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!

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.

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.