”. On the bright side, he suggested, “the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.”

CFCN is reporting that attendees had paid $50 each to hear the speech, and CBC has listed its article under "Diversions" but not on its Calgary news site. There's a clip about the incident (including a little bit of the speech) at TheEnergyNews.com (June 15 edition, you have to get about three minutes into the video).

EDIT: Wired News is reporting that attendees paid $45 each for the keynote lunch event, and that the Yes Men were issued a $287 fine for trespassing. There is also more information and links at the Vivoleum website.

Taking Back the Streets: P (LOT) (TreeHugger)

Taking Back the Streets: P (LOT) (TreeHugger)

Why should streets be only for cars?

Women, United...

Video from the Women Against Poverty Action (May 31, 2007) in Toronto, ON. (More information on the action (and updates) can be found at the Women Against Poverty blog.)

Housing is a huge issue for women in Canada, especially for women who are leaving abusive partners. According to the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, in 2006 15% of women, on leaving Alberta shelters, went back to their abusers; 72% cited lack of affordable housing as the reason why. That's approximately 1400 women and children who went back to an unsafe situation because they had no housing, over 50% more than in 2005.

Calgary currently has the lowest rental vacancy rate in Canada (0.5%, with Alberta at 0.9%), and the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1037. (Toronto, where this action took place, has an average monthly rent of $1073.) As the rents continue to increase (because I really don't think the market is going to "crash" anytime soon), I can see more women returning to abusive partners because there really are no other options.

I read a story last night set in the midst of the anti-globalization movement, and one of the characters spoke of the anger and frustration at not being heard, that even the police-sanctioned and permit-approved marches were being co-opted and that if there was no violence there was no news. I'm reading several books that speak to similar themes, including one that talks about the de-radicalization of women's anti-violence work by the rise of ngo-politics and the corporate funding model. So, yes, I can understand the anger and frustration and sheer "why-ness" that would lead to actions such as this, and yes, I can support it, as women, united, will never be truly defeated.

A Call for Magical Action

(from my inbox)

We are the rising of the moon
We are the shifting of the ground
We are the seeds that take root when we bring the fortress down...

A CALL FOR MAGICAL ACTION
TUESDAY 8.30 p.m AND WEDNESDAY 10.a.m.(German time).

Let's gather and weave a spell of love, protection and whatever else we think is needed for the protestors and participants at the G8 summit taking place at the Baltic sea:

'May the people who gather in order to contribute to the healing of the earth and her peoples have the power, strength, love, protection,wisdom, resources, companionship... and everything they need in order to do their work.'

The bridges are lonely this evening

So far this evening, I've visited fan sites, the Great Canadian Wishlist site, pagan sites and the site for a new anti-domestic violence campaign, and they are EVERYWHERE! What's up with the proliferation of trolls today? Geez.

Happy International Women's Day!

I'm invovlved in the My 365 Ways Street Action today, although I'm missing the IWD Celebration this evening. When you have a moment, stop by the site and add your ideas: the only way we're going to stop violence agianst women is if we work together.