Contents
- DTES: WHAT NOW?
- In Crab Park
- Cold
- MISWAA loves company
- YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW TODAY ????
- Who can understand?
- PARTY ANIMALS
- My Lived Experience in the Arts and Culture
- Homelessness
- Tyler
- The Neighbourhood Small Grants Program
- Skinny Long Building
- Life in Poverty
- Starvation Army
- The Shallow Shores
- News from the Library
- The Summer Dream Reading Festival
- 2006 DONATIONS
DTES: WHAT NOW?
The Downtown East Side has come through some heavy transformations during its evolution. In the day we knew it as skid row. The name was a logging term from the very old days when they actually skidded logs in the area now known as the Downtown East Side (DTES). After the fire that destroyed the original Vancouver, some grand old buildings were constructed with the assurance that such a fire would never reoccur.
If you scan the architecture one can imagine the grandeur once provided by this area of town. As the city progressed, skid row was eventually left behind to be inhabited by the less fortunate people of society. Oh yes, this was the playground for the people of British Columbia’s blue collar industries who, in their jolly revelry, exploited the less fortunate (unintentionally of course).
A mother I once knew coined a phrase that she used very often during her children’s horseplay: “After laughing comes crying.” Funny, I still see that syndrome. I see people today, who have been impaired for many years, attempt to turn their life around in order to live a normal life. This is easier said than done. The very determined do manage to struggle; let’s use the adage “with the determination of a salmon headed up steam,” and do actually make a life out of nothing at all. They are the lucky ones.
Many people who attempt to turn their life around first experience what I call Rip Van Winkle syndrome. That is to say they’ve been stagnant for so long that when they begin to work at a new life it is, for all the world, like having slept for all those years and are just now waking up. The world has been progressing without them and the current occupants have no patience. This is a reality check for sure. Maybe too much so for the many who give up and return to what it was they were killing themselves with.
These people are only a sector of the populace who live in our community. There are many other kinds of suffering that evolve right under our noses. Oh, don’t forget the ones who have fallen through the cracks at the hands of some care less official and are graded erroneously as a “nut” or something. The volunteers at Carnegie Community Centre experience many of these people in the course of a day, a week, a month.
The Carnegie itself opened twenty-six years ago as a community centre. The committees and all of the facilities of the DTES were the result of the blood, sweat and even tears of the crusaders who had the determination to tackle city hall and other government entities and their obstacle courses of red tape. And to this point our little universe has been unfolding as it should. But hark! The realty barons have rediscovered the heritage value of our area.
In the not too distant future, life as we know it will be greatly disrupted as we see the transformation similar to Gastown’s. Eventually the area will be exclusive to “well to do” merchants and their clientele. What will become of the less fortunate and the poor who occupy this community now? This is a serious matter to ponder; even now we in Carnegie are preparing for a more affluent clientele - the kind who enter an establishment and expect immaculate service or else. It has been my experience that volunteers are not necessarily professional per se.
Even now we (volunteers) experience people who are oblivious of the fact that we are volunteers and think we are paid professionals. There are no indicators to the contrary such as, maybe, a sign saying “you are being served by volunteers please be patient.” And yet we keep saying that if we didn’t have volunteers the joint could not remain open! There will come a time when a professional job will be demanded from us, at which point volunteers will become what, employees?
But the point to this article is like Trudeau said “if I just throw you a ball and not tell you, there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll catch it. But if I tell you I’m throwing you a ball you’ll catch it for sure.” This is a heads up regarding the future and the slant of the work we have cut out for us. There will never be a shortage of poor and less fortunate people but something needs to be done to solve the never ending problem shortly. Are we up to the task?
Gerald G. Wells
In Crab ParkIn
She sits alone
in
a people’s park
fought for by the residents
of the Downtown Eastside.
She sits alone
in this sanctuary
that speaks of justice
of courage
of sweet life growing
in the uncemented corners
of the corporate city.
She sits alone
in
Silence calls to her
with a soft voice
only the heart can hear.
She reaches out
to the reds, mauves and greens
shimmering in the summer sun.
“Flowers,” she says,
as though naming them
for the first time,
and her eyes are opened
and she beholds
the beauty of the universe –
in
a people’s park
in the Downtown Eastside.
Sandy Cameron
ColdCold
Workin potatoes,
peppers
cucumbers
workin
any damn thing.
Cold
nothin
but cold,
cold that blows
your knee up
like a headache,
cold that swells
your bones with
misery
and you ache
more than clouds.
Kemp Robinson Camp
MISWAA loves companyMISWAA loves company
On May 16, 2006, an article was published in The Globe and Mail about a report tabled by the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults. The article, by Jennifer Lewington, was about a
The recommendations include forming a new entity in Ontario responsible for overseeing periodic increases to the minimum wage, changes (for the better) on the way people receiving income assistance are forced to liquidate assets before receiving help, and instituting tax credits to aid low-income workers.
Sarcastic, cynical, right-wing columnist John Ibbitson of The Globe had an article printed right under Lewington’s report, initially saying MISWAA’s ideas weren’t worth considering and should be ignored. But then Ibbitson did a sudden about-face and declared that a certain amount of consideration should be given to ameliorating the plight of low-income Canadians.
Key quotes from an article on May 16 in The Toronto Star by Jacquie Chic tell a somewhat different story: “The dire poverty in which social assistance recipients and minimum wage workers live is attributable to the inexcusable state of our income security system.”
“Governments don’t make the choices they do because they are blind to the existence of poverty or its effects. On the contrary, choices that reduce or minimally increase low income are favoured despite the peril that causes for the poor; they create increased profit margins and let CEO salaries soar.”
“Measures that have the effect of suppressing wages and keeping people desperate enough to accept job conditions no one should have to tolerate are good for business.”
“…while MISWAA’s portrait of the grim reality of poor people’s lives is accurate, its recommendations are inadequate to address both the depth and the urgency of the problem.”
“The notion that people need ‘incentives’ to look for work might also explain why MISWAA falls far short of calling for an immediate and substantial increase in social assistance rates. It is troubling that there would be money to fund wage supplements but not for a substantial rate hike.”
“Despite being well-intentioned, MISWAA’s recommendations do not sufficiently confront the core issue of income inadequacy.”
This is similar to what anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson told me when I asked her about her opinion of MISWAA’s recommendations. She noted that no rate hike for people on income assistance was called for. (Jean is one of the drivers behind the Raise the Rates campaign, a program with the goal of raising income assistance rates here in BC.) She said that the proposed system of tax credits to help low-income earners is already being tried in the US (for me, an outright good enough condemnation), and that the result of this is to take the onus off business to pay better wages, and have the government absorb the costs.
This thinking is reflected in the article “Are Wage Supplements the Answer to the Problems of the Working Poor,” by Andrew Jackson, National Director, Social and Economic Policy, Canadian Labour Congress. In his conclusion,
MISWAA was formed by a coalition of business, labour, and low-income representatives. The comment from the representative of the right-wing think tank, the C.D. Howe Institute, was revealing: “I don’t think the recommendations, holus-bolus, will appear in our lives anytime soon. … But I think governments will respond to the direction.” In other words, any income redistribution plan is anathema to the C.D. Howe, but if there has to be one, let it be done by government.
The good news comes in this final quote Jacquie Chic’s article: “To its ever-lasting credit, MISWAA will spark a debate that we can no longer avoid.”
By Rolf Auer
YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW TODAY ????YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW TODAY ????
That was sorta the question asked at the top of the Flyer. At the beginning it had “ARE WE ” Further down the flyer it had “A World Peace Forum Event.” An unforgettable gathering of Elders & Youth to share stories and strategies of survival, resistance and hope through word, song, discussion & listening…please join us in this free event. Then it had a list of 12 people or groups who were to say or do something during the evening. I’m gonna give a little synopsis on what each person or group did or said and hope that you can follow along. Get my drift or does it have to snow again?
It all started in the middle of the month when we put out the last Newsletter. I help with the collating and so does our former librarian, Mary-Ann. She brought out a little piece of paper and said she was helping to co-ordinate an event at the main library. When I seen what it was about I thought “Gee I’d like to go to this.” When I got home I wrote it on my calendar so I wouldn’t miss it. I’m glad I did.
I just got back from the event and I’m fascinated. It was another very hot day today. When I walked into the Alice Mckay room at the main library it was like walking into a cool and relaxing haven. I had thought the place would be packed so I had come early. Apparently there wasn’t any need as the place was only set up for about 40 or 50 people and I was wondering how many were expected.
Sabrina (our hostess?) explained the purpose of the evening, something about being together for peace, sharing views, and having some fun. I’m sure I missed something as I was trying to write down what she was saying. She gave us a little get-to-know each other exercise where we each had to find a complete stranger and find something in common with him or her. I got kinda lucky as a woman named Celene came over and talked to me. Right away we found out we were both volunteers in the DTES. That didn’t take too long and we chatted for a while. I was so proud of myself for finding someone so soon. Pat on the back. Then the evening started.
First up were the Raging Grannies. They sang parts of 7 or 8 songs and were pretty good. José was up next and he had an interpreter, Jorgé, because he couldn’t speak English. His general story was about the killing and indenturing of young people of
Next was Dr. Ed, a WWII veteran, who happened to be a Jew clearing mines on the way to
Amany, a Palestinian from
Mary Duffy asked the question “What do I know about war compared to these people who have spoken before me?” then she answered the question with a couple of poems and a prayer. They were good.
Grace, a second generation Japanese Canadian, told us of the horror of being sent to an internment camp during WWII. She spoke of how all their property was confiscated and at the end of the war they were told to settle East of the Rockies or go to
Fawn, a teacher and part time librarian who was born in
Carman, a Chilean refugee writer, read from her book and I didn’t quite catch the name of it.
Then a U. S. Army veteran of
Jorge, a Columbian youth activist, tells how young people are forced into the guerrilla warfare at very early ages (young teenagers). He tells how rifles outlast youth as the rifles are passed on when the owner is killed.
Mona, an Arizona Hopi tells about her organization, the International Council of Indigenous Grandmothers. When she is done talking she sings a Lakota prayer for peace.
That is the end of the speakers for the evening and it is very insightful and also very grotesque. These people have suffered for no apparent reason. Even though they spoke of very mean and atrocious behavior, the overall feeling isn’t one of revenge or pain but it is a feeling of hope for a world of peace.
Sabrina got back up and thanked everyone and gave us another challenge. We were to draw something of what the evening meant to us. After this she tells us we have to find a stranger who has something in common with what we have drawn. I meet Christian who has drawn a lightning bolt as part of his picture and I have drawn a light bulb. We talk and find the thoughts are similar. Then Sabrina tells us we have to find another pair who has the same idea as we do. This seems an impossible task but wouldn’t you know that the second duo we talk to has drawn something similar. One has drawn a fire and the other has drawn a sun.
We decide that we are all looking forward to a light of hope or reason. Interesting how they seem to match. It was an informative and interesting evening. Too bad you missed it.
-hal
Who can understand?Who can understand?
Who can understand the soul
so mysterious as it comes from God.
Sometimes filled with sorrow and
some days found in laughter and
sometimes like a wind blowing
through sails making bones rattle
and shake; the soul is fed by
fine food and the lyrics of music.
Some things try to destroy it when
there is no love for your fellow man
days filled with so much monotony.
Who can understand the soul
how it makes you wear clown hair
painting the world with different colours
dancing around in your underwear;
puts on a green suit and goes to church.
It never gets weary from a long walk
home and can find a quiet spot while
soaking toes in a tub full of warm water
uch a stranger to the dark shadow.
Who can understand the soul
where time doesn't matter and
keeps on going forwards and backwards.
Never seems happy in one home;
always hitting the road looking for
some new mountain trails to follow;
is at peace with the sound of birds
whistling in the forest and hours are
minutes found in a few lines of poetry.
Daniel Rajala
PARTY ANIMALSPARTY ANIMALS
Well here we are again, another year has passed and we’re back to the 1st day of summer, the summer solstice. It’s hard to be humble today because this day is my official day, National Aboriginal Day.
I started the day out as usual, got up around 5 and waited for the 1st newscast of the day on Global. I like to watch it just to see if I missed anything while I slept. As usual, they seemed to have gotten thru the nite without consulting me. When will they learn that I ‘m to be informed of whatever happens. Oh well.. on with the day.
I watch sports news for a ½ hour then I turn on my Yoga show and I attempt to workout with Padma. It sure is hard getting back into rhythm. It’s hard to even do basic stretches but I know that will come with time. I’m just happy to be getting back into focus. I’ve been out of touch for a while and this seems to be the best way to get back into myself, if you know what I mean.
After Yoga, I have something to eat and watch the programming on CityTV. I like the rapport of the co-hosts Simi and Dave. They start my day with a chuckle. Somewhere in there I take a shower and get ready for the rest of the day. It’s time to leave and I get to Carnegie a bit early so I have to stand outside and wait for the front door to be opened so we can enter our haven. As I stand with my back to the bricks of Carnegie I am reminded of the time I was in jail. Actually all the different jails I’ve been in. I remember standing with my back to the fence and thinking how they keep me locked up and my freedom is beyond the fence.
As I stand out side Carnegie I see the fence of being poor that is keeping me locked up in the DTES. It’s a fence I have allowed others to build to keep me down where they think that I belong. They think I should be kept under the carpet and be happy that I am allowed to exist. But that’s another story and I’m just happy to have a day being celebrated in honour of my people.
So on with my story. This morning I have a shift at the learning centre and I have to find a way to get to the park (Oppenheimer) before my shift is over. I talked to Beth, our glorious leader and we’re gonna have our bookclub meeting in the park. Beth is gonna give away books for NA day and I’d like to help her set up. Because of the day I’m allowed to leave a bit early and I get to the park before Beth. She has so much help that I just watch them set up. It’s great sitting there in the shade of a tree and watching the camaraderie of friends helping each other. After things get arranged we begin our book club. It’s kinda hard reading out loud sittin so close to the music but we manage for a ½ hour or so.
A friend that I haven’t seen for awhile drops by and joins us. It’s good to see him. He tells me he’s been a bit under the weather and after he gets better he may join our little club. He sat there for an hour at least and we enjoyed the goings-on. As we sat there different people came and went and I just enjoyed the day as it moved along. When the food line started to move I got into line so I could enjoy a little salmon lunch. After about an hour in line I got my lunch but I had missed out on the salmon. Oh well, I guess beef stew is just as good, especially when it’s being given away. I complained to a few people and wouldn’t you know that someone had a piece of salmon left over and she gave it to me. I guess the squeaky wheel does get oil on occasion.
Around 3 I decided to go down to the UBC learning exchange on
After I finished there I went back to the park to help Beth take her stuff back to the Library. She had phoned another of her assistants to come help her but I had told her I was gonna help so I did. Her assistant was a very nice person named Alyssa, I hope that’s how it’s spelt. We had some fun with a fake tattoo and enjoyed our little trip back to Carnegie. Then it was time for the monthly feast that the volunteer department puts on for us. Although I didn’t enjoy the food, I ate it, The company was good and the service was excellent. I went home and was getting ready to go to the Roundhouse for a free show called The Rez Show (a mythical collage of stories and movement put on by aboriginal persons). But I fell asleep. After an afternoon in the sun at the park, then a big meal, do you blame me?
I woke up and I had a ½ hour to get to the show at a theatre, that I only had a vague idea of where it was. I thought “What the hey” and figured if I was late I’d just walk back home in the early evening and that would be a nice end to my Aboriginal Day festivities. Well I did get a bit lost and arrived late but they let me in and I was really happy about that. This is where I apologize to the other audience members for arriving late. Sorry. There were 4 people on the stage playing homemade drums. They were made of a plastic bucket, a coupla of coffee cans and garbage bags and clear tape. They put on a pretty good show. Then came the great hereditary chief of the Squamish Nation, Chief Ian Campbell and some of his relations, who put on an excellent show. He had us, about 300 or 400 people, all up dancing. We represented bunnies or rabbits, humming birds, salmon and beaver of which I was one. (How do you dance like a beaver?) We had a good laugh after the dance when he called us a bunch of animals. I guess you had to be there. Then came a good 30 to 45 minute show. It was funny and serious and all the other things you call a great inspirational show. It came to an end and it was well appreciated by all the people who watched it.
As I was leaving I looked at some of the different displays they had in the lobby area. Lots of good stuff and they were also handing out a free snack so I got a piece of bannock and some kinda piece of sausage. It was a nice capper to an excellent day. I walked home in the deepening dusk of another great day in one of the best cities and communities in my world.
When I got home I sat down and wrote this to share with everyone because this story feels so good. I hope somehow each of you got a chance to share in one of the many aboriginal day events and I hope you all have a great summer.
-hal
My Lived Experience in the Arts and CultureMy LIVED EXPERIENCE IN THE ARTS AND CULTURE
My name is Stephen Lytton. I was born in Lytton, B.C., with Cerebral Palsy. I am a member of the Interior Salish, Thompson, First Nations. I am a twin, and my twin sister is not disabled. I have a younger sister and other older brothers and sisters. Due to the lack of services in my community, I was forced to relocate to
In 1978 I moved to
As time went by, I became more committed to the community because of the community play. "If you don't want to be a leader in your community, don't speak up, hide." My mistake was I spoke up.
Even before the community play I was speaking out! Today I serve on two boards as a volunteer: The BC Aboriginal Network on Disabilities Society, and the Carnegie Community Center Association.
Since 1989 I’ve been an advocate with B.C.ANDS off and on, for 17 years. In fact I was one of the founding members. Our mandate is to promote the betterment of Aboriginal people with disabilities on a daily basis. I am also an advocate of the Downtown Eastside Community, addressing issues affecting our neighbourhood along with serving on the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee and a number of other committees.
Hopes and Dreams:
My hope and dream was to share my experience of the community play across
Radio interviews, videos, and their distribution. We need to educate people. I got involved not because I'm native, but because of the human issue.
Now it’s women from all walks of life. Through no fault of their own, they come here and they have dreams. They come here unprepared and are pulled in and misled. Things don t work out and they're disillusioned and thrown out to the "wolves" so to speak.
They got treated poorly because they felt they owed something and they stay. Some end up in the sex trade and sometimes tliey're forced to stay. A majority end up missing or dead. They could be running away from something quite minor compared to what they're running to..
A lot of people in
A video would share the reality. You're not always going to get what you thought you came for. You might get caught up in drugs. Don t let the bright lights fool you.
The community play was not an end in itself, but a means to wake people up to the good here. This play helped to break down racial and other barriers - through compassion, commitment, encouragement and self development.
Theatre can be part of the solution. Theatre can also help build team concept, establish trust through dialogue, squash the stereotype mentality of the DTES by changing attitudes and building bridges. Racism does not discriminate. It embraces all who will partake. It takes it in and gives out. But love conquers all. My role as the old one allowed me to have the audience in my hands. It gave me the ability to pull people in and reach in and have them trust me.
As the process of rehearsals continued my role got more important because of the impact and purpose to build bridges to pull people in to share beauty and the bitter sweet that life is. That was the community play. One question was asked: What one thing in your Downtown Eastside community do you most want to nourish or preserve? My response was, "I want to nourish that we as a people came together and succeeded in that mandate of building bridges.
The weight of that production, I realize, was an enormous task to fill for the entire production being where it’s coming from - the Downtown Eastside. And the failure of it would have been far more damaging because of where it’s from. And we built trust with one another without realizing; as time went on we learned to trust one another.
Going from Advocate to Actor
You speak to the same people but in a different setting. Both share a message of hope. I changed. I came to understand the issues differently. I'm finding ways to be more effective in both lines of work.
In Closing
. We must ensure that the powers that be are accountable to the community. But we, too, within the community must hold ourselves accountable to our community and to those in leadership. We speak on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves and for those who are no longer here. Therefore each member of this community must play a part. We are the very heart and soul of the Downtown Eastside
HomelessnessHomelessness
The path to his home is turned aside
his seat and bed are on the street,
Poverty clothed him with darkness
Caught in the way of someone’s agenda,
Homelessness is Lawlessness
they say
Perverse lips and wicked-hearted
they call him by many names,
Skid Row, Slum, Ghetto…
Falsifying the balances with deceit
Homelessness breeds violence
they say
Condemned to drug addiction
through the alleys of desolation,
Sighing comes before he eats
Stumbling blocks are no comfort to his heart.
Another law is waging against the homeless
Homelessness is a heinous crime
they say
Denied of value as citizens
his passion and desire seem exhausted,
Charity didn’t begin at home for him
Homelessness in the first world
Homelessness in the third world.
Ayisha
TylerIf you were standing here now:
-There would be hugs
-There would be prayer
-I would honour and respect you
-There would be appreciation
-There would be lots of attention
-I would spend time with you
-I would listen if you needed me to
-I would share dinner, movies and music with you
-I would seek help for you
-I would cry, laugh, sing & dance with you
-I would love you forever as a friend.
You are awesome. You will be missed a lot. God
took you too early. You are in my heart forever..
Norma Jean B.
The Neighbourhood Small Grants ProgramStrathcona, Carnegie and Ray-Cam
Community Centres
present
The Neighbourhood Small Grants Program
for
the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona!
Application deadline: July 7, 2006
For projects to take place August to November 2006
Announcing the 2nd year of the Neighbourhood Small Grants program in the DTES/Strathcona area. Funded by a grant from the Vancouver Foundation, this program offers up to $500 to groups of neigh-bours who want to work together on small projects that enhance their neighbourhoods. Residents can plant a neighbourhood garden, hold a community story & feast, organize an art fair or host a youth sports day - whatever a group of neighbours would like to create.
Those who live in the Downtown Eastside or Strathcona areas can qualify for up to $500 for a project that enhances their neighbourhood socially, physically or culturally. Projects must be led by two or more neighbours or a small group of residents and cannot be for profit; organizations are not eligible. A resident advisory committee reviews the applications and decides which projects will be funded.
Applicants will be informed whether or not their project is approved by the end of July.
Brochures and application forms are available at Carnegie Community Centre (
For more information or to receive a brochure, phone the DTES/Strathcona Neighbourhood Small Grants committee at 604-713-1850 or
email: teresa-nsgp@hotmail.com.
Skinny Long BuildingI'm walking towards Carnegie Centre to meet Sheila Baxter, the author. I'm hoping she is there today.
I left Belkin House and, hobbling along with the use of my brown cane, I look up and notice this long skinny building as I approach
This building has a tiny sign - ARCO - oh what a name! I glance up and count 1-2-3-4-5 windows. These windows project out. I bet inside they have a window seat. I notice two separate sets of windows, ten in all. What a skinny front site. I look up to the side and see brick all the way lengthwise. Holy smokes! What a loooong, skinny' building. It looks old;. I wonder when it was built and who built it.
I walk a little further and on the other side see windows. I didn't count them as I ran into a lady who lives on the second floor. She says - $325 for singles, $650 for doubles. It is a rooming / hotel with no bed bugs or cockroaches.
Gosh a hotel - long and skinny. Hmm. My curiosity now settled.
Isabel McCurdy
Life in PovertyLife in Poverty
My name is Elaine Woodhall. I am 60 years old. I have lived in this community for 25 years and I’m tired of seeing poor people treated like dirt.
I’m talking about the single room hotels; I’m trying to get my damage deposit back from one of them.
Life is hard for the poor, never knowing if you can keep a roof over your head, never knowing if/when you’re going to eat.
We need to stick together and fight for our right to live in safety and peace.
The hotel I left is a good example of greed. The managers didn’t care if a tenant was sick; I left the room cleaner than it was when I moved in but they still ripped off the deposit. The main guy makes his money off the poor and doesn’t give a damn if you are elderly or infirm. I am tired of feeling like a victim of this greed.
We have to keep our heads high and fight for our right to breathe & without the fear of being tossed out of our homes. I hope that things will change for us soon.
Keep the faith and remember that poor people are just as good, maybe even better, than those with money. We are rich in spirit.. and that’s what counts
Starvation Army[A radio station in Tennessee has a "Beer for the Homeless" campaign. The Salvation Army condemned it, saying the practice "only adds fuel to the fire." The following response is common sense:]
Starvation Army
The Sally Ann and any number of do-gooder social services keep up the same old boring and inaccurate claptrap about "homelessness". We must all be nuts or alkies or druggies or just plain weird. The crap about 'alcohol causing homelessness' doesn't make financial sense.
A case of beer in this city is under $20 per day. In a month that equals $600.
Welfare pays $510.
Minimum wage after tax pays $800.
Rent is $400+. Forget food, bus fare, prescription drugs. Even if every street person never drank another drop, there'd still be no place to live.
Being unhoused is about poverty, lack of stable, reasonably paid employment and social benefits that are so far under the poverty line that the people on them can't even see where the economic line IS. It's about a lack of affordable, accessible and easily maintained housing.
If we want to start fixing an economic problem the first thing we have to do is to look at money, NOT social excuses. And if somebody wants to save the unhoused populace a few $$$ towards another expense, we might call it manipulative but it does nothing to address why 100,000 people in this province have nowhere to live.
It looks like the Starvation Army is up to its same old Imperialist-Victorian-white-glove-poverty-pimping "give us more government funds to solve the problem" sales pitch.
If this radio station really wanted to stop begging they could get socially conscious and start by fighting the WTO and corporations creating mass unemployment from sheer greed. But beee heee heee OOOOPS! That's who's paying for the ad campaigns that keep them on the air....
By MetisRebel
The Shallow ShoresThe
See the seaside siren, sitting,
musing: "The brooks'
song speaks of idle tides
in shallower pools."
Thoughts spring up in the rain,
Brave the cold, then back again.
Shaking off a veil of dew, small
forest creatures breathe a sigh.
Freed up from the terra firma,
born into flight
Falcon drifts on thermal winds
with eyes of crystal.
Rocks up on the mountain keep
secrets in their seismic sleep's
theta waves and all beneath them
turn their eyes up to the sky.
And we want to feel what it is to fly.
Slipped on the ladder's rung,
slept until the shadows hung.
Until the shadows hung
as clouds before the burning sun,
until the shadows hung
as dreams before the dawn.
And we want to see what the siren saw.
Taught not to want for more,
Like rocks on the shallow shore.
What if the silent sea should
swallow all our dreams up whole?
What if a silent shadow
falls upon our soul...
Rick Pambrun
News from the LibraryNews from the Library
New Books
Ryan Knighton, a
A few new books in the For Dummies series have arrived. Terrible name for a series, but useful books. Check out Singing for Dummies (784.93), Opera for Dummies (782) and Guitar for Dummies (787.61).
Want to write but don’t know where to start? In Writing Brave and Free (808), Ted Kooser and Steve Cox get down to the nitty gritty of how to get started and how to keep going. In short chapters, they talk about getting into the writing habit, finding the best time and place to write, imagining your readers, and going about getting published. Also just in is The Playwright’s Guidebook: An Insightful Primer on the Art of Dramatic Writing by Stuart Spencer (808.2), a handbook that includes helpful writing exercises.
Beth, your librarian
The Summer Dream Reading FestivalThe Summer Dream Reading Festival
The Summer Dream Reading Festival is an annual, engaging, outdoor festival established to raise public awareness regarding the on-going literary events, programs and resources available in the community. The festival will take place at
Performers Schedule:
12:00 – 12:20 Announcements & Guest Speakers
12:20 – 12:40 Singer-songwriter – Bahiyyih
12:40 – 1:00 High Altitude Poetry (SFU)
1:00 – 1:20 Poets Against War
1:20 – 1:40 Wax Poetics
1:40 – 2:00 Twisted Poets Literary Salon
2:00 - 2:20 Guest Reader Irene Livingston
2:20 – 3:00 Local Band – Melic Thrum
3:00 – 3:20 Shoreline Writers: Darlene Henderson, Jim Thomson, Brian Wilson, Sue McIntyre
3:20 – 3:40 World Poetry
3:40 – 4:00 Spontaneous Saturdays
4:00 – 4:20 Word Whips Writing Series
4:20 – 4:40 Singer-songwriter – David Campbell
4:40 – 5:00
5:00 – 5:20 Downtown Eastside Writers
5:20 – 5:40
5:40 – 6:00 First Tuesday Assembly of Poets
6:00 – 6:20 Announcements & Guest Speakers
6:20 – 7:00 Tamara Nile and The Peals
7:00 – 7:20
7:20 – 7:40
7:40 – 8:00 Ink
8:00 – 8:20 57 Varieties
8:20 – 8:30 Closing Announcements
Join In:
WORDS ON ROBSON POETRY CONTEST
Come down to The Summer Dream Reading Festival on July 22, 2006 to enter Pandora's Collective's newest poetry contest.
Write your poem on the spot or bring one from home:
We will have a poetry table complete with paper, pens and writing prompts for those who wish to test their imaginations and get their hands dirty with a little poetry. See what you can whip up. Or bring one from home.
Guidelines:
(These guidelines are very different from our regular contest ones. Please read them carefully.)
All poems must be original and previously unpublished. Submissions will not be blind so please add your name, address, telephone number and/or email address to the poem/poems submitted. The entry fee is $5 per poem. We will accept cash or cheque (made out to Pandora’s Collective). Drop off your poems and entry fee to the Pandora's Collective tent the day of the festival (July 22, 2006,
2006 DONATIONS Libby D.-$100 Rolf A.-$50
Barry for Dave McC-$100 Christopher R.-$30
Margaret D.-$40 Bruce J.-$15 The Edge-$200
Mary C-$10 Penny G.-$50 MP/Jelly Bean -$20
RayCam-30 Janice P.-$30 Wes K.-$50 Paddy -$60
Glen B.-$25 John S.-$60 Leslie S.-$20 Wm.B -$20
Michael C.-$80 Humanities101-$100 Gram -$20
Sheila B.-$20 Ben C.-$20 Brian $2 CEEDS -$50
Joanne H.-$20 Wilhelmina M.-$10 Saman -$20
