Poetry for Brigid

It's that time again! Here's my entry for the Fourth Annual Brigad in the Blogosphere Poetry Slam. Happy Imbolc!

*****

Beatrice Cenci was a young Italian noblewoman executed in 1599 (with her stepmother and elder brother) by the Pope because she was involved in the murder of her father, who had imprisoned and abused them.

Alimitra David wrote a poem, Beatrice of the Cenci, that takes place on the eve of the execution. In it, Beatrice calls out to her mother (who died shortly after her birth). As it is a long poem, I am only sharing the first and last stanzas. The entire poem can be found in Impulse to Fly (1998).

*

I don't ask
that you
come to me here
to hold me and
cry as Lucretia and I
have done for
years I
don't ask you to
come and be as
we are a

voice against his
will like my
smallest finger
against the
stone gate of
the courtyard

Mother I don't
pray you back to
this place only
sing to me
strong
from wherever you are

oh sing to me Mother
I will climb your voice
hand over hand
high over these
robed men who
curse me

sing tonight
for tomorrow they
will cut me loose
at last to fly from this
motherless place
this place of
fathers and
fathers and
more fathers

*

Mother do you
love me do
you love me
broken as I am
do you love my
feet my hands
my face do you
love me when I
hear you and

do you love me
when I can't
listen when I
float
blind and deaf
in water with
no current was

it your voice in
my dream was it
mine calling names I
don't remember when
awake

this night will
become morning
I have heard
rumors of
morning of
sunrise and
figs ripening

Mother I call
to you not to
come to me here
only sing for me
strong
from
wherever you are

Visioning and Re-Visioning

Ms. Magazine has a list of quotes from prominent women, Vision for Change, about what they would like to see happen under an Obama administration. My favourite?

LET THE SURVIVORS LEAD. The violence-against women movement has to, once again, become a movement and not just a network of social-service providers. Violence will only end when survivors are seen as potential organizers on their own behalf, rather than simply clients of social workers, lawyers, judges or medical personnel. —ANDREA SMITH, PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN CULTURE AND WOMEN’S STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN; COFOUNDER, INCITE! WOMEN OF COLOR AGAINST VIOLENCE

There is so much change that needs to happen within the VAW movement. We need to reclaim the feminist analysis and address the root causes and systems that create, sustain and encourage violence against women!

...then Work for Change

The University of Calgary announced the creation today of the Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the Faculty of Social Work. It is only the second such chair in Canada.

First Mourn...

Thanks "Guys"

Calgary's aldermen debated and defeated a motion today today to change the title from alderman to councillor. I wonder what Nellie McClung would think?

What do you do when you don't have a candidate to vote for?

Calgary Municipal Elections are being held this coming Monday (October 15). I've got my alderperson (yes, I know "we" in Calgary use "alderman" but this will add to my argument in a minute) and school board candidates picked out, and I thought I had a handle on who was getting my mayoral vote. The three front runner are incumbent Dave Bronconnier, Alnoor Kassam and Jeremy Zhao. All three have good and bad things going for them, as is usual with any candidate.

Bronconnier (nemesis of my sweetie) really dropped the ball this week at the Mayoralty Debate when he tried to distance himself from a Tourism Calgary campaign aimed at gay and lesbians. Kassam, meanwhile, received a lot of media coverage when he tried to hike rents 400% this February. So, being me, I looked to the third choice, Jeremy Zhao. And, being me, I went to read his blog, where I found his post on the other candidates. And, being me, this caught my eye:

"Elizabeth Fielding: Elizabeth is a very sincere woman, and a lot of what she has to say comes from her experiences and her passion to take care of others. It is definitely encouraging to see a female run, because you add another perspective into this race. I believe with your circumstance as a mother, you represent the best of parents and the best of how you could still devote time to the campaign while taking care of your family."

Wow. Just, um, wow. I'd say more, but I've got some cookies to bake.

Funding Feminism

The National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) announced yesterday that it was "...being forced to close its office, lay off its staff, and cease major consultations and advocacy on women's legal issues as an outcome of the Harper government's devastating changes to the mandate of Status of Women Canada." NAWL is encouraging people to write letters and are fundraising to re-open in 2008.

The cuts to Status of Women Canada have prevented women's organizations from accessing funds for advocacy or research. Effectively, we're to continue helping "deserving, victimized women" (i.e. serve the patriarchy) and not change the system to make it equal for all (i.e smash the patriarchy).

Funding feminism is such a complex web. Many people say that the government should not be funding those who work against it, yet the government has abandoned all pretense of working for women. By taking up the banner, we are at risk of allowing the government to continue to ignore us, but we can do nothing less than fight for change. By asking for money to do that work, we get caught up in a system that is designed to keep us from making change. And some organizations do remove themselves from the system, trying to exist through funding directly from women, which leads to instability and burnout and all the problems that any one of us who has ever wondering where the rent is going to come from can relate to - because the women who need change most are the women who have the least.

Now we have lost another voice for change, another ally in the struggle. And I would shout "No More!" but I know that this is not the reality. The dark night is long and hard and painful, and it's not going to end tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. But it is going to end. It has to end. Wil sha.

Breastfeeders vs. Facebook - Go Moms!

You can find the Facebook Group here.

Heh heh...

When I went to deposit a cheque last night at the ATM, my debit card was rejected with a message to contact my local credit union for more information. As I drove away, the above strip came to mind. (I wish I knew who the author was!)

"It's better now."

Shekhinah Mountainwater (1939-2007)

Books!

I just signed up to DailyLit, a site that sends you books (in handy installments) to your email inbox daily. Yes, one more way to read more! First up:

A Vindication on the Rights of Women

by Mary Wollstonecraft.

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.....

Mother Knows Best

Dear Rabbi Boteach,

Instead of blaming mothers for nurturing their children, you should tell the fathers who have a problem with breastfeeding that being jealous of their children just makes them juvenile and whiny. It also makes me wonder if they are even adult enough to be parents, if they cannot put the needs of a helpless being ahead of their own. Perhaps you could encourage them to become more involved with their children instead of seeing them as rivals for attention?

Magic Always, T.

P.S. Your comment that men should not be there for the birth of their children because it turns an "erotic a part of a wife's anatomy" into a "mere birth canal" has to be one of the most misogynistic things I have read in a very long time. (And I've read some pretty bad stuff lately.) Birthing is, and always has been, a strong and spiritual moment for women, and your attempt to trivialize it would be degrading to all women - if we believed you in the first place. The attempts of patriarchal religion to denegrate/destroy women and their bodies has gone on for centuries and we're just not willing to listen anymore.

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."

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.

Antiwar activists target Quebec soldiers with letters

About 3,000 letters sent by a coalition of Quebec-based antiwar groups are expected to start arriving on Monday at the base, home to the Royal 22nd Regiment, better known as the Van Doos. Read More

This is not the greatest article, but the only one I could find. (And even it was buried on the local Montreal page.) I only knew to look for it because I caught the tail end of an interview with one of the members on CTV this morning.

The text of the letter is available online, as is more information about the group involved. I am impressed that they quote the following from RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan):

The corrupt and mafia government of Mr. Karzai and its international guardians, are playing shamelessly with the intolerable suffering of Afghan women and misuse it as their propaganda tool for deceiving the people of the world. They have placed some women into official posts in the government who are favored by the warlords and then proclaim it as symbol of "women's liberation" in the country.” [RAWA Statement on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2007, http://www.rawa.org/]

In related news, there is a call for sit-ins in support of Malalai Joya by Coordinamento Italiano Sostegno Donne Afghane (an Italian group) on June 21 (one month since she was removed from Parliament). I'll post more news as I get it.

On Choices

Zakia Zaki, Afghan journalist, Radio Peace, was gunnded down June 6, 2007, in front of her 8-year-old son. This video, created by the NGO Aina, includes Zaki interviewing Malalia Joya, who was suspended from the Afghan Parliament on May 21, 2007, after openly criticizing other members. (More information about Joya can be found at www.malaliajoya.com.)

As for the the provincial governor's comment that the motive for the shooting were not immediately known... well, RAWA reprts that she was "threatened recently by some factional commanders in her area to shut down the station or face death".

Standing at the door of my 8-year-old son's room, a world away from her 8-year-old son, I would say that it was never really a choice. Namaste.

QNP (Quick News Post)

This week, the minister responsible for Status of Women Canada, Bev Oda, released the new funding mandate for the Women’s Program. Despite opposition from women’s groups, the new mandate severely restricts women’s organizations and completely ignores the recommendations of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Read More

QNP (Quick News Post)

Breaking news from the CBC:

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of former South African lader Nelson Mandela, has been denied entry to Canada. Read More

Congrunting: Scholar Stream #1

The Portrayal of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca in Role Playing Games - Frances Bitney

• LARP: Apocalypse (White Wolf, Werewolf)
• character goals, character immersion
• online game: Atlanta Heroes
• does talk about Wicca/Druidism as a religion
• setting - magic as superhero ability
• tabletop: Call of Chutlhu
• secret cults - witch cults
• moving into dark arts as reaction to Spanish Inquisition
• author's intent not important - concern should be the usage of the witch stereotype in the game
• non-intended audience member (i.e. current practitioner) - witch stereotype is harmful
• when a real religion is portrayed in rpg it can lead to curtailment of fun = "more fun to think we are evil"

Quirky Neighbours: Pagans in Canadian Newspapers - Mandy Furney

• benign portrayal of Pagans/Wicca in Canada
• ideas of "do not worship Satan" and "harmless religion" in every article

Monster in the Margins - Katherine Bitney

• creation/development of primeval mother - patriarchy
• boundaries and feminism
• witch at the margins
• witch as spellspeaker
• speaker/listener in patriarchal texts - male
• nature/normal defended by patriarchy - witch dismissed, ignored, marginalized
• witch does not answer to the father, she answers to a much more old/natural existence
• if anyone knows the world is constructed though language, it is the witch
• women as first shamans - women from the outside, spacially and temporally
• if women is superfluous, then is body also superfluous?
• seizing/re-signifying words and concepts
• language is fluid - it does not sit still

Questions/Answers/Comments

• Red Moon Gaming System (1997)
• no answers on what we should do in regards to interviews (COGCOA had guidelines, didn't they?)
• K. Bitney will be publishing her presentation at a later date

Light a Candle

I was re-reading Writing a Woman's Life over the weekend (in preparation for the What Can You Do With a Women's Studies Degree? panel at the UofC today) and thinking about the amazing life of Carolyn Heilbrun, who committed suicide in 2003.

And I was thinking of our foremothers who have given so much to us: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Nellie McClung, Marija Gimbutas.

And now another wild womyn joins them: Octavia Butler passed away on Saturday.

While reading posts on babble (rabble.ca) about Betty Friedan, who passed away on Saturday, I followed a link to an article by Germaine Greer in the Guardian. The tone of the article reminded me of the Anthony/Stanton/Gage relationship (and how it fell apart) and the time I read about Mary Daly's work being mainstream (without the lens of herstory). It's always interesting to see the "behind the scenes" of the feminist movement.

This sentence, though, has stuck with me for two days:

Betty believed that freeing women would not be the end of civilisation as we know it; I hope that freeing women will be the end of civilisation as we know it.

That sums up the difference b/t liberal feminism (iFeminism?) and radical feminism nicely, and I think it also explains why some of us believe that we've still got a long way to go, even if we did have a woman prime minister for a minute or two.

Afternoons and Coffee Spoons

Georgie Binks at the CBC thinks that Harper might be the best thing that could have happened to the Canadian women's movement.

Personally, I get frustrated by the idea that we need "something" to jump start feminism in Canada for a number of reasons, including:

1. Last time I checked, a lot of us were still feminists, but we've been overwhelmed with the daily struggles (including poverty, underemployment, violence and just keeping our heads above water) to be able to deal with any of the systemic issues - and now we're going to be even more overwhelmed (over-overwhelmed?) trying to hold back the sea with a spoon.
2. The big surge of leftism that was supposed to happen when Bush got elected still hasn't materialized. Still waiting, folks. And I was reading a listserv post this morning that was talking about the Democrats becoming more right-wing to gain support.
3. We're not going to get the institutional/financial support from government (or anywhere else, to be honest) as long as a right-wing-neo-con agenda is all the rage, and without that support we have to struggle even harder to make changes happen. And we need that support to create good feminist advocacy institutions. We've lost ours in Alberta; ask me sometime how we manage to get things done. AD HOC should not be a way of life, people!
4. Sometimes good governments do good things, even for feminists, like appoint good judges and support changes that help women. Even when we're not advocating for them. Honest. I've read about it.

Maybe I'm wrong and more women will appear to help move the struggle along. Here's hoping.

Rounding Third...

13 Reasons Why Pagans Should Vote

Voting is an ancient Pagan tradition. Apathy, on the other hand, is a modern invention – it suits those in power very well indeed, but it disempowers you!

Coalition for Women's Equality

"From child care to anti-violence initiatives, women directly
bear the brunt of most policy decisions...."

Or you can come hang out at rabble.ca and count down the minutes with the rest of left-wing Canada. :-)