tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874508411743737472024-03-13T07:52:43.805-07:00Another Step to Takechristykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.comBlogger223125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-72165061835795910552013-04-23T09:39:00.002-07:002013-04-23T09:39:47.061-07:00New home: http://housefulofchaos.comI have moved! My new location is at <a href="http://housefulofchaos.com/">http://housefulofchaos.com</a>.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-75779460026121360722013-04-09T12:08:00.003-07:002013-04-09T13:24:36.460-07:00Balancing Act is a False Analogy for the situation Charles Sousa is in.An article describes <a href="http://www.thespec.com/news/business/local/article/912317--finance-minister-looks-for-middle-ground-in-budget-talks">Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa</a> as having to pull of a miraculous balancing act:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>He’s trying to prepare his first provincial budget while walking a high wire between anti-poverty advocates calling for more spending on relief programs and business groups calling for lower taxes to support the province’s faltering economic recovery.</em><br />
</blockquote>
Lowering taxes means reducing the government income and thus government spending. To pit this issue against creating a fair social assistance program is like saying "let's cut back our household spending by not eating." To many people on social assistance are actually starving, going without meals or eating most of their meals at soup kitchens and with food from foodbanks. Food banks were supposed to be <a href="http://www.foodbankscanada.ca/Learn-About-Hunger/Food-Banking-in-Canada.aspx">temporary measures in the 1980s</a>, not an accepted part of the landscape! "Saving" money by allowing the gap between what they have and what they need grow larger will mean paying for it in increased social costs - hungry children, medical bills and the other costs of poverty.<br />
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We need to challenge this type of argument. It isn't a balancing act between these two issues. Finding the just fair tax levels is a separate issue from making sure that those who have lost their jobs or are unable to work are provided for. We need to have some serious discussions about taxes but those are seperate. For good information about taxes in Canada check out <a href="http://www.taxfairness.ca/">http://www.taxfairness.ca/</a> and <a href="http://www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca/">People for Corporate Tax Cuts</a>. Particularily relevant to this topic is a video on People for Corporate Tax Cuts that points out that for every dollar put towards people on low-incomes, the economy gets back $1.70 because the people spend it, and for every dollar put towards corporate tax cuts, we get back thirty cents. Corporations don't have to put their savings into producing new jobs, they can put it into CEO bonuses, head-offices and off-shore tax havens.<br />
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Too often workers will identify with the business groups because they aren't (yet) receiving social assistance and they don't want to identify with that group. People want to believe that those on social assistance are somehow different than them, because they don't want to believe they could end up there themselves. They want to believe that tax cuts for businesses will somehow save them from unemployment.<br />
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An article by Yves Engler in the <em>Canadian Center For Policy Alternative's Monitor</em> explains why employees should think of themselves as being on the side of those on social assistance. There Mr. Engler speaks of the social wage, the socially acceptable minimum pay and benefits. He explains that for corporate lobbies<br />
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<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>to reduce their salary costs, a multipronged attack against wages is needed. Simply cutting their own workers' salaries is only effective to a point. If workers feel they deserve better wages, and social entitlements are available, they will refuse to accept less than the prevailing social wage.</em></blockquote>
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Cutting back social assistance rates is part and parcel of the efforts to lower their own labour costs. Social assistance really doesn't make up a significant enough chunk of public expenditure.<br />
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<em>Social entitlements such as welfare and EI are an important meant to protect the incomes and conditions of working people. Decent welfare and unemployment benefits provide a security guarantor for wage workers who may fear losing their jobs. When decent social entitlement exists, invariable workers' bargaining powers is improved.</em><br />
</blockquote>
Charles Sousa doesn't have a balancing act before him. What he has is political cover from the business lobby to make his ideologically inspired choices to keep money in the hands of those who already have money, and to encourage workers across the province to accept lower real incomes. Or of course the opportunity to take a real leadership role, but I won't hold my breath waiting. Instead I'll join the other supporters of the <a href="http://www.ocap.ca/rtr">Raise the Rates campaign </a>and mobalize.<br />
<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-12111236139498094662013-04-07T07:18:00.000-07:002013-04-08T06:25:14.368-07:00three stories about CanadaIn my newsfeed this morning there's a story about the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/05/bc-rbc-foreign-workers.html">Royal Bank of Canada hiring temporary foreign workers</a>. Don't worry, the company says that most of the workers will only be here till 2015, by when they'll have moved most of the jobs overseas and "only a few foreigners will remain indefinitely." Alas, if only they understood that the problem was not foreigners coming to Canada, but middle to nearing-retirement Canadians being fired so that foreigners can be brought in to do the job at less pay and no security. The problem is the reality that many foreign workers have to pay recruitment fees that make them start their jobs in debt.<br />
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Most alarming is the article is the line:<br />
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<em>The workers also said they were not offered jobs with iGATE and were told this "realignment" might expand to affect more of the bank’s 57,500 employees in Canada.</em></blockquote>
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We need to put a stop to this. We need to make it legally and socially unacceptable for companies to be laying off workers like this. The minister of human resources and skills development does say that they will investigate the situation because if what the workers say is happening is true, then it isn't legal. Perhaps this situation is, perhaps it isn't. Definitely ministry does not want specific Canadians to know they are losing their jobs to temporary workers and might do something when the situation is brought to their attention. Yet at the same time they have been creating the problem with relaxing the rules on foreign workers, and the Harper government has made it very clear in its EI changes that it supports forcing Canadians to accept lower wages and be grateful for any jobs they get.<br />
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I think of the Noam Chomsky quote about education:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>"Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy."</em></blockquote>
<div class="caption">
I agree with Chomsky about the role of education, and I think the increase in temporary foreign employees plays a similar role. The official rhetoric is that the program is because Canada lacks all the skilled employees necessary, implying that Canadian unemployment is our fault and that education (and its accompanying debt) is the answer. At the same time the program is being used to employ fast-food workers, implying that Canadians are just ungrateful and not willing to work for low enough wages. We're told if we don't allow businesses to lower labour costs they'll have to raise prices (and thus that we'll see a lowering in our standard of living). To maintain the standards of living of those who still have jobs we must allow other jobs to be sacrificed. We're told this pinching is necessary and inevitable and as long as people feel that they can survive but must focus on surviving they can't put the energy into trying to change things.</div>
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</div>
<div class="caption">
Of course there are people trying to change things and various governments are doing things about that too. There's the stories about the police kettling protesters at protests in Montreal. There's video <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/04/05/montreal-anti-police-brutality-protest.html">footage at a cbc article</a> and <a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2013/04/new-round-struggle-opening-quebec-right-protest-and-free-speech">background information on rabble.ca</a>.</div>
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Even the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/04/06/montreal-anarchopanda-head-seized-protest.html">mascot Anarchopanda was arrested</a> (and the head seized). Yes, it is illegal to wear masks at protest in Quebec, however the supposed reason is public safety, to prevent people from being able to be violent or dangerous anonymously. The Anarchopanda costume really doesn't assist in doing anything anonymously. Instead it makes the wearer stand out and restricts his movement. Is the arrest just the police over anxiously following the letter (but not the spirit) of the law, or is the arrest an attempt to remove symbols that people can rally around?</div>
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Montrealers showed amazing ability to protest and to transform that protest into political action but I think the politicians there don't want that to happen anymore. If a protest must give the police their plans in order to make it a "legal" protest, then protests must always be organized never spontaneous. To spontaneously protest becomes a crime and the people can be arrested regardless of not causing any real harm. The laws are different between Ontario and Quebec, but even here the police are trying to put themselves in a <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/political-protest-and-police.html">position of 'assisting' all protests</a>. (I'm linking here to my own blog post about the police contacting me).<br />
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On my twitter feed I did notice something encouraging or at least amusing. A lady in BC is using indigogo.com to <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sorry-world-we-didn-t-mean-to-desert-you?c=home">raise funds for Canada</a> to buy its way back into the UN Convention on Desertification. If any of you missed this, the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/04/01/harpers_withdrawal_from_un_antidrought_convention_another_enigmatic_foreign_policy.html">Harper Government is saying that the 350K price tag</a> for participation is too hefty for us. Nevermind that the cost is less than 2% of the money the Harper Government spent advertising their economic action plan last year, it is still too expensive. Apparently it is all talk and science, and not enough getting out there and doing things, and we all know how the Harper government feels about science. Anyway, the indigogo project is to deliver a large cheque to John Baird and if he refuses it to make the money a donation to the Canadian Red Cross International Emergency Relief Fund.<br />
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In some ways I love the idea of a fundraiser for this - a way of showing that Canadians are not so stingy, and that they want to be an active part of the international community. On the other hand, I worry for the creator of it that she'll be disappointed and that people won't rise to the challenge. If the project fails would it imply that Canadians don't care. I don't think its a fair test of Canadians, since it may not go viral enough and because people might have other hesitations - like concern for the Red Cross abusing funds or a sense that that type of protest is not effective. Hopefully she will succeed in raising the money. I love to see people making efforts to change things and to protest in whatever ways they can.<br />
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<strong>Edited to add:</strong> There has been great public outcry against Royal Bank of Canada for their decision. Check out the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/#!/BoycottRoyalBankOfCanada">facebook page calling for a boycott</a>, and the comments on Royal Bank's own page, when they attempted to shift the blame to the company they are contacting with rather than accept responsibility themselves. I might try <a href="http://www.rbc.com/customercare/how-to-make-a-complaint.html?q1=rbcroyalbank">contacting the Royal Bank customer service line</a> and politely talking to the employees there. My gripe isn't with the employees, but maybe people taking up some of their time can help show the RBC its not acceptable. I hope people pull their accounts from there.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-45039369449690435362013-04-05T05:27:00.000-07:002013-04-07T08:02:46.980-07:00Social Justice Activism and the pursuit of low-hanging fruit<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-udA49DivyNo/T25eOYAxSAI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Gm1qFAMJX_M/s1600/AlexStopWarOnPoor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-udA49DivyNo/T25eOYAxSAI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/Gm1qFAMJX_M/s320/AlexStopWarOnPoor.jpg" title="How do we change the big pictures? Do they change because we've won enough of the low-hanging fruit or do those distract us from the bigger goals?" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>An older picture of one of my sons at a political protest.</em></td></tr>
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One of the questions that keeps popping up in my life is whether or not we should take the time for the low-hanging fruit or not. This comes up in activist issues. Do we spend time campaigning for something practical and possible like a $14 an hour minimum wage (giving Ontario workers 10% above the poverty line) or do we try to tackle the big problems like reforming capitalism? Do we worry about whether or not people on social assistance can pay their rent or do we try to stop the total transformation of the planet from global warming? What about worrying about increasing the amount of money someone on OW (social assistance) can earn before the money is "clawed back" in deductions from OW payments? How small a cause is too small to bother with?<br />
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Climate change is going to disrupt food supplies. It's going to hurt those who have the least resources to fall back upon - those who cannot pick up and move to another location, pay higher prices for food or deal with the effects of the changing climate. So reducing climate change is an important thing to do, and I know some climate activists are motivated by their concern for those economically worse-off. I've heard the argument that we shouldn't worry about the other little things like cuts to social assistance because none of that will matter if we don't stop climate change, and that really bothers me. Yes, climate change might be the bigger scarier thing, but why dismiss the struggles of those on the brink of homelessness? Doesn't the individual count for something?<br />
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The <em>Ontario Coalition Against Poverty</em> won a victory over city-hall recently, with <a href="http://www.ocap.ca/node/1073">city hall agreeing to open more homeless shelters</a>. (I think OCAP is amazing, and the one reason I'd love to live in Toronto would be to be a part of that group. Alas, I'm not there and can't be.) In some ways this could be seen as "low hanging fruit" because it will provide barely adequate shelter to people rather than reforming the system so that people are not homeless. Yet it also brings to my mind the questions. Do we try to improve things because of our love for the people or because of our commitment to a dream-world, ideal? If we love the people and not our own vision then we have to recognize their lives can't be put on hold for as long as it takes to reform everything. Efforts have to be made to grab the low hanging fruit and improve things now. At the same time everyone recognizes that the little improvements are never enough and we still have to keep those end goals in mind.<br />
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There are small battles that are winnable but that people will always wonder was it worth the cost? Are the little battles a distraction that keep us from working on changing the system behind it? Or do we need to fight the little battles anyway to:<br />
<ul>
<li>encourage people to believe that success is possible</li>
<li>allow an accumulation of little battles to change the big picture</li>
<li>reaffirm the individuals whose lives are affected are worth something</li>
<li>keep those in power honest and accountable</li>
<li>prevent specific environmental damage being done</li>
</ul>
The big concern is with the small struggles is that they're here just to keep us busy. Is it part of a game, so to speak, where those in power throw us small prizes to keep us struggling? The 42 million top up to the replacement for the Community Start-Up and Maintance Fund is a one-year only thing. That means we could fight all this year to try to get the same money for next year, or we could go on to some other struggle and the politicians can say they've solved the problem, that the one year top-up helped ease the transition and everything's okay now. Winning a temporary victory can feel like a trap. Whether we put continued effort into having the victory extended or whether we stay quiet we cannot secure the victory and move onto other things.<br />
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How would we really change something? Can we get down to the core issues somehow and challenge the premises of austerity as the answer to the problems of our economic system?<br />
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Different people will have different passions and different people will be able to take actions in different ways, so in many cases I think people have to look for the cause where they personally can make a difference based on the type of action they can do. Some people can be busy growing gardens, establishing co-ops and supporting local farms. Some people can just sign petitions and write letters. Some can be out marching, or doing direct action. Some can be lobbying. Some goals are more amendable to different actions.<br />
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If you're a petition or letter writing person from Ontario, I would encourage you to use the form at <a href="mhtml:{A2307F5B-88C3-4E74-9E1E-EBD2F0D93FA1}mid://00000090/!x-usc:http://www.togetherontario.org/" target="_blank">www.TogetherOntario.org</a>, to send a message to our new Premier Kathleen Wynne. She was wearing an <a href="http://ow.ly/i/1OuSl#29CZ">"I'm working for a poverty free Ontario" badge</a> the other day, and she had said at some point she wants to be a Social Justice premier. We need to make sure she actually earns those and doesn't just use the image to get re-elected. Also, <a href="http://update.ocap.ca/node/1072">April 8th - 15th is the province-wide week of action</a>. I've linked to a page that has some good resources. If you can get out and attend an event in support please do, and if you can't, please consider writing letters or making phone calls to your local politicians and to the provincial party leaders.<br />
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<a class="comment-link" expr:href=""http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/vote/" + data:post.url" href="http://www.blogger.com/null"><img border="0" height="15" src="http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/white-leaf-checkmark__your_vote.png" width="80" /></a>christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-73398846414353727712013-04-02T05:53:00.000-07:002013-04-02T06:44:12.460-07:00animals in our community and community in our children's books<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lu6Y7yaAL3o/UVcfTHbilNI/AAAAAAAABoU/_2oKDOPRIsg/s1600/swanoutwindow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lu6Y7yaAL3o/UVcfTHbilNI/AAAAAAAABoU/_2oKDOPRIsg/s320/swanoutwindow.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>My daughter watching a swan outside our window.</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>"Always include local nature – the land, the water, the air, the native creatures – within the membership of the community."</em></div>
<em></em><br />
The above is rule number two of poet, author and environmentalist Wendell Berry's "<a href="http://www.commongoodsolutions.ca/2/post/2012/06/17-rules-for-a-sustainable-community.html">17 Rules for a Sustainable Local Community</a>" and it makes me think of a couple of different children's books I've read recently. They are not books about green living or environmentalism specifically but instead books that in some way recognize the presence of other species as part of the local community.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-do5sNxZpYF8/UVcNXisjYrI/AAAAAAAABoE/ZsnluWRsTrg/s1600/RoslynRutabaga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-do5sNxZpYF8/UVcNXisjYrI/AAAAAAAABoE/ZsnluWRsTrg/s1600/RoslynRutabaga.jpg" /></a>One of the books is called <em>Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth</em>. It is written by Marie-Louise Gay, the author of the Stella series, and it is part of the Forest of Reading 2012 list. The book tells of a little anthropomorphic bunny that wakes up ready to dig the biggest hole on earth in her backyard. When she starts digging in her backyard she's confronted by a worm that objects to her digging in his yard. Her second attempt runs into a mole's territory and her third into a dog's store-room. The book ends delightfully with her father's supportive delight in the small hole she does manage.</div>
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When I read the book I see so many things. I see questions of land ownership and of our children wanting to find space in a world that is already parcelled up and owned. Where can they claim space? Where can they build their holes and plant their gardens?<br />
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I also think about questions of ownership. What does it mean to own the land? The worm's yard is within the bunny's yard, the bunny doesn't use that as an excuse to continue messing up the worm's yard.<br />
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What would it be like if we recognized other creatures rights to our land? I live across the street from a stream where beavers regularily build their dams, and the city regularily traps the beavers. I think its an obvious case of lack of foresight. The city permitted expensive parks and schools to be built on land that could be subject to flooding if the dams remained in place, so the city has to constantly remove beavers. What if instead when the cities were deciding what land to develop they recognized which animals inhabit the land and gave them a bit more space? There'd have to be a balance of course.<br />
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Another of the books is called <em>Whose Garden Is It?</em> by Mary
Ann Hoberman. Here a lady sees a beautiful garden and asks whose it is. The gardener claims it, as does all the animals that live there and then the seeds and the plants and the sun. Again there is questions of ownership and what is meaned by owning something. The animals wouldn't mean ownership in the way of having a legal right to it. The story is told in rhyme and so some of it seems a little forced but in all I like the emphasis of looking closer and closer at things smaller and smaller. The familiar setting of the story - a neighbour's garden - makes it easy to move the discussion to our own lives. <br />
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Whose garden is the garden in the backyard? We have an abudance of slugs and in some ways that keeps things real. It's fun to say hey, the garden belongs to everything, but then the reality is we don't really want to share it. Moreover, if we want to claim that the garden belongs to the plants as we well as the slugs, then we need to limit the slugs growth. (My first year gardening here the slugs took out several rows of seedlings.) Recognizing a need for balance I try to limit the slug population in ways that won't cause harm to other creatures.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lx2jJGI6l2g/UVcPbaq1zgI/AAAAAAAABoM/UgeNUocJu4I/s1600/Mischiefintheforest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lx2jJGI6l2g/UVcPbaq1zgI/AAAAAAAABoM/UgeNUocJu4I/s1600/Mischiefintheforest.jpg" /></a>The third book is called <em>Mischief in the Forest</em> and it is by environmentalist Derrick Jensen. The story is of a grandmother living alone in a forest. Returning from a trip to visit her grandchildren she worries the lack of company will bother her, only to discover that her yarn has been stolen by the local animals whom she soon befriends. I'll admit to being disappointed about this book. I purchased it because of who the author is and I hoped it would be something a little more than it is. The pictures look too computer-drawn cartoony and the story itself isn't quite what I expected. Yes, it emphasises the idea of making friends with the animals, including those who live in urban areas like squirrels and birds, but it doesn't exactly portray how one could. The woman leaves her doors and windows open and spends more time outside with them but that sort of socialization with animals isn't necessarily good for either them or us. We need to respect animals as part of the community but we also need to respect them as wild animals, not free-range pets.<br />
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<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-73582584360461466122013-03-29T10:10:00.004-07:002013-03-29T15:27:10.701-07:00Teaching history to my homeschooled kidsWow. A <a href="https://twitter.com/marshall_rita/status/317294116172095490/photo/1">letter to the editor</a> in the Nanaimo Times reminds me why teaching history properly is so important. The letter has been removed but a screen shot of it is linked to above. The author of the letter lists of accomplishments he feels the natives failed to meet before starting onto his theories before arguing that they are irresponsible and should not receive "special treatment." The letter misses several important things I want my children (and all Canadians) to learn.<br />
<br />
There are two historical issues at play. One is the issue of what the author titles "special treatment." If he knew his Canadian history better he would understand the role of the treaties, and how what native tribes receive is not special treatment but the promised return for sharing the land with us. The other historical issue is his claim that natives were "notable only for underachievement." There are some really good rebuttals already written so I'll direct you to this <a href="http://sabbaswatts.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/educating-on-the-contributions-of-first-nations-people/">description of Native American achievements</a> or <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Nasty+letter+about+aboriginal+achievements+provides/8167622/story.html">a line by line rebuttal.</a>There's also a good blog post over at <a href="http://mr.%20olson,%20in%20the%20last%20100%20years%20we've%20become%20a%20%22modern%20economy%22%20that%20is%20unsustainable.%20you%20sir%20are%20telling%20a%20people%20who%20managed%20to%20live%20in%20balance%20with%20their%20surroundings%20for%20thousands%20of%20years%20not%20subject%20to%20%22boom%22%20and%20%22bust%22%20or%20underground%20cities%20of%20poverty%20stricken%20people%20that%20you%20know%20better.%20that's%20the%20modern%20world%20right%20there%20as%20it%20sits,%20is%20it%20any%20wonder%20they%20don't%20want%20to%20be%20a%20part/?">Canadian trends</a> pointing out that the modern age isn't necessarily all that great an achievement. Here's a snippet from it:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>Mr. Olson, </em><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/chris-martenson-lecture-why-next-20-years-will-be-marked-collapse-exponential-function" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>in the last 100 years we've become a "modern economy" that is
unsustainable</em></span></a><em>. You sir are telling a people who managed to live in balance
with their surroundings for thousands of years not subject to "boom" and "bust"
or </em><a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2651937/The-people-living-in-drains-below-Las-Vegas.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>underground cities of poverty stricken people</em></span></a><em> that you know
better. That's the modern world right there as it sits, is it any wonder they
don't want to be a part? (</em>links in the original)</blockquote>
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As a homeschooling mother I've looked at a few homeschool curriculums and textbooks and I'm concerned about the tendency to view history as a progression of empires. It's easy to move from studying Sumerians to Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Europeans and then Americas with Asian cultures thrown in as side topics. It's possible to look at history as progressing from the different empires as though a country that doesn't dominate the world at its time is unworthy of study and has nothing to contribute. I think the letter to the editor was born out of that sort of mythology,<br />
that belief that a certain branch of history is the most important. How do we make history more than a glorification of empires where certain cultures and people are celebrated for the power they wielded and the rest of the world forgotten and ignored?<br />
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One of the things I've tried to do is really emphasis the idea that history is about how people lived and how they understood the world. We want to try to hear the specific stories and voices of people, and all cultures have stories and voices even if they don't have recorded records of what wars were fought when or who ruled as king when. When we talk about areas of the world that were dominant at some points in time and not others, I want them to think about how people lived during the times they did not dominate the world as well as the times they did.<br />
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Another thing I'm trying to do is, when I study native history, is to be specific. I want to look for <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/books-about-life-in-northern-canada.html">books that are as specific as possible</a> in time and place. There were different native groups across the country. They did different things and they worked within their specific environments. I hope that teaching my children about the specific groups will help them to appreciate that Canada was by no means 'primative' pre-contact.<br />
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Being specific about history of other places also helps. I don't care if my children memorize all the details about which pharoah came when, but I do want them to understand a bit of the differences between the <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2012/02/ancient-egypt-recommended-resources-for.html">Old, Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt</a> because I want them to understand that history is not just the big details but the little ones too. History takes place in the small changes as well as the large ones. I hope that the more they get used to viewing history clearly, the more they'll want to learn about it and the more they'll realize we don't know everything about it.<br />
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I want to emphasis to my children the incompleteness of our understanding of history. We do not know all that happened, and we have more knowledge of those cultures and places that kept written descriptions. If we teach children to recognize the gaps in our knowledge we can counter the idea that cultures without written record have no history. They do. We just don't know it.<br />
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Finally, as my children get older, I'm planning on teaching them about the specific ideas that allowed Europeans to justify their treatment of the native people. I want them to understand where our notions of private property and ownership come from so that they can see these are not the only possible ways of viewing things. There are so many ideas that have become the water in our fishbowl and seeing the ideas clearly will help them to realize that when they compare cultures they are simply comparing other cultures with our culture, and not other cultures with the inherently perfect default. I want them to understand the struggles and debates that existed throughout history for how to deal with problems and how different cultures found different solutions and there may be other solutions yet untried.<br />
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Any other ideas? How do you ensure the history you're teaching your children is both accurate and fair? <br />
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christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-22628630032894918072013-03-28T16:45:00.000-07:002013-03-29T05:18:11.628-07:00religion and politicsI want to write some more thoughts about Christianity, but not assume that everyone is Christian. This isn't an effort to convert anyone, just an attempt to explore some more of the ideas I've been reading about and thinking about.<br />
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A quote from the book God and Empire, by John Dominic Crossan:<br />
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<em>It is clear, I hope, that the Kingdom of God is inextricably and simultaneously 100 percent political and 100 percent religious. "Kingdom" is a political term, "God" is a religious term, and Jesus would be executed for that "of" in a world where, for Rome, God already sat on Caesar's throne because Caesar was God. I was once told by a colleague that the difference between us was that I considered earliest Christianity a political movement with religious overtones and he considered it a religious one with political overtones. I replied that, to the contrary, my position was that earliest Christianity was absolutely both at the same time because nobody in the first century made such a distinction.</em> </div>
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I love the ideas within that paragraph for so many reasons. I'm fascinated by the idea of trying to see ancient religions as they were experience by the people. I love the idea that Christianity was political. Of course it always has been, for a while at least it was political on the side of the poor and vulnerable against the side of the Empire. Then of course it got co-opted and did so much damage but is there a chance now, for people to reclaim the revolutionary voice?<br />
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Let's call for a Democracy of God. What God, of course? Not the God obsessed with people's sex lives and being worshipped on Sunday. No... let's call for a Democracy of a just God. A God who would ride on a donkey instead of a war-horse in a triumphant entry into the city. If Jesus could do street theatre and challenge the presumption that Caesar is God, what can we do to help challenge the assumption that Wall Street is right? Let's celebrate a God who wouldn't be afraid to work at a soup kitchen or judge a person's time as worth less than someone else's because the person has a mental illness. Let's celebrate a God who would reject the merging of multi-billion dollar companies but say instead "Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land." (Isaiah 5:8)<br />
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John Dominic Crossan describes a Jesus who said the Kingdom of God is here, right now, and that its waiting for us to work and live within it. He describes Jesus as posing an alternative to the violent imperialistic norms of society. Well, we still live within a violent imperialistic society. Recently NDP Paul Dewar spoke about his private members bill that would try to prevent Canadian companies from using minerals mined in conflicts. He said that “The only difference between what was happening in the Belgian Congo and now are
the technologies and the actors.” I suspect the language is also different.<br />
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We use less language of war and more the language of economics. While people of the past might have said that brute force is inevitable and that God brings different empires to power, now people would say that our economic systems are inevitable. We need to challenge the "common sense" that says that people must be willing to work for below poverty wages because setting a reasonable minimum wage would cost them their jobs. We need to challenge the ideas that have gotten accepted as truth.<br />
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Yet, though I believe that any God worth worshipping must be supportive of justice, I get scared to of religion the moment it is used to support anything. God isn't a trump card in an argument. God's been used that way too much for too many wrong things. So should we banish God from the conversation? <br />
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In some ways it seems easier to speak of a God of justice in very vague terms as though keeping away from specifics makes it easier to keep political agendas from being clocked in religious languages. Speak of justice for the poor rather than raising minimum wage. Then people can still debate what type of justice or what justice would look like and it wouldn't look like anyone was pulling the God trump-card. It wouldn't suggest that someone doesn't support God if they reject a specific reform or political policy. That feels safer but also one step closer to just banishing God from the conversation.<br />
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What did it mean when people spoke of God two thousand years ago? John Dominic Crossan's argument is that when people two thousand years ago said Jesus is God they were speaking high treason because God was the Roman Emperor. Now God isn't that, so to say Jesus is God means something totally different. Is there anything that people could say Jesus is that would be at all comparable to that idea of Jesus as the replacement for the Roman Emperor? <br />
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Crossan writes of the normalcy of human civilization's violence. He says Jesus and Paul challenged it. They spoke of peace through justice rather than peace through victory. I can't help thinking they would challenge the economics that says economies must constantly grow larger, that wealth will trickle down and that government's job is to protect investments.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-40379266747884345482013-03-27T10:13:00.000-07:002013-03-27T11:23:35.940-07:00Books about Life in Northern CanadaRight now I'm finding myself looking for children's stories that have very concrete locations. I want stories located somewhere and at a particular time rather than just in some pseudo generic "anywhere." The children are gobbling up these stories and with each one we draw a little picture and tape it onto our wall map to show where it took place.<br />
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Here are a few of the stories we've read recently about life in the far parts of Northern Canada. Most of these I borrowed from my local library, but I was provided a copy of <em>When I was Eight</em> from the publisher.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YqwmMT-J6TQ/UU42L3jmFfI/AAAAAAAABnk/q6i7PT5zUP4/s1600/Kamik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YqwmMT-J6TQ/UU42L3jmFfI/AAAAAAAABnk/q6i7PT5zUP4/s1600/Kamik.jpg" /></a><a name='more'></a><br />
<em><strong>Kamik an Inuit Puppy Story</strong></em> is adapted from the memories of Donald Uluadluak and illustrated by Qin Leng. The story is from Arviat, Nunavut and published by <a href="http://www.inhabitmedia.com/">Inhabit Media</a>, an Inuit owned publishing company. It tells of a boy struggling to train his first dog and of his conversation with his grandfather where he hears about how his elders trained their dog through befriending them and raising them in a way similar to raising a child. It lends itself to discussions about child-raising, and about animals. We also noted the pictures in the inside of the cover showing the community, and how the buildings stood on stilts. Looking the location up on the map, my children noted it is below the Arctic circle.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cAv6bLjsFA/UU42hlM24oI/AAAAAAAABns/TFQ_Bk9DvVc/s1600/When-I-Was-Eight.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cAv6bLjsFA/UU42hlM24oI/AAAAAAAABns/TFQ_Bk9DvVc/s1600/When-I-Was-Eight.png" /></a><em><strong>When I was Eight</strong></em> by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, with illustrations by Gabrielle Grimard tells of a girl from Banks Island going to a Catholic school in Aklavik. There she is given the name Margaret and she learns to read and stand up for herself despite the nun's efforts to humiliate her. Despite the darkness of the topic the story is written in positive tones. It begins emphasising that the young heroine is educated, knowing the skills of her community, and then speaks of her desire to go to school to learn to read the outsider's language. It is an opening that lends itself to conversations about what education is. The heroine relates her own experience to that of <em>Alice in Wonderland </em> with the sense that people can change size and concluding that:<br />
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I was Olemaun, conqueror of evil, reader of books. I was a girl who traveled to a strange and faraway land to stand against a tyrant, like Alice. And like Alice, I was brave, clever and as unyielding as the strong stone that sharpens an ulu.</em></blockquote>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YseUAIutOvY/UU42Hcn0GuI/AAAAAAAABnc/JNmst62GQ8Y/s1600/fattylegsOlemaun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YseUAIutOvY/UU42Hcn0GuI/AAAAAAAABnc/JNmst62GQ8Y/s1600/fattylegsOlemaun.jpg" /></a>The same author mother-in-law/daughter-in-law pair that wrote <em>When I was Eight</em> also wrote two rather short chapter books <strong><em>Fatty Legs</em></strong> and <strong><em>A Stranger at Home</em></strong>. Fatty Legs covers the same time period <em>When I was Eight</em> does, and like the the other book it references to <em>Alice in Wonderland</em>. I found the tone slightly less mythical than <em>When I was Eight</em> and rather than celebrating a heroic victory, it feel more like a cautionary tale with a conclusion about knowing what happens to girls who wander down rabbit-holes.</div>
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In <em>Stranger at Home</em> we hear about how Margaret / Olemaun has forgotten how to speak her language. She worries because the nuns have told her she must save her family's souls from the pits of damnation. The taste of her mother's food is too strong and salty for her. She is an outsider at her home and as such the book she relates to is <em>Gulliver's Travels</em>. She watches and empathizes with a black stranger in her town, recognizing that she has it easier than him since she "had only to remember how to be Olemaun Pokiak, an Inuvialuit girl. Whereas the Du-bil-ak was not one of us at all. He was not even like the outsiders we were used to. Nothing he did would bring him family or friends." (pg 76)<br />
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The book does a beautiful job looking at the need for both change and continuity. Her time away at school has made Margaret a stranger, yet her family recognizes that things are changing and reading the outsider's language will soon be a necessity. Her mother is embarrassed about how much her daughter is an outsider now, a stranger, and yet her mother also wants somehow to learn to read. At the end of <em>Stranger At Home</em> comes the triumphant ending found in <em>When I was Eight</em> but missing from <em>Fatty Legs,</em> and it comes as she returns to the school to accompany and protect her two younger sisters. <br />
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<em>I was Olemaun now, and I would keep us together, safe and strong. I would teach my sister's how to ward off the outsiders' spells, the spells that could bind you in something scratchy and thing and tight, like the uniforms they would make us wear, until we no longer knew where we fit in. I would teach my sisters to walk each day of their lives as though they were wearing a warm and beautiful parka, with their heads held high as if they always belonged, no matter where they were.</em></blockquote>
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<em><strong>The Delta is My Home</strong></em> by Tom McLeod and Mindy Willett is a nonfiction children's book about Tom McLeod, an eleven year old boy. He lives in Aklavik, Northwest Territories (the same town where Margaret Pokiak-Fenton went to school, though in a different time and at a different school). The book tells about life in the North, with hunting and floods, community and a school that celebrates the local culture. It includes a recipe for bannock and pictures Tom drew about how muskrats make their push-ups so they can breath under the snow in winter. </div>
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christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-45757521823393264062013-03-25T12:41:00.000-07:002013-03-25T12:41:58.298-07:00in pursuit of an academic religionI've been thinking about religion again. I think about the good things, like the way it can support a person's ability to acknowledge their mistakes or the inspiration to care for others. Yet I'm also think about the problems with religion, particularily of finding a religious interpretation that can be a source of healthy challenge neither constructed to meet one's own wants or to justify one's oppressive situation. <br />
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Inspiring me to write this post is, partly, a post titled <a href="http://borealcitizen.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/can-reason-and-secularism-protect-kids-from-anti-science-rhetoric-and-build-a-better-society/">Can reason and secularism protect kids from anti-science rhetoric (and build a better society)?</a> over at a blog called Boreal Citizen. The post speaks about Democratic anti-science rhetoric being centered around unsupported fears for health and environment (like obsessions with cell phones causing cancer) while Republican anti-science rhetoric being used to justify a lack of regulation over anything but the female reproductive system. The author writes about how the Republican anti-science attitude is more scary: <br />
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<em>For example, an unfounded belief in astrology or </em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0" target="_blank"><em>homeopathic medicine</em></a><em> – common among progressives — is rather innocuous compared to the anti-science rhetoric coming from corporations whose profits are threatened by environmental regulation. Nevertheless, they share the same seed: a desire to believe what we want to believe, rather than engage in scientific inquiry and rational discourse.</em></blockquote>
I'm not entirely sure whether I agree that the unfounded belief in astrology or homeopathic medicine is truly more innocuous or whether having true believers in them in positions of power would make those beliefs just as dangerous. I also see an overlap between Republicans and purveyors of woo. There are many extremely right-wing religious groups that view modern medicine as unnecessary, and the unscientific health-fears lead many otherwise progressive people to embrace the language of deregulation for food and medicine.<br />
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But the line that sticks out at me is that question of wanting to believe what we want to believe rather than scientific inquiry and rational discourse. That is where I personally come into trouble with religion. I want to turn to religion. I want to seek comfort and challenge in religion. Yet I struggle with the idea that whatever religious ideas I embrace would simply be me believing what I want to believe. <br />
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The author at Boreal Citizen goes on to suggest that there is an overlap in religiosity and a susceptibility to anti-science rhetoric:<br />
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<em>Perhaps the willingness to believe that religious texts are the “true word of God” simply “because the books themselves say so” (and because religious leaders declare it so) also predisposes one to believe other unsubstantiated claims from authority figures. And, as Harris writes, “epistemological black holes of this sort are fast draining the light from our world”.</em></blockquote>
I don't believe religion was revealed by a higher power. I don't trust a particular religious leader or authority figure. So somehow reading this post I find myself thinking again about the question of whether it is possible to have a religion without believing what we want to believe, or what we're told to believe or what we feel we have to believe.<br />
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Could there be a scientific religion? I know some people would say yes, and speak of how their beliefs are backed up by science. (Theology was once the queen of the sciences, after all.) But I'm not interested just in having science back up what one already wants to believe, but a faith that is willing to be confronted and changed and altered by sciences. What I'm thinking of is an academic religion. Religious traditions that involve intense debate and self-examination. I think within all religions there's probably groups that do practice religion academically.<br />
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One of the authors I like is John Dominic Crossan. His writings are filled with methodology, looking at how oral writings were transmitted or what the archeology of the time meant. He tries to tease out the questions of who Jesus actually was and what his followers were actually saying about him. I should pull out some of his books again to read.<br />
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There's another line in the Boreal Citizen post that I find thought provoking:<br />
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<em>Even many agnostic parents answer their children’s questions about what happens after death, for example, with references to an afterlife (i.e., heaven) simply because they are more palatable than the truth (which, for the record is:</em> nobody really knows).</blockquote>
To me this is the reminder why science and religion don't go along side by side. For some people religion is going to be about a comprehensive mythology embracing all sorts of unscientific things like what happens after you die. For other people religion is going to be almost exclusively about a sort of moral code or wisdom teachings. If the mythology is not necessary for the moral code the moral code is more a philosophy. If the moral code is missing then there's not much point in the mythology, is there? Yet is there a mythology that doesn't at some level reject science?<br />
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Or for me, the question is, is there a Christian mythology that doesn't at some level reject science? Does Christianity become reduced to a few platitudes about loving one's neighbour as one loves oneself or is there a depth that goes beyond that? I think there is the depth. There's the history, the stories of people trying to understand how to remain a people not totally subsumed by the foreign empires that conquered them. There's the questions of justice and of how people lived through huge changes.<br />
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I would not turn to religion to tell me what happens after we die, but to tell me how others dealt with finding meaning in the face of death.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-35473945958249399102013-03-24T08:59:00.000-07:002013-03-24T08:59:00.138-07:00a question for youBlogging is like having a one-way window pointing in. You can look in at me, but all I can see is my reflection. Who is reading this?christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-62059375954677683722013-03-23T08:55:00.000-07:002013-03-24T06:37:38.744-07:00political protest and the policeA <a href="http://www.workersactioncentre.org/updates/communities-around-ontario-call-on-mpps-to-melt-the-minimum-wage-freeze-now/">province wide campaign</a> has been launched to raise Ontario's minimum wage to $14 an hour. To initiate the campaign blocks of ice containing $10.25, the current minimum wage, were delivered to politicians across the province with the request that we melt the minimum wage freeze. I participated in this going with my <a href="http://sudburycap.com/2013/03/23/melt-the-minimum-wage-freeze/"> local anti-poverty group</a> to visit two MPPs - Rick Bartolucci and France Gelinas. <br />
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I was the contact person for the media and since we had sent out a media release beforehand I had hoped for phone calls from local reporters. I was not prepared for the phone call, the day before the event, from the local police liaison-officer. He wanted to know what our organization was planning on doing and if he could be of any assistance. Since what we were planning was a simple visit to talk to two of our elected politicians in their constituency offices, I was quite horrified by the phone call. We were breaking no laws and planning no public disturbance. Talking with local politicians is not a matter for the police to be involved in.<br />
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Now eleven members of the anti-poverty group had been arrested previously for setting up a mock homeless shelter at the office of one of the members of provincial parliament and the trespassing charges are slowly working their way through the court system but no restrictions had been placed on them. They were not banned from the building. They were not told they may never approach the politician or his staff with their concerns about government policy. Unless they cause another disturbance there's no need for police involvement.<br />
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The police liaison questioned why we had booked an appointment with one MPP but not with the other. The answer was easy. One MPP has a notice on her webpage that her office is open by appointment only on Fridays, and since Friday was the day we planned on going it seemed prudent to book the appointment. The other office is open every day of the week, so there didn't seem to be a need. Moreover previous attempts to book an appointment involved being told to call the Ottawa office and schedule several months in advance. So there didn't seem to be a point in trying. The police liaison officer told me he might be able to arrange a meeting for us with the politician or one of his staff. The idea of having to go through the police in order to book an appointment with the politician horrified me.<br />
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The police liaison officer stressed to me that he has been helpful with local #idlenomore protests and that it was just about sharing information. Yet the very idea of having the police involved in public protests annoys me. What kind of protest is it if the police tell you where you can go or not? Organizations can buy a permit to hold protests but how is it a protest if you have to seek out government approval before hand? I was uncooperative with the police officer on instinct, and that's strange for me to say because I really do have a strong respect for authority figures, just not when police try to get involved in people's ability to make a political statement.<br />
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This all brings me back to questions of <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/01/is-there-way-to-fight-our-own-government.html">how we change political policy</a>. Is there a time for struggle and for inconveniencing others? What venues are open to us for getting messages across? There are the peaceful no-inconvenience to anyone else methods like political lobbying and letter writing, and those don't need police involvement what so ever, and there are other methods like sit-ins that do cause inconvenience and just won't ever happen if we did seek police assistance for all our actions. Yet those are valid ways of making a point too.<br />
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This is the video footage of our visit to Rick Bartolucci's office last November. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XKehYGCQTq8" width="560"></iframe>
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I hear Mr. Bartolucci talk about my organization and friends being "rabble-rousers" and not experts, and I hear him say that in a democracy they don't change political policy because people attempt to take over a constituency office. I think yes, but I also know that our action and the dozen police vehicles surrounding the building brought a ton of media publicity. We followed it up with working with our city council to get them to pass a motion asking for the cuts to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit to be reversed. Other antipoverty organizations did similar actions and the end result of all the outcry across the provinces was that the Liberal government did, at the last minute (December 27th), give a one-time extra $42 million to the replacement program. Some would argue that it was the municipal government's motions that caused the money to be given, others think it was the street pressure. I don't know but I honestly think that each action inspired another action. We were inspired by the actions were heard of elsewhere and we had others say they were inspired by the actions they heard of here. Definitely we had a lot of increased support locally after the arrests took place.<br />
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When we went to France Gelinas office yesterday she said that politicians are followers not leaders, and that they need us to continue the actions we take. Was it an excuse for her and her party not taking a stronger stance on issues of social justice? Probably, but there's also truth to it. They follow because they feel following will be the way to get elected. We need to show that there's <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/notes-from-poverty-free-ontario.html">political will to end poverty</a>. We need to show it in any way we can, from <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/02/writing-letters-to-politicians.html">writing letters</a> to taking to the streets to sit-ins and street theatre.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-78128964551357097302013-03-22T04:52:00.000-07:002013-03-28T15:33:20.121-07:00Another Week Homeschooling<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AaFjV_Ih1cA/UUS-ucVORHI/AAAAAAAABnE/fDMMCUiAWqE/s1600/VIKINGSHIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AaFjV_Ih1cA/UUS-ucVORHI/AAAAAAAABnE/fDMMCUiAWqE/s320/VIKINGSHIP.jpg" width="320" /></a>There were so many days this past few weeks where I thought "yikes! We have barely did any schoolwork." Then I paused and look back at what the kids have done. The boys - particularly my five year old - got entranced by the poem The Highwayman and have been reciting sections of it over and over. We read and <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/homeschooling-topic-of-week-afghanistan.html">talked about Afghanistan</a>. We built a model of a viking long-ship and read stories about Eric the Red. We've read and talked about <a href="http://www.anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/books-about-life-in-northern-canada.html">the residential schools and the Inuit people</a>. My eight year old has been doing writing every day. My five year old is starting to learn piano and I've got him excited about putting labels on our map to show where different stories we've read take place. They've all been drawing lots and reading lots, and doing some math. <br />
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My eight year old has started working on a little store he wants to set up in our yard come spring, and he was counting his merchandise so we reviewed percentages, calculating out what different handfuls of products would cost if he gave different discounts.<br />
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We even had a really successful game where we stood next our kitchen map and pretended we were playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?" Do you remember that old television show and computer game? In our version one person would start to name clues as to which country a crook had fled too. The others would guess the country and find it on the map. Then it would be someone else's turn to invent clues. <br />
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But really, the last few weeks have been very chaotic too. My two year old is getting more and more insistent about participating in everything and her nap schedule is very erratic. When we play math games often she'll participate by handing everyone cards when they need to draw another card, but simply saying her name gets her to hand an extra card, and the boys know that so if one gets bored waiting for the other to take his turn he will simply call her name over and over and chaos chaos. She doesn't want anyone else sitting on my lap, which makes it hard for the five year old and I to do his reading practice. It's stressful and annoying and I just think, "please, may I find the the strength to get through this stage onto whatever one comes next?"<br />
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On top of that I dragged the kids out again on a social justice errand. We went with a group of others to deliver blocks of ice with $10.25 in them to two local politicians as part of a province wide <a href="http://sudburycap.com/2013/03/23/melt-the-minimum-wage-freeze/">campaign to raise the minimum wage</a>. My children get a little bored of doing things like this, and the eight year old said that next time we go on a protest he's going take his own sign saying "just do what my mom says quick so I can go home." Yet I feel it important to take them out to events anyway.<br />
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(Linking up at <a href="http://www.northernbellediaries.com/">Just Because</a>, <a href="http://happyandblessedhome.com/">Family Fun Friday</a>, and other places around the web.)</div>
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<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-71333711611675022432013-03-21T18:52:00.003-07:002013-03-22T04:57:26.208-07:00What Squirrels Do, review and author interviewI was asked to review a set of children's book called "<a href="http://whatsquirrelsdo.com/">What Squirrels Do</a>." The books were ever so slightly awkward to read on the computer because I could see only one page at a time, while the book was laid out to have two pages side by side, one with a couplet, neatly framed with a picture of a squirrel in a tree, and then on a separate page the related picture. Yet my five year old enjoyed hearing the story read, particularly when I'd tease each page asking, "is this what happens?" and he'd answer "noo....." or very occasionally "yes". My two year old enjoyed the pictures, which I never lingered on long enough for her taste.<br />
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I wanted to turn the books into a game, with the children and I figuring out our own ideas for what squirrels could do yet I found it harder to do than I had thought. The first book in some ways explains things a person might see - bare patches on trees, grocery carts abandoned in bushes, swings moving on their own - through silly ideas about how it involves squirrels. The second book follows a Squirrel Olympics theme and the fourth one in some ways looks at the size of squirrels and what they could do for fun as very anthropomorphistic creatures. In some ways to make up our own according to the patterns of the second and third books was easier for us than to think about how squirrels could be the silly explanation for things around us. We're very imaginative in some ways here, but we also have a tendency to talk quite a bit about the real causes behind things around us.<br />
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The book is credited as being by toddler <a href="http://www.hazelnutt.com/">Hazel Nutt</a>, with her parents behind her pen. I had a chance to ask the parents some questions, so without further ado here are my questions and her answers:<br />
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How old is your daughter now?</div>
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<em>Our daughter has just turned two, so Hazel Nutt is very easy to "write as" at the moment, as the real Hazel provides plenty of inspiration and ideas in all that she does!</em></blockquote>
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What kind of area are you living in? Urban, rural, suburb? Do you get to see many other animals besides squirrels?</div>
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<em>We live in a little rural village, with beautiful walks in almost every direction. We see lots of animals and birds that our daughter adores. We have recently seen foxes, deer, bats, owls, as well as the firm favorite of squirrels.</em></blockquote>
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Do you have an opinion on feeding squirrels? I know some people are strongly against feeding wild/urban animals and others are not.</div>
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<em>We feel that if you are going to feed wild animals, you should give food that they are used to, not unnatural alternatives, so we are against giving bread or salted nuts to squirrels. If you want to feed wild squirrels this winter, why not have some fun collecting acorns and store them ready to give the squirrels a lovely treat!</em></blockquote>
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<em>We often go to feed the ducks and are shocked at how many people still feed them bread, which lies heavy on their stomachs, making them easier for predators to catch. We give ducks bird seed, which they can't get enough of that and they even come and take that straight from your hand.</em></blockquote>
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As a mother blogger I'm always wondering what my children will make of my having blogged about their childhood. Do you wonder what your daughter will think when she's older?<br />
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</div>
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<em>We try to have a good mix of fact and fiction on the website, so its not all strictly our daughter's childhood, but yes we do wonder what our daughter will think when she is older. Hopefully, we don't/won't have anything too embarrassing on there! We try to write in a style that takes the mickey out of us as parents, rather than her as a child!</em></blockquote>
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Do you have other squirrel books in the works?</div>
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<em>Yes, we are working on another four books on what squirrels do in each season, but it will probably be much later in year that these are published, as we have a new baby due in April and it might take a little time to adjust to having two beautiful, charming children.</em></blockquote>
<div class="im">
<div>
Was independent book publishing what you thought it would be like? What advice would you give other authors?</div>
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<em>Independent book publishing was what we expected it to be in so far as getting the book published, but it is very hard work networking and getting the author name and books seen by as many people as possible. We believe though that you never know who will see your guest posts, reviews or interviews and anyone of them could be picked up by a major media outlet, so we would advise other authors to contact as many people as they can to highlight their new book creations. </em><br />
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I was sent a free copy of each of the books, but you can download a free copy of the third book, Just For Fun, free on Kindle on March 25th and 26th (Monday and Tuesday). </div>
christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-87389863421011190072013-03-20T11:29:00.002-07:002013-03-20T11:29:31.947-07:00costs both hidden and obviousI wrote before about how I <a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/oh-no-ive-been-sucked-in-by-coasterville.html">enjoy playing coasterville</a> because I break everything down in my mind - a quest isn't really a quest, it's a matter of eight clicks, three clicks from a friend and two clicks at two hour intervals. Well my same love of breaking things down makes me fascinated by looking at what goes into creating real things. What all goes into feeding a family? Occasionally I keep track of what my family eats for a week and occasionally I think about laying out an equivalent amount of food in the style of the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html">What the World Eats Photo Essay</a>.<br />
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When I was a teenager, I spent quite a bit of time with two of my friends trying to design a space colony. I remember pouring over my dad's square-foot gardening book trying to figure out from that if we could figure out how much indoor greenhouse space the colony would need. In a futuristic setting one could imagine optimal environmental conditions. On the other side, one would want to have extra just in case, right?<br />
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I try looking at people's gardens and am curious as to what portion of their annual food the garden provides. One year I used about eight square feet of garden space for growing dried peas. That made two pots of soup, so in effect, the two pots of soup cost me that space. I try to picture what size of garden I would need to be able to keep my whole family fed for the year. <br />
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Besides space, there is the question of water. How much water do we need, not just for drinking or washing with but for producing what we use? <a href="http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/YourWaterFootprint">Virtual water</a> is the water embedded in the production of food or resources and countries that would never think of exporting water in its liquid form will use up the precious resource in order to grow foods to export. Cotton costs more in water use than synthetic fabrics.<br />
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There are other calculations besides water and space. There's also work or effort. How much time does it take to maintain something? How many hands would have been involved in stages of production? Sometimes there are trade offs in which we could use something that takes more physical resources (like a food processor) in order to save time cutting vegetables. We value different people's time differently and that always still seems weird to me. How can one person's time be worth $40 an hour and someone else's worth $10.25? How can we talk about having equality while viewing each other's time as worth less. An hour is always a 24th of the person's day, given up for whatever task.<br />
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If time, space, water and earth are in some ways the basic elements around us that we can use to create our lives, they do not exist waiting out of context in some imaginary bank somewhere. Everything is already part of some system. Everything has context.<br />
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I look around at the things around me. How much time went into making the furniture or toys? How much time went into the clothes? (<a href="http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-complicated-problem-of-sweatshops.html">Whose time, and in what conditions</a>, I wonder?) I remember reading a list of "Things Individuals Can Do About Homelessness" that included making sure to keep their own homes maintained and when I read that I suddenly pictured how our home isn't just our home. Our home is this physical structure into which energy and resources are put and someday it could be someone else's. Clothing, too, involves someone's energy invested into preparing the cloth and sewing it. Clothing could go on to be of use to someone else or it could be thrown in the garbage.<br />
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Life is so wonderfully complicated and I love thinking about the complications. I do have to be a little careful when I start thinking about the costs of things, not to start seeing myself as just a burden to the world. I have to look also for the ways in which I can help be creative. How can I help improve life? Can I bring joy to others? What skills can I cultivate so that I can put them to use. We are interconnected. Our reach (both in what we use of the world and what we can give of the world) always extends way beyond our view. We are imperfect beings in an imperfect world but we can do good too, taking care of the resources we have and offering to others what we can.<br />
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There are people that I admire incredibly for the time and effort they put into improving the city we live in. They have painted fish on the roads next to drains, reminding people that the water there flows into our lakes. They try to bring awareness to the problems of cigarette buds, and they are fundraising to raise money to build rain gardens to capture the overflowing water and allow it to soak naturally into the ground. (I think that all new parking lots should have to be built of water permeable material or surrounded by rain gardens but that's just my uninformed opinion and there are other people out there actually working on getting feasible yet environmentally sound rules in place.)<br />
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christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-57390564931282645842013-03-18T07:20:00.000-07:002013-03-19T07:21:19.559-07:00Nonstandard units of measurement in children's books.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5mUIMuo0qv4/UTJFCCpzqmI/AAAAAAAABmM/DSjG8JKFdlQ/s1600/carrymemama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="257" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5mUIMuo0qv4/UTJFCCpzqmI/AAAAAAAABmM/DSjG8JKFdlQ/s320/carrymemama.jpg" title="How far is a stone's throw? Can you walk as long as a bear roams? Carry Me, Mama, by Monica Devine, is a great way to explore distances with your children." width="320" /></a></div>
How do you measure distance or time? I've just found two delightful children's books that include measurements of time and distance. <em>Carry Me, Mama</em> tells the story of an Inuit girl walking progressively longer distances. She walks as far as one can throw a stone, then as far as the rabbits run, as far as the bear wanders, etc. <br />
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After reading the book we talked about distances. We don't know much about the distances that different animals travel but we talked about how far we've seen cats roam. Then I suggested a different location - what if we were at grandma's house, where could we walk to from there if we were to walk only as far as a cat roams? We also guessed at how far a bear might roam using our house and locations near here to discuss the distance, and then again asking, if we were at grandma's house, how far could we walk from there if we were to walk as far as a bear might roam?<br />
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The book mentions the passing of time too, thought not as obviously. One action happens "as quick as an owl blinks." Other things happen when the leaves change color, when the river breaks up or many moons later. I found it interesting to note and discuss how some of the markers of time are relative (many moons later) and others describe a particular yearly event. Again we could bring the discussion to our own lives talking about what things happen regularily - the holidays, but also when the apples are ripe or the snow melts.<br />
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The second book is <em>A Second is a Hiccup: A Children's Book of Time</em> by Hazel Hutchins and Kady MacDonald Denton. It talks about increasingly larger measurements of time, from a second to a childhood. For my older son I assign a task of drawing out a chart showing how seconds relate to minutes and then to hours etc. For my younger we talk about other things we could do in a minute. Could we clean up a mess? (What type of mess takes an hour rather than a minute?) The book describes a minute as:<br />
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<em> a happy, hoppy little song </em></div>
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<em>Chorus, verses, not too long</em></div>
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<em></em> </div>
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What song is closest to a minute? Could we time things that way? Do we always sing the song at the same tempo? What are some other things that happen at almost the same speed each time? Could we measure time with candles burning? When does exact timing matter and when does it not?</div>
<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-42856422575874244522013-03-17T15:00:00.000-07:002013-03-18T10:42:36.553-07:00Meme-y Monday: Prisoners treated better than the elderly?There is a meme going around the internet that says: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>“Here is some food for thought…We should place the elderly in prisons. They will get a shower a day, video surveillance in case of problems, three hot meals a day, access to a library, computer, TV, gym, doctor on-site, free medication if needed. We should put criminals in nursing homes. They have cold meals, lights off at 7pm, two showers a week, live in a smaller room and pay rent at $4,000 a month!!! It’s pretty sad that we treat prisoners better than the elderly.”</em></blockquote>
I've seen this quoted on facebook status who genuinely believe that prisoners are treated too well, and on facebook statuses of people who just think we need to treat seniors better. So I want to write about how this cannot possibly be just an advocacy for treating seniors better.<br />
<br />
The message is a well crafted Republican/Conservative meme emphasising the
pet-peeves of the Rightwing - gym, computer access, medications, etc. Are the big concerns about senior citizen the lack of gyms and computers? Probably not, but that doesn't matter because the focus of the meme isn't on caring for seniors, it is about coddling prisoners. It doesn't
say "it's sad that we treat the elderly worse than we treat prisoners" it says
it the other way around.<br />
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The meme doesn't site any specific locations. I've seen it posted by people in Canada as well as in the United states, despite the vast regional differences between prisons and care for the elderly so I did a quick google search for information about prisons in my province. I found a couple of interesting articles.<br />
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A September 2012 <a href="http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201209179318/Headline-News/Ontario-prison-conditions-at-all-time-low">article about a London, Ontario facility</a> describes problems with a lack of surveillance and the resulting problems with inmate violence. It describes problems with lack of telephone access resulting in problems communicating with the lawyers, and it tells of an Ontario judge reluctant to send first time offenders to prison for fear for their safety there. Hardly the luxury settting described in the meme.<br />
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A Calgary Herald article talks about <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/Violence+spikes+cramped+women+prisons/5534206/story.html">overcrowding in Alberta and Ontario</a> women's prisons resulting in four women being kept in a visiting room: "the room has no running water, no toilet facilities and no built-in cell call alarm system, nor does it offer the amount of living space, privacy and dignity that is available in a purpose-built cell." <br />
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Another article talks about<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/07/12/why_toronto_west_detention_centre_inmates_cant_read_library_books.html"> prison libraries being run by volunteers</a> since 1996 and closed for a lack of staff. The John Howard Society has more information about the <a href="http://johnhoward.on.ca/research/incarceration.html">condition of prisons in Ontario</a>. Standing out to me was this description:<br />
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<em>The Committee was particularly disturbed by the complete lack of programs and services for the
remand population. This is the case in all provincial correctional facilities as the Ministry of Community and Correctional Services’ policy is to concentrate all available program resources
on sentenced prisoners. Remand prisoners have no access to the gymnasiums, the schools or the
libraries in these institutions and cannot take advantage of any psychological/rehabilitative
programming available to sentenced prisoners. For these prisoners, there is nothing to
meaningful to do every day, all day long. At best, it amounts to warehousing, but, for those who
spend long periods of time on remand, some for many months and even years, it could be
characterized as cruel.</em>
</blockquote>
Half an hour of reading online doesn't make me an expert on prison conditions and I don't claim to be. What I do claim is that we need to be careful what facebook memes we pass on and we need to challenge the ones we see. We should ask ourselves where the meme applies to (Canada? The United States? Elsewhere?) and if the facts back the meme up. Most memes won't present sources for their facts, and in some ways that becomes more insidious in implying that the idea is just common sense. <br />
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Sometimes causes like promoting the myth that prisoners are treated to lightly are mixed with other causes like the idea we need to treat our elders better, so people will pass them on because they agree with one side of the equatation and they don't think through the implications of the other side. This meme wasn't really about the conditions of senior's homes and it wasn't real information about the conditions in prisons (or it would have mentioned which prisons its talking about). The meme was simply to reinforce the stereotypes that prisoners are treated to leniant - a stereotype with little to no basis in fact and that forgets that those in prison are also our brothers, neighbours, cousins, grandchildren, etc.<br />
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<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-4867249699671618792013-03-15T07:14:00.000-07:002013-03-15T13:45:33.053-07:00Homeschooling Topic of the Week: Afghanistan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P5mYwDhbdHw/UUMrwTP5SsI/AAAAAAAABms/zxvCgYR2EBg/s1600/skyofAfghanistan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P5mYwDhbdHw/UUMrwTP5SsI/AAAAAAAABms/zxvCgYR2EBg/s320/skyofAfghanistan.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>
I noticed the book The <em>Sky of Afghanistan</em>, by Ana A. de Eulate and Sonja Wimmer, with the library's collection of new kids' books. The title of the book brought to my mind images of Canadian and American airplanes, but the front cover shows a young girl flying through the air, her arms outstretched. I checked the book out of the library with a stack of other books.<br />
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It took my children a little while to get interested in it. The text of the book is somewhere between blank verse and what I don't quite know how to describe other than inspiration fluff. <br />
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<em>The sky can be full of kites, I think to myself,</em><br />
<em>but it can also be full of dreams...</em><br />
<em>And mine flies up high, high into the sky,</em><br />
<em>towards the stars...</em></blockquote>
The girls dreams are illustrated as the ribbons from a kite and she runs through the streets and different settings until at the end she and others are walking up a kite-string into the sky "towards peace."<br />
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The pictures are what delighted and intrigued us. In one picture the girl's headscarf is blowing in the wind... the girl herself is sketched in black and white but the headscarf becomes the blue cloud-dotted sky. Henna artwork is visible on the girl's hand. In another picture the girl is in a crowd of burka covered women, in another she is at a girl's school, and in another she is playing with dolls made out of garbage and an old tire. Behind lines about her dream of peace a tank is driving across a map of Afghanistan with a flower blooming out of its gun. There are intriguing details for us to discuss.<br />
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The occupation of Afghanistan rarely makes the news or discussion topics in my house. I joined in protesting it way back years ago, but then its fallen off my list of things to follow. So why bother bring the war up with my children? Yet I want to somehow give them a well rounded image of the world, the good and bad within it. I liked <em>The Sky of Afghanistan</em> for allowing them a glimpse of a country torn but not completely defined by war.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLdh9Mk4MpI/UUMsZ4domNI/AAAAAAAABm0/KBNwSIUcnAc/s1600/CrabtreebookonAfghanistan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLdh9Mk4MpI/UUMsZ4domNI/AAAAAAAABm0/KBNwSIUcnAc/s320/CrabtreebookonAfghanistan.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
After I had peaked the children's interest I borrowed a collection of other books from the library, a set of books from <em>The Lands, Peoples and Culture Series</em> by Crabtree Publishing Company. One of the books mentioned that kite flying was banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban but is popular again, with people sometimes gluing glass onto the strings of their kites so they can "kite fight" trying to cut down each other's kites.<br />
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I printed out a <a href="http://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=25962&lang=en">map</a> of Afghanistan and had my oldest use the library books to help him find and label some of the cities. We talked about the terrain. The book on the land mentioned the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#Afghanistan">Karez system of irrigation</a> and from searching online I found it was also called the Qanat system. I love how figuring out what something is called allows it to be googleable. We rewatched the section from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La76Yl1wuGM">Engineering an Empire</a> about how the qanat systems got started.<br />
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We looked up farming. I found a video showing some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8kURnQLRkw">Afghan farmers in the 1950s</a> and we sat and tried to figure out what everything was. I wanted to talk about some of the agricultural challenges, so we talked about irrigation and saltiness. I looked up some other videos about farming and found one about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUy7rGzkM2s">Canada's involvement in irrigation projects</a>. The government video might make it sound hopeful and inspiring but other stories report the locals view the<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2012/07/14/canadas_afghan_legacy_failure_at_dahla_dam.html"> project as a source of corruption</a> and waste of money. The same <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/13/afghanistan_dam_project_9_million_set_aside_for_security_contractors_including_those_in_armed_standoff.html">Dahla dam has just made the news</a> again for the amount of money Canada has spent in security for the project - about $10 million. Should Canada be there at all? Are we really helping or hindering? By narrowing in and looking at just one development program the kids and I can start to talk about some of those questions, as well as about the general questions of how dams work. Development projects can be ways of asserting control and irrigation can <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/hamoun/">have unintentional consequences.</a><br />
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The March 2013 edition of the CPPA monitor has an article in it talking about the <em>New Silk Road Initative</em> announced in 2011 by Hilary Clinton and how the occupation of Afghanistan might be part of the U.S.'s <em>engagement-containment</em> strategy with regards to dealing with China. Chinese infostructure will link Afganistan with potential trading partners and allow the development (exploitation) of Afghanistan resources "provided China complies with the rules of the American-dominated global economic system." (CPPA monitor pg 8)<br />
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I don't want the children overwhelmed but I don't want them to learn too white-washed a history either. As it was my oldest read through the books and started asking about when they were written and made the connection himself as to how recent the fighting was. So then we talked more about it. He admitted that he thought that all wars are over and its strange to him to think that there is fighting going on in the world. He was also concerned about what part Canada might have in it. My son drew the connection to Star Trek. He said that he felt like a Cardassian boy from a second season Deep Space Nine episode, angry at the knowledge that his country have been murderous. <br />
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I try to remain calm. I try to give him the tools to develop a nuanced point of view. I want to help him balance a recognition that his country has done wrong, that wars still exist and that there are others suffering, without getting overwhelmed or forgetting that there is a lot of good everywhere and in everyone.<br />
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<a href="http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/weekly-wrap-up/" target="new"><img alt="" size="125" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/kbmomto3/weeklywrapup125.png" /></a>
<a href="http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/category/books/read-aloud-thursday%20/"><img alt="" src=" http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/square-read-aloud-image.jpg" /></a>christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-18010005071472260212013-03-13T07:36:00.000-07:002013-03-19T07:20:14.629-07:00the complicated problem of sweatshopsHave you ever heard of the island of Saipan? It is an American territory in the pacific, which as a Canadian I had never heard of it until an email arrived from Walt Goodridge, who offered me two ebooks to review. One tells the story of a Chinese woman working in textile factories in Saipan. The other is a children's book about a Philippine boy who wishes to be reunited with his father who works in Saipan.<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0wHzqTAmGE/UUCLDjE3vGI/AAAAAAAABmc/p5YRblHDgRc/s1600/boywhodreamedsaipan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0wHzqTAmGE/UUCLDjE3vGI/AAAAAAAABmc/p5YRblHDgRc/s320/boywhodreamedsaipan.jpg" title="The Boy Who Dreamed To Be With His Parents tells of a boy in a long-distance family, wishing to be reunited with parents who are away working." width="221" /></a><br />
The books are great books. The children's book, by Bonnie Riza Ramos, is called <em>The Boy Who Dreamed to be With His Parents on Saipan</em> and it captures both happiness and sadness. The boy has what he calls a long-distance family, and he dreams of being reunited with his father who works in Saipan. Yet this goal takes his mother away from him too for a while in order to obtain the training and work experience for the job she wants in Saipan (as a nurse). When he finally is able to leave and go to the island paradise he longs for, he must suffer the grief at leaving behind the aunt and cousins whom he has been living with.<br />
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The other book is called <em>Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin: Diary of Chinese Factory Girl on Saipan</em>. It has a wonderful collection of sayings within it, such as "<em>like a clay idol fording a river hardly able to save myself let alone anyone else"</em> or "<em>without coincidences, there would be no stories."</em> Told by Chu Yu Wang to Walt Goodridge, it creates a very lively and complicated story of life in a factory. Imagine young women bent over rows of sewing machines, working with all their might. Far from home they live in the company barracks where, with no air conditioning, they soak their bedding with water before going to sleep. They are frustrated by the corruption that means they must pay bribes to their supervisors, and by the poor conditions. Yet they have paid large amounts of money in order to have the job and they strive to fill their daily quota so that they will be granted overtime work and not have to waste the extra hours of the day unpaid. They want the jobs because they can earn more money there than they would be able to back home in China, and for some it is a respectable way to find distance from an unhappy marriage.<br />
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The textile industry in Saipan ended in 2009 with changes to the immigration laws and an increase in the minimum wage. Companies packed up and left, and many of the foreign workers returned to their homes. Presumably similar sweatshops were then set up in other locations where wages where lower.<br />
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What do I make of it all? Certainly the books complicate the image of sweatshops as these exploitative places that need to be closed instantly. Raising the minimum wage did result in a large number of women losing their jobs. (Though it did probably result in a different group of women elsewhere being given jobs.) Yet the stories don't exactly leave the impression that everything is fair and dandy either.<br />
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Over lunch I engaged my family in a brainstorming session on what could have helped the women. My oldest child queried, "wouldn't the solution just be to raise the wages in China so the women wouldn't have to leave to go to work elsewhere?" <br />
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We discussed how the inspections (both government and by the companies commissioning the clothing) were scheduled and safety precautions that would have hindered productivity were put in place. Unscheduled, unannounced inspections could have been helpful but they would have to be accompanied by an acceptance of lower productivity. How do we force companies to accept lower productivity?<br />
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I wondered about whether there could have been some sort of unemployment insurance and changes to the worker's visa policies that would have made it safer for women to complain when they had problems with their employers. Or perhaps limits on the bringing in of new foreign employees to encourage people to hire women already on the islands, so that losing a job at one factory would not be as devastating. <br />
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My impression of the books was shaped partly by having just finished reading the collection of essays published as the book <em>The Curious Feminist</em>, by Cynthia Enloe. A few of her essays deal with the offshore sneaker industry, and she writes:<br />
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<em>Sneaker company executives depend on these Korean women's marriage strategies. The South Korean government depended on this. These elite men know that women who were foused on their daughterly responsibilities and on marriage dowries were women who were not likely to strike for decent pay, for the right to unionize, or for democratic reforms. Thus when we think about globalization - and resistance to its more exploitative dynamics - we need to take women factory workers' own priorities and strategies seriously. </em></blockquote>
<em>Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skins</em> does take serious the women worker's own priorities, as it is the story as told by one of those workers, Chu Yu Wang. Besides telling her own story it includes many stories of her friends. They have the "lived experience" of being a factory worker, yet because its telling her personal story it doesn't provide the bigger picture for me to understand the extent to which Chinese women are interested or able to leave home in search of work. Is it simply a need for better wages in China, as my son suggested, or are there other factors at work? What does it take to create the circumstances where people feel safe and have the abilities to stand up for themselves? Definitely the book portrays a scenario where without working with the women to fix the problems they want, the actions to improve their situation fall flat.<br />
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Cynthia Enloe also writes:<br />
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<em>The not-so-new plot of the international trade story has been "divide and rule." If women workers and their government in one country can see that a sneaker company will pick up and leave if their labor demands prove more costly than those in a nieghbouring country, then women workers will tend to see their neighbours not as regional sisters, but as competitors who can "steal" their precarious livelihoods. Playing women off against each other is, of course, old hat. Yet the promotion of women-verse-women distrust remains an essential to international trade policies as the fine print in WTO agreements.</em> </blockquote>
I have heard people defend sweatshops on the basis that sweatshops provide jobs for those who need. To a large extent these books reinforce that idea, yet the books leave me wondering, what would it take to create a world where everyone can be meaningfully employed in safe conditions? Where family separations can be minimized? I think about things like alternative forms of measuring national well being rather than the gross domestic product - forms that measure the welfare of a nation as something closer to how it is lived by individuals rather than simply the measurement of the transferring of money. We need a world that works for people's benefits.<br />
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Is part of the solution being willing to pay more for our products? I think it probably is, but that we would need a way of knowing the money would actually go to improving worker's situations. Do we need fair-trade inspectors for clothing as well as chocolate and coffee? Saipan is an American territory, so the clothing manufactured there was labelled "Made in America." My husband expressed appreciation that we can buy second hand clothing and know we are not contributing directly towards the garment factories, since we cannot know what share of the price goes towards production.<br />
<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-86859332023962455352013-03-11T08:56:00.000-07:002013-03-11T08:56:00.119-07:00Easy Homemade Paper BoxesMy five year old wanted lots of little paper boxes for a pretend store and I wanted a way in which he could make some by himself. So I devised this method:<br />
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Take a standard sheet of printer paper. Make a hamburger fold. (A hamburger fold is a fold that divides the long-side of the sheet in two, making the resulting piece short and fat. The opposite of a hamburger fold is a hotdog fold, which divides the short side of a sheet in two and leaves you with a paper that looks long and thin like a hotdog.) <br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-55qK_9GvMKo/UTIrbzgv6LI/AAAAAAAABlk/Nkyz5H5Sc70/s1600/firststep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-55qK_9GvMKo/UTIrbzgv6LI/AAAAAAAABlk/Nkyz5H5Sc70/s320/firststep.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Now make a second fold the same direction. This fold is going to be a hotdog fold. Take a moment to admire the wonder and amazement that doing a fold the same direction twice creates different results.<br />
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Now you should have a piece of paper folded so that it is four layers thick, long and thin. Fold this band of paper into thirds the other direction. <br />
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Then unfold the whole thing. You should have a piece of paper with crease-lines dividing it into twelve squares.<br />
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The next stage I described to my son as cutting the legs to make a caterpillar. For each of the sides that has four squares and three crease lines, cut the three creaselines up to the end of one square. (See the picture above.)<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4lZne_ARe4Y/UTIuKrLKYII/AAAAAAAABl0/sI3qWXYeFnE/s1600/netofacube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4lZne_ARe4Y/UTIuKrLKYII/AAAAAAAABl0/sI3qWXYeFnE/s320/netofacube.jpg" width="320" /></a>In the second picture I've highlighted the pieces of the paper that will be the walls and lid of the box. I've also marked "A" on three squares that get glued or stapled together. The same thing happens on the other side. Take three squares, layer them on top of each other and glue or staple. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vcBvYKRd3zs/UTIu6b_L3WI/AAAAAAAABl8/OsRGCbVpCrI/s1600/finishedbox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vcBvYKRd3zs/UTIu6b_L3WI/AAAAAAAABl8/OsRGCbVpCrI/s320/finishedbox.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
The three squares become the lid with two long sides flaps that can be tucked in to hold the lid down. <br />
christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-3949535258768471302013-03-09T15:30:00.001-08:002013-03-09T15:34:41.649-08:00Developing the political will to end povertyI had the opportunity to attend a meeting hosted by <a href="http://www.povertyfreeontario.ca/" title="Poverty Free Ontario">Poverty Free Ontario</a>. There were about a hundred attendants listening to presentations and discussing how we can work to get the messages out that we cannot ignore the situations faced by those living in poverty. It was a long day for me, leaving early in the morning and not returning home until the middle of the night but I’m happily going back over my notes thinking about all the ideas presented.<br />
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One of the major themes was the lack of political will to really improve things for the poor. It is as though there was a taboo against politicians saying “we need to increase social assistance rates.” Decreasing poverty just isn’t a topic they can get elected on, and politicians are better off politically by trying to take away from the poor instead. Hugh MacKenzie, an economist with the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, compared it to the story of a man searching for his keys under a lightpost because that’s where its easiest to look, even though that isn’t where he dropped them. It is politically non-toxic to try to search for the money to solve the deficits by going after the poor, even though that isn’t where the money really is.<br />
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Marvyn Norvick spoke about how “vigilance means unpacking the double talk. You can’t do social justice advocacy by double talking people into deeper poverty.” Refusing to index social assistance rates to inflation is equivalent to a cutting the rates. When politicians talk about “repairing a system that’s badly broken” they’re implying that we should do with the system what people generally do with badly broken things and scrap it altogether. The system isn’t really broken. The checks it writes aren’t large enough but the system itself isn’t broken.<br />
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Other examples of double-talk included how “restoring the dignity of a job” means removing the dignity from those who lack jobs. Workfare amounts to a starvation strategy to try to force people to take low-paying jobs that aren’t really worth doing. Employment opportunities need to pay living wages, not just allow people to exchange one poverty for another.<br />
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Nancy Vander Plaat from the ODSP Action Coalition talked about how we need to watch closely what changes are being proposed for ODSP and OW. Some of the proposed changes amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul. If the earnings exemption (allowing people to keep a larger amount of their earnings without it being clawed-back) is increased by removing the employment benefit, people aren’t really better off. Raising the rates for social assistance overall by cutting the special dietary supplement is going to adversely affect many people with special dietary needs. She cautioned also against the idea that simplifying the rules is going to make things better. “Simplification without adequacy is like a flat tax.” There are reasons for having large numbers of rules.<br />
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She also spoke about how moving ODSP to the municipalities will create more inequality within the province where disabled people in one city will be denied services they might be able to access in another, and she cited how the downloading of the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB) has demonstrated the same problem.<br />
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There was talk about the need to appreciate the value of public services, and to be willing to spend money on it. This was a particularly strong theme in Hugh MacKenzie’s presentation. Some of the ideas he mentioned were from his article about <a href="http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/Taxes_and_Public_Services_Speech.pdf">the need for an adult conversation on taxes.</a><br />
Another aspect of Mr. Mackenzie’s presentation was highlighting how there are funds available. Removing the exemptions on the employer health tax would raise 2.6 billion for Ontario. Raising provincial gas taxes by a dime – the equivalent of B.C.’s carbon tax – would raise 2 billion. Returning the corporate income tax rates to the 2008 rates (14% instead of today’s 11%) would be another possibility. There is money. It could fund the social services we need. We need to stop talking about a revenue shortage and talk more about the social services shortage.<br />
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Hugh MacKenzie also explained what he called the Conservative Ratchet Effect. The idea is that the economy naturally cycles through recessions and recovery. During recessions tax revenue decreases and the governments see a deficit. The Conservative Ratchet Effect is that every time this happens they argue that the deficit means we have to cut spending, so they cut services. When the economy recovers there is then a surplus and they respond with tax cuts. Next recession sees another shortfall and further and so they cut spending. Through each cycle the amount of services the government provides gets smaller and smaller. MacKenzie suggested we should imagine the opposite possibility. Instead of cutting spending during a recession we could increase taxes. Next time there’s a surplus we could increase the services offered. As we move through the cycles we could see more services provided to benefit all of us living here.<br />
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I appreciated the event as a chance to meet and talk with other anti-poverty advocates, as well as the opportunity to think about how I speak about things and what ways I could work to cut through the political double-speak. We need to work to create the political will that will allow politicians to make changes, and we need to do it quickly. As Marvin Novick said, “the lives of people cannot be put on hold till 2017″ (when the proposed deficit will be gone). Change needs to come now.<br />
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As I was listening I heard people speak with guarded hope but an abundance of fear too. We have a new premier who has not signed the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation pledge not to raise taxes and she has spoken of wanting to be a social justice premier. Those might be a good sign. Yet many people also voiced doubt that she would do more than steps, and fear for her connection with Drummund. Individuals also spoke of fear for the proposterous proposals coming from her Conservative opposition and of disappointment that the NDP are unwilling to really talk about poverty. There was an acknowledgement that it will take a lot of pressure before politicians are willing to break the taboo and offer to raise social assistance rates.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-14399854788694068162013-03-08T10:00:00.000-08:002013-03-08T10:00:03.339-08:00Giving time<br />
I've had some experience both being a recepient of others assistance and of helping others. I've also participated in group actions either for causes or for individuals, and I've helped to organize events. All of this has given me an appreciation of the gift of time. I don't mean having lots of time oneself, but being willing to just give time to someone or something else, no strings attached.<br />
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I think of one incident. A group of us where there to help someone. Things were dull and at some point someone whispered "why did I bother coming?" The comment bit into my mind. I felt a momentary surge of frusturation, worried that we would have to make everything exciting enough or people wouldn't want to continue to be involved. Then I had a flash of insight and some peace. It was the person's problem if he regretted the time spent or not. It wasn't mine.<br />
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Time is a gift. If you're going to give it, give it without strings attached. Thinking about that I wanted to write out some guidelines for giving your time.<br />
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1) Never give time you don't have. Nothing breeds resentment like giving up time you don't have.<br />
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2) Take responsibility for your decision to give your time. If you give your time, it is not the recepients problem that you didn't manage to get the paper written you needed to, or the housework or whatever else it is you could have been doing instead. Its your decision. Stick to it.<br />
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3) Are you doing it to support a person? If so, do it for love of that person and try not to measure the success by your own standards but by theirs. <br />
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4) Remember that there is importance in just being there. Sometime I'll go to try to help out at a community supper or something and find there's actually lots of people there to help and I sort of feel like an unnecessary extra. Yet I know from organizing things it is sometimes hard to pin down how many people will actually show up and how many will be needed. Showing up can be a gift to the organizers, some extra security for them against the fearful prospect of not having enough people and assuring them that you value the project and what they are doing. If you measure the worth of being there by whether there's actually stuff for you to do you can miss realizing that there is importance in just being there for them. I'm learning that I don't need to have things to do, and that sometimes mingling with the crowd and talking is important too.<br />
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5) That brings me to my next point. Giving time to someone or something doesn't mean one completely loses the time either. Take the time to grow in some way.<br />
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<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-65949927288594013602013-03-07T05:29:00.001-08:002013-03-07T05:50:58.324-08:00Oh no... I've been sucked in by Coasterville!Help! I've been sucked into a facebook game Coasterville. Yikes.......<br />
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Actually, there are many reasons for me to find the game interesting. It fits with my obsessive breaking down of things into their constituent parts. The value of a purchase on coasterville is a combination of different things:<br />
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- energy points<br />
- coins<br />
- thrill points<br />
- resources<br />
- goods<br />
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The basic energy points are given to players one every five minutes, even when the game is turned off. So the first time in the day you've logged in you'll find yourself with a full 30 energy points. If you spend those quickly and then leave the computer for half an hour, when you come back you should have about six more. If you stretch your imagination to imagine the coasterville employee running an amusement park you can imagine this is assigning his time. You don't have to sit there and assign it every five minutes, you can let it be stored. <br />
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So time becomes the basic thing from which all other resources flow, but there's a couple of other ways in which time is relevant too. There is time before different things become active again (before rides need to be restarted, goods need to be ordered, resources crafted). There's time doing something as assigned by the energy-points and there's time waiting for things. And of course there is the ever present acknowledgement that everything to do with Coasterville is a waste of time that could be spent elsewhere, but that's a different issue.<br />
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I like the idea of having multiple currencies because I think that reflects our lives in some ways. Time can be spent earning money which can be used to reduce the time we spend doing something else and the calculations are not always obvious as everything has side effects and complications. One example that comes to my mind is a sentence I've heard a number of places that says "breastfeeding is only free if your time costs nothing." The idea is used mainly in response to people saying that breastfeeding is free. Yes, it doesn't cost money but it does require time which has value in itself and can be exchanged for money. Yet of course the decision to breastfeed or not is not going to be made simply by asking whether the cost of formula is less than one could earn during the time one otherwise spends nursing. There's going to be a million other considerations. Coasterville's simplified world and abundance of consequenceless decisions allows some downtime and yet still a framework for thinking about the more complicated decisions of life.<br />
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With energy points you can collect from stores (to get coins) or rides (to get thrill points). You can also gather up the generic goods that you've ordered. So in effect coins and thrill points amount to a sort of stored energy points.<br />
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When you order goods you can order 50 goods for 100 coins delivered in five minutes (real time), or larger packages such as 100 goods for 150 coins delivered in two hours (real time) all the way up to the largest 300 goods for 300 coins delivered in 22 hours. You can speed up a delivery by using one energy point to cut the delivery time by half. You can do this repetitively but as half of a half of a half gets smaller and smaller it feels less and less rewarding. Thus I introduced my children to the term diminishing rewards. Coins are reasonably easy to come by so the price difference doesn't matter as much as the amount of energy points used up. My eight year old likes the game so I made him sit with me and calculate out which is a better deal - ordering lots of the small deliveries or one of the large delivery but speeding it up. We talked about all the different factors involved - the value of the coins, the time before the delivery, the time spent playing the game (if one has to click a button every five minutes, rather than click one button five times and then leave the computer alone), etc.<br />
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Then there's the "social" aspect of the game. In order to succeed at coasterville you need facebook friends who also play coasterville willing to be your neighbours. You can check the coasterville facebook page to find other people willing to become friends in order to do this. From each friend you can request and receive one resource every day - and your friends don't have to have the resource you want, only click okay to give it to you and it appears in your inventory. Depending on the number of coasterville neighbours you have, the daily resource can feel quite inexpensive or quite expensive. <br />
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There's another way to ask your friends for resources too. Clicking on certain buttons allows a little message to go on your facebook page. Facebook friends who click on the message can "give" you the resource you're looking for and receive one at the same time. It's this happy little world where everything is like the magic penny where the more you "give" the more you receive and everything appears out of nowhere. So of course yet another way to get resources is to scour your facebook friend's walls for other requests.<br />
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There are other things too where the cost is a friend's clicking "okay." You can order more supplies at a time if your friend clicks "okay" to your request for help. You can build a bigger hotel if your friend clicks "okay." None of it costs your friend anything but a click. So why have it? I suspect it is partly so that peer pressure will encourage people to play more and partly because so that there is a delay before a person can acquire what they want.<br />
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The game is meant to suck you in. Forget to play today? Don't worry, your coasterville neighbour's requests will remind you to! Also, the updated messages on your feed. What does it do though, to your own facebook feed? I've created a separate "list" for my friends-who-play-coasterville so that I can try to hide the messages (and thus my obsession with the game) from other people, yet a part of my mind is still self-conscious of the game and of the possibility that allowing messages from it to be posted on my facebook page might somehow affect how facebook positions my status updates on my friends feeds.<br />
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Other resources are obtained by searching the stores or boosting the rides (all at the expense of energy points). Some of the resources are easy to come by and others aren't. Some are needed frequently and others aren't.<br />
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On the left of the board are cartoon pictures of the amusement park's advisory team. These characters give you "quests" with three or so tasks such as finding six of a particular resource, building a particular attraction and boosting a different attraction. At the end of every quest is a reward. The term quest annoys me, because I still think of quests as something that heroes do. The term itself seems degraded when applied to little tasks. From what I gather some of the quests, particularily those related to opening up themes like princess fantasy, jungle adventure, etc, are scheduled and revealed according to how big a person's amusement park is and other quests are given to everyone at once relating to some new attraction available for new and old players alike. Although seeing which quests my friends complete is supposed to be encouraging, I find it discouraging. It reminds me that we are all doing the same things and that there is really no individuality in the game, nor any sense of being finished. It is a treadmill. <br />
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The game throws at a person a million little calculations - should I boost the ride for more thrill points or search the stores for more coins? I can boost my popularity points (necessary for unlocking new rides and businesses) by buying decorations, but the decorations take up space which is limited too. So do I have more money or more space to spend? My sons and I end up talking about relative scarcity and opportunity costs. All these questions none of which matter in the slightest because worst comes to worst you have to wait an extra day or two to get what you wanted to get.<br />
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The goal of the game from its maker's point of view would be to make it just frustrating enough that a person won't want to wait the required time or take the required steps. Besides the coins one can acquire free and easily by clicking on buildings frequently enough the game has a second set of currency, the Park Cash. This you get from either purchasing directly, from purchasing from their sponsors or filling out surveys. <br />
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<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-14230901137692706172013-03-03T11:34:00.000-08:002013-03-03T11:34:00.045-08:00Simple games for learning Roman Numerals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r6ryS8XCrMQ/USfGNg6LC8I/AAAAAAAABkk/EOovyvo0ZPg/s1600/romannumerals.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r6ryS8XCrMQ/USfGNg6LC8I/AAAAAAAABkk/EOovyvo0ZPg/s320/romannumerals.JPG" width="214" /></a></div>
My second child has reached the age where we can read Asterix and Obelix comic books together, with him reading the easier speech balloons and I helping him with the harder ones. As we go along we talk about the puns and jokes and I try to fill him in on random historical or cultural information. There's something comforting and familiar about going through the same rituals with him that I did with my older boy.<br />
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One of the things we come across in Asterix and Obelix comics is Roman numerals, and since I think those are important to learn we turn to working on those. Today's activity started with rolling two dice and writing down in Roman numerals whatever score we rolled, talking about the number in relationship to fives. My little guy decorated the paper as a race-track and to make it into a race game, but there was no real competition simply looking at the number and writing it down. As we do, we review numbers. Seven is five and two. Eight is five and three. I love how Roman numerals highlight these connections, so important to make. Four - that's one before five. Nine is one before ten. <br />
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Next I make out a simple abacus board. A few years ago (when my oldest son was the age second son is now) I read the book <em>The history of the abacus</em> by J. M. Pullan and realized that abacus don't need to involve beads and wires. Some where counting boards, with different locations marked off. So I made one, marking off rows for I, V, X, L and C. The 5s and 50s I indent slightly to show they are different from the other three. Then we rolled dice, adding the numbers to keep a running total.<br />
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The game goes something like this. Someone rolls a four and puts four markers out. When the next person rolls a three he'll have to put three markers on and I'll comment that "it's too crowded there... only four markers allowed on that row." Then five markers are removed and one marker is placed in the next row. We keep going until our collective total reaches 100. The indent rows have to be cleared so they hold only a single marker. Next time I'll have him keep track of the totals on a calculator too.<br />
<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-48511092411159240572013-03-01T08:02:00.000-08:002013-03-01T08:02:11.080-08:00confidentiality agreements and power imbalancesOne of the many things that makes me uncomfortable with the way our laws work is the abundance and acceptance of confidentiality rules. <br />
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I'm thinking about things like clauses in employment contracts that prohibit the employee from talking with their coworkers about how much they earn. This allows employers to pay different wages for similar work and experience, with employees unable to complain because to do so would indicate they had broken the confidentiality agreement.<br />
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I'm thinking also about reading stories online about since Target has bought out Zellars and will be converting the stores to Target stores. Target has said it is not going to allow Zellars workers to keep their jobs at the new stores, they will have to apply for new jobs and if hired at Target none of their time worked at Zellars will count. When I made some very minor inquiries at our local store employees told me that they were under secrecy agreements and could not discuss it. (See <a href="http://www.targetfairness.ca/">Target Fairness</a> website for what information is available.)<br />
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In Ontario conflicts between landlords and tenants go before the landlord-tenant board and are dealt with either through mediators or tribunal. Mediated results are confidential agreements between the two parties and can include confidentiality clauses limiting the amount the parties can reveal to others. If the complaint is against the landlord, one tenant may be able to get justice but the rest of the tenants are forbidden from being told that they too might be entitled to justice. Tenants might be told they cannot talk with their neighbours about certain topics - like that they are not supposed to discuss maintenance or building policy. Besides preventing effective organizing, this can take a toll on the tenants mental health. Tenants can end up fearing that they will accidentally divulge something they are not permitted to and they can be scared of asking friends and neighbours for help. (For example, if a tenant is forbidden from discussing maintenance issues with a neighbour they may feel they can not ask the neighbour for assistance when they need to move furniture to make way for maintenance work.) Why should landlords be able to restrict conversation between tenants?<br />
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The knowledge that there are these contracts bothers me. There may be times when they are needed and they may be advantageous to the people with the power to insert them into agreements, but they should not be considered socially acceptable. They are reminders to me that not every injustice is aired to public debate. <br />
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These are voluntary agreements, to the extent that people can choose not to work for employers who require confidentiality agreements, though it would be doubtful that social assistance or employment insurance offices would consider that a justifiable reason for turning down the employment. They can choose not to rent from landlords who insist upon them. They can choose to face the landlord tenant tribunals (which are generally open to the public) instead of engaging in mediation (which can involve confidentiality issues) though I frequently hear fears expressed that the landlord tenant tribunals are biased towards the landlords.<br />
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We live with power imbalances. We don't always have many choices and often our choices are between two bad ones, shaped not just by our own previous decisions but by what society collectively allows as normal and acceptable. Should these type of restrictions on people's speech be considered normal and acceptable?<br />
<br />christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-387450841174373747.post-51947186225661072072013-02-26T10:30:00.000-08:002013-02-26T10:30:40.582-08:00an open-letter about social assistance in Ontario<br />
The other day I sent off a bunch of handwritten letters. They varied depending on whom I wrote them to. The one to the Ontario NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, went like this.<br />
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<em>Dear Ms. Horwath,</em></blockquote>
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<em>Though I am not personally on Ontario Works, I have many conversations with those who are. They are scared. Rents are increasing and the money they receive is not nearly enough. They need an immediate increase in funding, but that's not what I'm writing about. I'm writing to say that when someone on Ontario Works ends up homeless and couch-surfing, she should be allowed to save the rent-portion of the money she receives, rather than receiving less because she is not paying rent. He or she should be allowed to save this money for emergencies or to use for first or last months rent. This is so important, particularly given that there is no reliable Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit anymore.</em></blockquote>
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<em>I was a volunteer with the NDP going door-to-door last election, and I hope to do it against next election, but I'd also love to have the NDP do more - much more - for those living in poverty.</em></blockquote>
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<em>Sincerely, </em></blockquote>
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<em>Christy</em></blockquote>
I felt completely crazy writing the letters, because the situation is so insane. People on social assistance should be given enough to pay their rent, to live their lives, etc, without worry. Couch-surfing as a way to save up a bit of money for emergencies is crazy. Yet I wrote the letters anyway, because I'm stubborn and want to remind the politicians that there are always small ways they could improve the lot for people living in poverty, even if they don't think they have the political will to give decent amounts to those on social assistance.christykhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17944469899613386585noreply@blogger.com0