Contents
- All hail the Librarians!!
- HERSTORY IN THE MAKING
- Jean-Marie Boileau
- People of China
- Mardi
- ALL or NOTHING
- Aug 27th the Whole World is waiting for...
- To the Residents of the DTES:
- 21st Anniversary!!! -(and 1st retraction)
- The clock is ticking on homelessness and the Olympics
- Share that $4.1 billion surplus with poor kids.
- People Who Use Drugs Protest Police Sweeps
- WHINER OR WINER
- Sisters
- Another Frog
- Hon. Rich Coleman, Minister Responsible for Housing
- Are you aware of the Law of Compensation?
- uncle sam
- the "politicization of the strike"
- The Golden Rule
- It used to be
- INJURY TIME
- Yearly income assistance rates:
All hail the Librarians!!
This photo shows a portion of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 391 on the outside of our Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, Robson street.
As expected, the corporate firm dictating to City Council what will and what will not be accepted has its control of the media to thank for the bias in said media’s coverage of this charade.
They’ve almost shut up the mayor, mostly due to his ever-embarrassing knack for sounding like he’s had his orders and the union should realise that he, Sam Sullivan, won’t ever be guilty of insubordination!
Librarians have only three local issues: First, the women want pay equity. Many staff have university degrees but all female employees get paid 3/4 -at best- of what men are paid for the same work. Next, they want job security, with specific language in the collective agreement prohibiting contracting out. The third matter is getting benefits for all the part-time people who are purposel;y not given enough work by management to 'qualify' under current rules.
The real agenda behind the mentioned charade of “talks” is hard to hide any more, despite the low-balling in the news and almost exclusive TV shots of how much poor individuals are being affected by the ‘nastypig-headedselfishbastards' union for not taking what they’re being so generously offered.
Even those who get their rocks off trashing the Downtown Eastside are jumping on the bandwagon, calling the neighbourhood “usually dirty DE” and emphasising the picturesqueness of our streets & alleys awash in bags and piles of trash.
Of course they all neglect to say, even subtly encourage the solution being taken by citizens elsewhere coming to the area and throwing bags of garbage out of car doors and off the backs of pickup trucks.
Wouldn’t it be something if every slimy move by managers and other muckety-mucks became public knowledge as it was happening or at least right after such an incident, and then they had to answer for their sleaze without spin doctors or “public statements” trying to hide such behind words and pictures put together only for that purpose!?!
A quote on the front page of the Asian Post is apropos: “An intellectual is someone who uses too many words to say more than he knows.” This was Dwight Eisenhower, the President of the US who also was the first to warn the world about the Military-Industrial-Financial Complex.
Grey is more realistic than stark black & white.
By PAULR TAYLOR
HERSTORY IN THE MAKINGHERSTORY IN THE MAKING
For the first time in the history of Vancouver the members of CUPE Local 329, all union employees of the Vancouver Public Library, are on Strike.
Librarians and their supporting co-workers are almost impossible to piss off. Anger and job action accompany the refusal by Employers to bargain in good faith, but librarians are so helpful and forgiving and almost solely interested in increasing anyone’s awareness.. raising anyone’s consciousness.. opening doors for anyone to learn that such radical, even revolutionary behaviour in walking out hit the City like a hammer.
The City of Vancouver, through the Public Library’s management, thought the aforementioned was a given and, as always, these dedicated and good citizens would quietly accept their “Only offer of a contract (with all conditions imposed as though by God Herself) and let said corporate managers of the City give their full attention to and get nasty with all other City employees.
Hah!!
All union employees, this time for the first time, shut down every branch in every neighbourhood. With expected intelligence all people formed one picket line at one location – the Central Branch on East Georgia.
To make the picket duty bearable, even fun and instructive, librarians have held knitting classes, spelling bees and even a mass escapade of doing origami. The radicalness boggles the mind!!!
The vast majority of library employees are female. An African saying is ideationally correct and apropos: “When you touch the women, you touch the rock.”
By PAULR TAYLOR
Jean-Marie Boileau
Jean-Marie I never knew you
I never knew you for seven years
Yet you were always the same
A polite and friendly bonjour
(I practiced my high school French
and you indulged me)
You were the guy who stood up
You were the guy who stood out
At the Woodward's Protest
I never suspected you were political
Artistic, yes, and diplomatic
Accepting the myriad moods
of many manic members
Not judging
A steady influence in your department
A rough one
One I had refused
Jean Marie I never knew you
I wish I had some justification
Some way of saying ... what
Jean-Marie I will miss you
Jean-Marie I grieve for-you
Love,
Wilhelmina
People of China
Arrivals come from overseas
and start a community to save their culture
the people of the new China still have
their language, they have a voice.
Papers with characters of lines and dots
Symbols for words
Years go by and still Chinatown lives.
The old Chinese
are reluctant to let go of their past
but their children rush on to their
future. Along the way they pass
the symbols, give up the food and
fall in love with Canada. The first
arrivals grow old and die together
beside their graves are Chinese symbols
only able to be read by the first arrivals.
Jackie Humber.
MardiMardi
Monsoon in the North West
Cold – wet and refreshing betimes
Miserable and soul downing other times
Depends – don’t it?
If’n you have a hearth to hurry home to
A honey to hug the cold away
And some spaghetti
With a nice rough red for supper
Wine, I mean.
Food and passion heals those slings
And arrows of outrageous fortune
Flesh being heir to all that shit.
Wilhelmina
ALL or NOTHINGALL or NOTHING
A city’s Mayor. The Boss. The Man who runs this metropolis from an elevated grandstand.
He Rules. He sulks; he hates contraband delved from allies of dumpsters – you know, stuff like junk, bottles and cans and filthy also-rans.
You’ve read the press; you’ve seen the news: He just don’t get it, he don’t understand, a twisted view like a sitting hen croaking “Let’s smoke here but let’s not smoke there!”
This mayor, this dude and this right-eous party that’s catch as catch can: “DON”T loiter, spit, nor be vagrant on a public bench that’s vacant…”
Some may not pay taxes: that you suggest in your innuendos of lessened rights and restricted zones all based on your best guess…
We are not the losers that you may think, though your mind seems set, taut and on the blink/brink.
No social housing though, no, you’re not for that so it’s sink or swim, tit for tat. Hey! You pass the buck so well it seems quite the deal, the art of washing away the humanity, the stardust of fellow human beings, unequal in your narrow beady eyes where assumptions are made based mostly on fabricated lies from phony sources and people who have been both defrocked by public opinion and despised in public eyes, dudes occupying stolen Aboriginal land, white people both dead and alive move from slow to fade (you wish) but it ain’t gonna happen!!
We want to tell now of different bands who’ve long been here, so, be on guard, beware throngs who will protest with words, chants and sacred ancient songs. Our hearts have travelled where spirits soar. This land we tread upon is sacred you fool; its ownership keeps us strong. When all is
said and done, we will win a sentient peace.
Robyn Livingstone
Aug 27th the Whole World is waiting for...Aug 27th the Whole World is waiting for...
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
This will cultivate on August 27 when Mars comes within 34.65 million miles of earth. Be
sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27, 12:30 am.
It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287 .
Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.
" Unshared JOY is an Unlighted CANDLE "
To the Residents of the DTES: Information needed on past abuses suffered by low-income
persons in the DTES by staff at the Waldorf Hotel
I have been told by residents of the DTES that the Waldorf has engaged in unlawful acts throughout the years. If you know of anyone who has suffered or been humiliated at the hands of its staff, please let me know. This letter is especially targeted to low income residents of the DTES.
I recently was witness to an older man being assaulted and threatened (poorbashed) by a manager at the Waldorf. I think it is time to tell the community how Waldorf employees treat the poor.
I was just told on Thursday (August 9th) by Waldorf management that the sidewalk belongs to the Walfdorf (not true). Subsequently, I was told that the Waldorf does not allow low-income residents or panhandlers to frequent the sidewalk (any person can access the sidewalks anytime they want). A sidewalk is public space for the use of all.
I want to compile a list of complaints to send to the City. If there are sufficient complaints, the City will have to consider whether or not to rescind the Waldorf’s business licence and liquor licence. Yes, we little people have power. Why we seem to have less rights than others is because we are usually the last to complain, although it is our civic duty. If we do nothing, slowly our civil rights will be eroded, and we will soon need a special permission slip to walk down a street and, trust me, it will happen.
Audrey Laferriere
audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca
(or leave a note at DERA)
21st Anniversary!!!
This is magic, and not the sleight-of-hand kind. On August 15, 1986 the first issue of the Carnegie Newsletter was published – 12 pages in 60 copies run off on an old photocopier upstairs.
It has been called everything from “THAT *^#$^&X&*%^ yellow rag” to “a gem, a jewel of the Downtown Eastside.”
Writings include personal stories and articles on all manner of stuff; poets and poetry are a mainstay of every edition with submissions from shy hopefuls to seasoned veterans – always fresh and poignant. Original graphic art is relatively rare but welcome and makes the bit about a picture ‘n a thousand words vibrate!
The first and (I think) only instance of libellous statements occurred in the August 1, 2007 issue. That’s pretty good over 21 years, but the following statement is the first retraction and apology as well. A decent outcome has been the virtually unanimous perception that “This isn’t Paul. He’s never taken this tack; I couldn’t believe it.”
Back to basic principles: better to go and get first-hand information from observation and pointed questions/comments no matter how much I trust the first source...
As to the future – there’s room for at least 4 more years, then it’ll be a quarter-of-a-century!!!
PaulR Taylor
Re: Carnegie Community Centre Association
(August 1, 2007 Carnegie Newsletter)
The above issue appeared the day before the August meeting of the CCCA’s Board of Directors. Due to opinions expressed by the undersigned, it was determined that a meeting of the Publications Committee would be held to address the implications of the editorial vis-a-vis the Publications Policy.
Having read my writing in light of a specific point in said Policy I admit it was over the line between acceptable content and blatant disrespect. The context is secondary: accusing someone in print of being a “liar”, “criminal” and “guilty of fraud” is unconscionable.
I made these disparaging remarks as a response to ongoing sleaze on the part of an author who does everything possible to remain anonymous. William Simpson, the target of said remarks, claimed and claims he is not the author. He has direct links to every article written by this anony- mous source on his (Simpson’s) website. I wasn’t aware of this distinction and concluded that William Simpson was the author. This appears to have been incorrect and I apologise for the hurt my remarks may have had and am ethically compelled to retract my written assertions.
Respectfully submitted,
PaulR Taylor,
Volunteer editor.
PS: The person referred to in the first part of the Aug.1 article wishes to state that I didn’t present her side of the story. I apologise to Rachel Davis.
The clock is ticking on homelessness and the Olympics
At the Vancouver Art Gallery is the official countdown clock for the 2010 Olympics: there are now well less than one thousand days left until the opening ceremonies. That may seem like plenty of time, but for folks concerned about the crisis in affordable housing, there is a lot of work to be done to get the place in shape.
While there is lots of housing being built right now, the problem with the current boom is that almost none of it will be affordable. The mass marketing campaigns plastered on billboards and in full-page newspaper ads have one thing in common: an obsession with luxury, exclusivity and privilege. This inner-city housing aims to safely tuck away affluent people from the homeless on the street, not to reduce their numbers.
This should be no surprise: this is the market in action. Developers build to make money on their investments. And poor people are not profitable.
With this context in mind, a group of unlikely collaborators called the Inner-City Inclusive Housing Table produced a report in March with 24 recommendations to end homelessness by 2010. The report's centrepiece is a call for 3,200 units of social housing between now and the Games, a target that is not that radical. Back in the days when the federal and provincial governments were still in the business of creating social housing (before 1993), we built 2,000 units per year in BC.
On the other hand, the table was under the wing of VANOC and its participants included such figures as developer Robert Fung, Al Kemp of the BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association, and Peter Simpson of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, in addition to representatives of three levels of government, and a number of community service providers So consider it a broad-based recognition of the need for action. Since the report came out, over 100 organizations have endorsed its recommendations.
To directly address the immediate crisis, the 3,200 units would largely be "supportive housing" units for people with mental health and/or addiction problems. This model, where access to health care and other supports is provided on site, has proven to be successful here and elsewhere.
The good news is that resources are available to make this happen. Based on standard estimates, the cost of the VANOC 3,200 units is $640 million. In contrast, over the past three years, the provincial government has had a surplus of revenues over expenditures of $10 billion, with another $3 billion surplus expected this year. The cost of meeting the VANOC units thus amounts to less than one-sixth of last year's $4 billion budget surplus.
In addition to the up-front capital cost, there would also be an ongoing cost of running the housing. But we should not necessarily think of this as a cost increase. A study done in 2001 for the provincial government found that while it costs money to house the homeless, doing so is actually cheaper than the indirect costs of neglect - paid for through expensive visits to emergency rooms, the criminal justice system and other social services.
The bottom line: we can afford to do this - and more. Ultimately, we need a long-term, "big bang" approach to affordable housing that guarantees a percentage of affordable units as new housing development happens. If we do not ensure it by design, it will simply not be there. In the meantime, we need action.
The Housing Table report provides a good starting point for addressing the worst problems of addiction and mental health problems related to homelessness, and all levels of government should make it a top priority.
By Marc Lee
Marc Lee is Editor of BC Commentary and Senior Economist with the CCPA-BC.
How big is Taylor's heart?
Share that $4.1 billion surplus with poor kids.
BC Finance Minister Carole Taylor is approaching her political moment of truth with the provincial government's whopping $4.1 billion surplus this past year and more to come in the years ahead.
Taylor could take the easy way out -- tax cuts, debt repayment, infrastructure or spending on only the most popular government programs -- and eventually retire from politics with a legacy that is totally unoriginal and easily forgotten.
Or she could decide to make a real difference in the lives of low-income British Columbians by leading the charge against B.C.'s truly shameful record on poverty.
Taylor and the rest of the BC Liberals have promised a golden future for B.C., a future that will make the province the best place to live in Canada. But that goal will never be reached as long as a significant portion of the population is cut off from the mainstream of community life by virtue of their very low incomes.
BC worst for child poverty
The BC Progress Board set up six years ago to monitor a host of economic and social indicators says in its most recent report that the province had the second worst poverty record of any province in 2005. An estimated 17.2 per cent of all family units were living below Statistics Canada's low income cut-offs after income taxes. That's 97,000 families plus 217,000 unattached persons.
The record on child poverty is just as dismal. BC. has had the worst child poverty rate of any province for four consecutive years. Think of 126,000 poor children in B.C. in 2005, or 15.2 per cent of all children, according to Statistics Canada.
The Progress Board has been scratching its head about the reasons for such high poverty rates in a province where the economy as a whole is booming. Meanwhile, the social policy community has come to a remarkably close consensus on what needs to be done.
Action items
The list includes the following items:
-A speedy increase in the minimum wage to $10 or $11 an hour followed by annual cost-of-living increases in the minimum wage. It’s ludicrous that a B.C. government which values paid work so highly would allow a person to work full-time, full-year and still wind up below the poverty line.
-A major increase in social housing construction by both the federal and provincial governments. The 2007 B.C. budget was mostly small tax cuts disguised as a housing budget.
-A full-fledged child care system to replace the current patchwork system of grants and subsidies that serves some, but not most B.C. parents with young children.
-A hefty and immediate increase in B.C. welfare rates and automatic cost-of-living increases every year thereafter. The small and selective increases of recent years are not even credible first steps toward reasonable welfare rates.
-A provincial return to the field of child benefits in a meaningful way. The B.C. government has been clawing back provincial benefits every year as the federal government increases the National Child Benefit Supplement. The B.C. Family Bonus has virtually disappeared, and the B.C. Earned Income Benefit has become a shadow of its former self.
Taylor's moment of truth
Everyone realizes that a war on poverty won't be won overnight, but it also won't be won with tiny changes in policy here and there. So the question becomes: Will Taylor finally start listening to the advice she gets about fighting poverty?
The answer to that question could determine whether Taylor spends her time in office as just another politician or a leader who was daring enough to become a champion of people in need.
By Steve Kerstetter
Steve Kerstetter is a CCPA-BC (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) research associate and member of the co-ordinating committee of First Call, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.
Prison Justice Day Friday, August 10th
What started as a one time event in a prison in 1975 has become an international day of solidarity when prisoners fast, refuse to work and remain in their cells. Their supporters gather in the community to honour the memory of those who have died, to demand action to stop preventable deaths and disease in prisons.
People Who Use Drugs Protest Police Sweeps &
Lack of Needle Exchange & Safe Tattooing in Prisons
On Friday August 10th at the 222 Main St. courthouse, VANDU protested VPD crack downs on DTES “dealers” linking these frivolous “sweeps” with increased vulnerability of jailed people to HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C
A police operation dubbed “Tyke 2” targeted the street level drug trade in the DTES from July 3rd to 13th. Undercover officers purchased very small amounts of crack cocaine and heroin and then arrested 63 people during a twenty-hour sweep on July 19th.
Police say that they targeted these “dealers” to lessen their negative effect on the DTES community, claiming to reduce public disorder, to prevent loss of revenue for local business, to lower the number of break-ins by addicts looking to feed their habits and to deter illegal drug use.
Dean Wilson of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) suggests that the opposite is true. “Addicts are the ones beings picked up, not the dealers. They just hold the drugs so the big guys don’t get busted. But what happens is they must commit further crime so that they can replace the drugs that are confiscated by police. So in fact, more crime is generated by these arrests”
This observation is based in fact as researchers at The Center of Excellence on HIV/AIDS have shown that police crackdowns often have the exact opposite outcome than what was intended. Rather than reduced criminal activity and/or reduced illicit drug use, these activities are displaced to other neighbourhoods and Police actions cause no overall reduction of drug dealing or use.
Ann Livingston, executive program director of VANDU, worries that with so many addicts being arrested and incarcerated, jails become disease time bombs. ”30 or 40% of addicts here are already HIV positive and up to 90% have hepatitis C. With no needle exchange behind bars, are we not asking for more trouble?” asks Livingston. “We have wide agreement, even from the police, that prison is not the place for people with substance misuse issues and then we endure police actions that the police defend with poorly thought out reasoning, such as deterring drug use. There may well be people with addiction issues who stop using drugs because of police actions but we observe that most VANDU members are arrested and many are jailed but continue to use illegal drugs.”
VANDU has repeatedly asked the VPD to stop these sweeps and to participate with community groups who work to improve living conditions in the DTES by targeting violent dealers and unscrupulous landlords. As one user stated “I have never seen anyone quit using drugs because of
police pressure.”
For more information contact: Ann Livingston
cell 604 719 5313
VANDU 604 683 6061
The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) is a group of users and former users who work to improve the lives of people who use illicit drugs through user based peer support and education.
WHINER OR WINER
Well I just about completed my Science 101 project. We were told to pick a project and it would be a rewarding experience. I guess it is. I chose as my project a seemingly silly or simple project. I decided to make wine. I had thought about making beer but I was fooling around and someone suggested that I make wine. I thought “Why not?” I mean how hard can it be? Put some berries in a pail and add some sugar and yeast. Relatively simple concept. RIGHT? It turned out to be a bit more difficult than that. I guess the hardest part was deciding what kind of wine to make. I picked Blueberry because I read about all the good things that are associated with them. All the good antioxidants and such, it seemed like a grand idea and I was gonna use honey instead of sugar. That should make it really healthy, my wonder drink that would cure everyone of everything.
This is when I started learning about the reality of life. First Blueberries on the west coast have a chemical called Sorbate. It inhibits the yeast from working. Then honey doesn’t work well with yeast. For some reason honey doesn’t ferment when placed with yeast. I never did find out why. So far I ‘m batting a thousand or at least I have two strikes against me. The third strike was that I had never made wine before. One time I did make Sake but that was about ten years ago and I didn’t like it although a friend of mine drank most of it. It got him drunk. Well now you can see why I called this story whiner or winer. I seem to be whining about everything. I’ve finished the wine and people I’ve tested it on seem to like it. I didn’t actually test it on them, they asked for a drink and I allowed them one or two just to get a reaction. Maybe it is testing. But it was a necessity in order to find out if I was going in the proper direction. I did taste it myself and I liked the taste. The WineKitz person named Cheryl where I got my supplies liked it too. One of my classmates really liked it. He even offered to buy a bottle from me. Not bad for a beginner, eh?
Anyway the big test is today at 5 pm. We’re gonna have a demonstration of our class projects and I’m gonna let people taste my wine. Then I’m gonna get drunk. Nah just kidding. But I will have a glass or two. Maybe three. I hope it’s a good drink. And if not then I hope it gets me drunk. Maybe I’ll let you know what happens. I plan on writing a story about our graduation, which takes place this Friday. This seems to be quite a short story but what can I say? It says everything that I wanted to say and maybe a bit more. I hope you enjoy it. - hal
Sisters
Sisters
Are like flowers that have to bloom
Opening up to make room
Conversation on our daily tasks is something
That will last
When it comes to caring she will be there
No matter what goes down
She will be around
She gives from the heart
That is where love starts
From the day we were born we had a bond
Tis sad when I feel it is gone.
Sandra K Barton
Another FrogAnother Frog
As you all no doubt know
There have been frogs in my life –
Literally and figuratively
‘member the princess chose to kiss one
Or was that jes ‘an ole horny toad?
Used to be I had the Power
To turn those s.o.b.’s into Princes
- Yay verily brothers & sistahs
Or p’raps that old prince was hiding
Inside that critter all along?!
Anyhoo – by kisses and cooking
I worked this magic nigh on 12 year
Oh – there were lapses amphibian
But no lapses kissin’ or cookin’
Froggie numero uno kept her busy
Escaping his cold wet skin
Dr. Hershstein helped me maybe
Didja know sex is not just penis in vagina
Our mantra for my failure.
In 1994 I gave up the ghost of a relationship
Suffering psychically and otherwise
Guilt does that.
Wilhelmina
Hon. Rich Coleman, Minister Responsible for HousingHon. Rich Coleman Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Minister Responsible for Housing
P. O. Box 9049, Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
Dear Minister Coleman:
Your government’s decision last year to shift from the provision of social housing to rent subsidies has created a desperate situation for seniors on low, fixed incomes. I am writing on behalf of Women Elders in Action, a provincial network of women concerned about economic security and social justice issues, to protest the way we have been left to fend for ourselves in a market place driven by avarice and greed.
The lack of new developments to house seniors in an affordable, safe, secure environment is a time bomb given the number of baby boomers facing retirement and old age. However, the further step of transforming subsidized units once designated for older adults into hard to house buildings accepting people who are marginally able, or completely unable, to participate in community, is a huge blow to seniors and persons disabled who felt safe and secure in their homes.
We believe this experiment is proving that some segments of the population cannot be easily or even safely mixed and that people with mental illnesses and drug addictions need services, supports and surroundings specifically designed for their needs, as do seniors.
We have heard the saddest stories from senior women who once felt secure in friendly buildings become fearful and uncomfortable in these diminished environments. If they are bold enough to protest, they’re told to leave the building and try their luck finding market housing with which to apply a SAFER subsidy.
Given the miniscule vacancy rate and unfettered escalation of market prices, this suggestion is clearly no solution for those without considerable, additional resources.
Designated social housing has held rents at one third of a senior’s fixed income. However, the use of a modest SAFER subsidy against market housing based on a maximum rent of $700, an increasingly rare possibility, means on average, low income seniors are using almost 46% of their income on rent. This results in their meeting shelter expenses with their modest grocery and medication funds.
With minimal income and SAFER applied to rents over $700, an increasingly likely scenario in BC’s overheated housing market, seniors are required to use well-over 50% of their income to put a roof over their heads with disastrous results. (The fact that the Vancouver Sun recently reported that the average mortgaged homeowner in the lower mainland spends close to 70% of income on shelter is astounding but does not detract from the dire situation in which many seniors find themselves. After all, the remaining 30% of a monthly household income of $5000, $6000 or even more is certainly much more tenable than the few hundred dollars left to senior with low income after the rent is paid).
WE*ACT has patiently monitored the outcome of your choice to expand rent subsidies rather than build and operate social housing. We had hoped that there was wisdom in mixing people with varying needs throughout the community as long as those individual needs were being met in a way that was both safe and affordable.
However, we are already beginning to see the anguish and hardship this decision has brought to bear for seniors, especially unattached women, in Sunset Towers, Little Mountain and those removed from other empty social units that have been pinpointed for redevelopment and future ‘privatization’.
There is no shame in admitting that this experiment doesn’t work despite good intentions. On the other hand, deliberately continuing down this path that offers fewer and increasingly more expensive housing units up for grabs by the growing number of seniors on fixed income is a gross abandonment of its citizens by your government. Please reconsider.
Sincerely,
Alice West, Chair
Are you aware of the Law of Compensation?
“Crowd out all inferior thoughts by superior thoughts, evil thoughts by good thoughts, ugly thoughts by beautiful thoughts, distressing thoughts by pleasant thoughts, and you will begin to overcome the growth of all negative and confusing states of wrong and discord. In other words, learn to think constructively of all other persons, all things, all events and all circumstances. Appraise them from the ideal point of view. As you do this you will gradually transform your whole existence for the better. These are the means whereby you may steadily promote your welfare and advancement.
As you train yourself to mentally look for the good, you will move towards the good and as you form higher and larger conceptions of the good, these elements will begin to find expression in your words, acts, character, person, talents, powers, attainments and achievements; that is, all things in your life will commence to improve as a direct result of your improved thinking.
This process does not imply, however, that you are to ignore the wrongs of life, the empty places and the undeveloped states of being; but that you are to think right through and beyond them to the hidden good or the principle within that is ever seeking a higher and fuller expression. You will, therefore, cease to condemn and to criticize in a destructive manner; instead you will seek to bring out the good in yourself and in others and to discover and develop the greater possibilities everywhere.”
[This was submitted anonymously, and reads like the end result of paying $Xhundred for some New Age or ‘spiritual awakening’ weekend workshop. If life could be simplified into clichés and mood/ emotion replaced with an intellectual &/or logical mind-in-training vivisectioning, it’d get boring fast. True spiritual practice dishonours nothing.]
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
“Do unto others as you’d have them do to you.”
“Hard work is its own reward.”
“Treat others fairly and you’ll be treated fairly.”
“Everything has a reason and a purpose
“Things always work out for the best.”
.........
“They have to tell you something.”
Aileen, serial killer in Monster
uncle sam
dear uncle sam i have some questions
some things i need to know
some comments, some suggestions
on reaping what you sow
so tell me how you can pull the trigger
tell me how you drop the bomb
tell me just how you figure
that what your do' aint wrong
tell me how you think it's different
how a life lost here weighs more
than a thousand in a place so distant;
how it's only levelling the score
tell me how your cause is true
tell me how it's right
tell me just how all you do
isn't party to the plight
tell me how you sleep at night
tell me how you rest
with hands so bloodied from the fight
from so many senseless deaths
But instead you say to close my eyes
don't ask to see the truth
to swallow your propaganda-coated lies
and the rusted burden of proof
but i have to tell you uncle sam
your blindfold's stretched too thin
and as disillusioned as i am
i just won't let you win.
Rebecca McDonald.
the "politicization of the strike"Dear Paul Taylor,
I really liked your article on the civic strike. I hope that the Carnegie Newsletter has a wide readership, particularly in the offices of the mayor and CUPE. I hope that both parties realize that the lies of Sam[Sullivan] are not being believed by all. I hope it disheartens the mayor and bolsters the union.
As I type this I am watching a interview with his honour where he is decrying the "politicization of the strike" and his wish that the parties would get back to the table. Sam also says that is why he isn't getting involved. The Three knows what’d happen if he was involved. Perhaps the city would talk to the union.
Two points, one the city continues to demand the right to dictate schedules at the supervisors discretion and, as this is also hours worked per week will dictate who gets benefits - which are tied to hours worked. Wal-mart and other retail outlets have this down to a art.[i.e. If benefits kick in only if an employee works 35 hours a week, virtually all employees will be scheduled to work no more than 34 hours a week.]
And City Council have been left totally in the dark and, although they have ultimate responsibility, have to depend on the media for info. What a way to run a railroad.
RDDL The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule
And the stream became a river
The little drops have formed a pool
It all started with a conscious thought
And just one golden rule
There is an ocean of reality
Reflecting who we are
Where every drop is a mirror
And every life a star.
And you can’t tell me who I am
Yet my reflection lives in you
We’re al living in an ocean
And it’s all inside of you
Are you on the wave beside me
Or the one across the pool
It doesn’t really matter
You’ll never change that golden rule
Now the ocean’s water is crying
There is blackness on the shores
It is all the love that’s dying
Because we opened the wrong doors
Now every thought’s a question
Holding up the wall
It’s what we find inside ourselves
That will catch us when we fall.
Wow! A ripple on the water
A billion tiny little waves
If we wait a little longer
We’ll see the calming of the knave.
Freedome
It used to be
It used to be just winos
slept in doorways
the bowery boys
a must-see on the bus tour route
now I see all types – from all walks
as they say
people who short pace ago held jobs
paid bills, ascribed to the popular mythologies
of hard work and reward
but worst of all are the children
living for a time in
the never never land of comradeship
a world as ephemeral as the day
and remember it used to be just older men
look again
why is a destitute woman a sorrier sight?
one morning on Davie St. I saw a young woman
belongings in a Safeway cart
calling to her tired daughter to jury up.
another night on Sunset Beach.
Wilhelmina
INJURY TIMEINJURY TIME
There seems to be a tunnel at the end of the light, thanx for the directions I’m sure things will go well –brave and foolish are a scary combination. I see chalking in your future please tell me you like to draw but as the eternal summerscape escapes me out of another ice age I will crawl lest the smallest error creep into thy calculations; the sun just spilt all over me –skin cancer, like time, is a disease best left in isolation, like mailing envelopes to the universe and expecting a reply drunk or sober. There is nothing here to read throw this away if words were a serious art this would not even be worth the glass it’s scrawled over.
To mister and misses technologies I offer my apologies for my ignorance (a trait I can’t shake) Notice to all shakers ‘n bakers out there that’s out of my jurisdiction: to understand you must lose your mind because I’m sick and tired of being the one left behind, it’s INJURY TIME lay down on the grass and await further word, the game goes on my charade is all wrong then comes the message “we’ll speak afterwards” I thought I was sub
Lime but the fault is all mine remorse I can find but life makes me blind and there goes the whistle to end injury time.....
The mass of humanity is much thicker than normal crowds, as the spiralling smoke from my cigarette climbs to the clouds, by the time my day begins no violins I’m an agnostic every day it seems mister and misses authority want nothing more than to dispose of me ? please, please check it out all I ask and need is you to disperse me? in injury time naturally.
I see the illuminaires are here to watch the narrowing and harvesting of souls [my soul if it’s here?] unfortunately he’ll be here in absentia but no one can stop a top drawer third-world rated show on with it on with it the humanity I spoke of earlier are arriving in droves so if I do not leave this minute the answer will be a slammed door posing as the word ‘no.’
Thank you from the misters and misses of humanity in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Robert McGillivray
Yearly income assistance rates:Yearly income assistance rates:
(source: BC Government website)
Single employable: $7,320
Couple: $10,524
Single parent, one child: $$11,352
Two parents, one child: $12,732
Single disabled: $10,872
Couple disabled: $15,240
Single parent, disable, one child: $14,904
Two parents, disabled, one child: $17,460
Top eight business executives' yearly salaries: (source: Globe and Mail ROB magazine)
James Balsillie, co-CEO, Research In Motion: $54,709,465
Glenn Murphy, former CEO, Shoppers Drug Mart: $34,441,947
Michael Lazardis, co-CEO, Research in Motion: $32,990,309
Frank Stronach, chairman, Magna International: $31,412,301
Paul Demarais, Jr., co-CEO, Power Corp.: $23,992,660
John Lederer, former president, Loblaw Cos.: $21,666,256
Dominic D'Alessandro, CEO, Manulife Financial: $20,294,064
Bradley Langille, former CEO, Gammon Lake Resources: $19,946,318
