Contents
- Homeless Action Plan Report
- Why I don't think Woodwards will save us
- Nanaimo's Working Group on Homelessness
- To City Council - Will they hear?
- Getting a new bed
- Legal Services Society Tries to Cope
- News from the library
- The Tragic Death Of Olaf Solheim
- A JOURNEY of HOPE
- New Board of Directors
- A Hit: "Crime and Punishment”
- The Storm
- NATIONAL Aboriginal Day!
- Little Things
- Happy Endings?
- It is a lie.
- Fine Dining in the Downtown Eastside
- Music Program Random Notes
Summary of the Homeless Action Plan Report:
This report says we can end homelessness if we fix a broken system of social housing and income programs. The report says 500 to 1200 people sleep outside in Vancouver depending on the season. Many have health issues. The first priority for reducing homelessness is to end the barriers to getting on welfare.
The report uses this astounding series of statistics, gathered by city workers who have visited homeless people regularly, to show that welfare cuts are a big cause of homelessness: By summer 2004, more than 75% of homeless people were not on welfare. The specific welfare changes that cause homelessness include:
-A complicated application process that takes at least 3 weeks;
-A two year time limit that denies welfare to people if they are considered to be not complying with their so-called “employment plans.”
-A rule which requires applicants to prove that they have been financially independent for 2 years.
The report also recommends that welfare support allowances be increased from $185 a month to $230 a month for single employable people. In all there are 86 recommendations for action by 3 levels of government in the report. The two other priorities are developing 3,200 units of supportive housing in Vancouver and increasing funding for addiction and mental health services.
The City report quotes a Provincial report saying that it is actually cheaper to provide housing costing ($28,000 a year) than shelter and services which cost ($40,000) for homeless people.
A number of Recommendations have been made by City Council and Comments from the public:
-That the data in back of the report be disaggregated by gender, age, cultural backgrounds and, most importantly, First Nations People - there is a large disproportionate number who are homeless and at very high risk for being homeless
-That the Income Priority with the Homeless Action be modified to include not only Reducing Barriers to Accessing Welfare by the Homeless, but also Creating Job Opportunities for the Homeless
-(also) “the City of Vancouver to work with the Vancouver Agreement to ensure that job opportunities are available to the homeless, through such means as including employment objectives as part of larger projects permitting, where appropriate, and supporting the Vancouver Downtown Eastside Economic Revitalization Plan and the Vancouver Food Council”.
Additional consultation needs to be done with the First Nations Community and “People who become homeless are always clients of the public systems of care & assistance, e.g. mental health, public health, welfare, people with disabilities, criminal justice and child protection, including foster care.”
Youth, those between 19 and 25, are not immune to these changes; this high-risk group makes up almost 20% of the people counted as homeless by the Social Planning and Research Council (SPARC) a few weeks ago.
By Marilyn Young
Why I don't think Woodwards will save usWhy I don't think Woodwards will save the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood
The City has a theory about redeveloping the Downtown Eastside. Larry Beasley, the head city planner in
I don't think this theory will work in the DE. I worked at DERA from 1974 to 1981. At that time the DE was a poor neighbourhood but a healthier one than it is now. Most of the businesses along
In 1980 if you were in need, as defined by the government, you could get on welfare. That's because the federal government paid half of the province's welfare costs. But, in order to get that money, the province had to agree to pay welfare to everyone in need. Today, we don't have that rule. Instead we have the 3 week wait, the 2 year independence test, and the two out of five rule that all deny welfare to people in dire need.
Back in the olden days, like today, some DE residents worked. In 1975 the minimum wage in BC was 122 per cent of the poverty line. That is, if you worked full time at minimum wage and you were single, you would earn 22% more than the poverty line. Today the minimum wage is about 80 per cent of the poverty line for a single person. Yes, you can work full time and competently at the minimum wage and still be way below poverty. If you rely and the $6 an hour training wage, you will only earn 60 per cent of the poverty line if you work full time. And, of course, a lot of the available jobs are not full time or permanent.
Or take UI, now called employment insurance. Before 1990, about 90 per cent of people who lost their jobs could get UI. Now only about 35 to 40 per cent can. The rest depend on relatives, savings, or welfare if they can get it. And, the amount you get from UI is a lower percentage of your (now lower) earnings than it used to be. I can remember getting 75 % of my earnings from UI because I had children to support. But I think the regular percentage then was about 65%. Now it's 55% or less.
Old age security and Guaranteed Income Supplement are about the only sources of income that haven't been drastically cut. Their purchasing power has been reduced, but not as much as the others.
As a result of all these cuts poverty in the DE has deepened. All the studies show that poverty is a huge cause of poor health, bad experiences in school, addictions, and interaction with the so-called justice system. How much does not being able to support one's self on minimum wage, UI or welfare lead people to try selling dope or sex? All of us, regardless of our income,.are constantly bombarded with our society's idea of success: big cars, fancy houses or condos, brand name clothes and electronic gadgets.. What does it do to a person's sense of self when he or she looks at their income and situation in life and believes that they will never afford any of those material things?
I say if the city wants to get purchasing power into the area, they need to restore the purchasing power of the existing residents.
Admittedly, this is hard to do. The provincial and federal governments have most of the control over wages, welfare and unemployment insurance. But the city's Homeless Action Plan does call on the city to lobby other levels of government for increases in all these areas. I think that's where the city needs to put its energy, not in luring richer people to build condos and live in the area.
By Jean Swanson
Nanaimo's Working Group on HomelessnessFirst Homelessness Census Released
Affordable Housing Key to Solving Homelessness
NWGHI’s April 21 count turned up at least 149 homeless persons, said John Horn, Chair of the organization. "And this number is only the tip of the iceberg, It doesn't include all the "hidden homeless" who are couch surfing, living in their cars or in
temporary, unsafe and substandard housing."
Affordable housing and more shelter topped the list of what respondents suggested would most help the homeless, and lack of money was the most often mentioned barrier to getting a place of one's own.
Armed with a two-page questionnaire, more than 50 volunteers fanned out between 9 pm and midnight April 21, with each group assigned a designated area in the downtown and in several other
The census documented the many and diverse faces of
flocking here to utilize services, the average respondent had been in the city for 8.6 years. The average First Nations respondent had been here even longer - 10.7 years.
The brutal reality of homelessness was confirmed by the census, which showed 32% of respondents currently sleeping outdoors, 17% not having had a meal the day of the interview, 66% not earning any money that day, and a quarter to a third describing their physical or mental health as poor. Also widespread was alcohol and drug addiction, with many respondents frankly acknowledging its power in keeping them from straightening out their lives.
Most of those interviewed had not been homeless very long: the average was a little over a year. Women, however, on average had been homeless twice as long as men. Addiction, family conflict, and eviction led the list of circumstances that led to homelessness.
The respondents utilize a wide variety of services that member agencies of the Working Group operate including shelters, meal sites, food banks, drop-in centres, and treatment programs. Yet, more than a third of the interviewees receive no governmental assistance. Service providers constantly find themselves stretched to the limit trying to meet the desperate needs of their clients with fewer and fewer
resources. Many of these crucial programs face an uncertain future as funding is sparse and short term.
In existence since 2002,
To City Council - Will they hear?
I began working for the Ministry of Human Resources 25 years ago. I have worked in almost every office in
Even if the least that could be done was some meal tickets and a voucher for a hostel, each one at least had a warm bed for the night and some food.
I have always felt that the best way to judge any government or bureaucracy is the way in which its most vulnerable citizens are treated.
Twenty-five years later the welfare system has changed. I stand ashamed at the state it is in.
I completely endorse the Homeless Action Plan
1) reducing barriers to accessing welfare by the homeless;
2) developing 3200 units of supportive housing;
3) increasing mental health and addiction services.
It is imperative that City Hall bring as much pressure as is possible to bear on the Provincial and Federal Governments, for much of the implementation of this plan depends on their support, participation and money.
In purely economic terms one of the most startling statistics regarding this issue is that it costs up to $40,000 to provide services and shelter for a homeless person. It costs only up to $28,000 for services in supportive housing.
As for what City Hall can do on its own, I highly endorse a pilot project with MHR to coordinate outreach to those who are street homeless and to assist eligible people to apply for welfare.
The City must develop a cohesive rental housing strategy which includes:
1) encouraging the private sector to create more affordable housing;
2) preserving the existing rental stock.
Tourism
By Chyrse Howes
Getting a new bedGetting a new bed
Trepidation – I think that’s what it’s called when you’re kinda scared to do something. Today I was a bit leery about going back to work. I hadn’t been to the newsletter office for about 3 or 4 months. It’s been so long that I can’t even remember. I was wondering if I would be welcome. It’s newsletter day and I used too show up pretty well every time for about a year or so. I had suddenly quit coming, back in January or February. I had developed some “eye” or was it “i” problems. Anyway today as I said was newsletter day and I thought that I’d stop around and see if they still wanted or needed my help.
I was like the prodigal son and everyone had a pleasant smile and hearty welcome. Sure made me feel good. I guess another reason for my leeryness was the fact that I had been sleeping on the floor. I was sore all over and hadn’t got much sleep the night before. The night before that, I had been kept awake by strangers in my bed. You know, the little buggers who come out after dark and suck on your blood. When I got up. i destroyed my bed. I had intended to throw out the mattress and save the bed I had built for myself out of an old pallet I found one day. I had actually built a futon bed because I had been given a futon mattress. It even converted into a couch when I wanted it to. All I had to do was say “Abracadabra” and poof I had a couch or “Presto” and wham I had a bed. You know how these things work. But as I pulled it apart, there were so many bugs crawling out of the woodwork that I decided to get rid of everything, so I hauled it all down to the garbage room. I took it apart so no one else would put it into his or her room.
I told my manager and she arranged to have my room sprayed right away. Now I had no strangers in the night or a bed for them to inhabit, which left me with just a floor to sleep on. It’s cement and sure is hard to get comfortable on. I have about 4 blankets and a little sponge. My next quest was to get a bed.
I was off to see my worker and hope for a little compassion. That’s the wrong thing to look for in this neck of the woods, especially from someone who has total power over your welfare. I should explain something first. When I first moved into my place, I had moved out of an SRO (single room occupancy), so I had nothing to move into a new place with. No bed or furniture of any kind. My worker was kind enough to allow me a bed from WRAGS – cost $90. It was delivered about 3 weeks later, so I have experience sleeping on the floor. What pissed me off was that the bed was supposed to be new, but it had springs sticking out of the side and it used to scratch the back of my legs when I got in or out of bed. Both sides were the same. I even took a pair of wire cutters to the damn thing so that it wouldn’t scratch so much. It sure was a poor excuse for a NEW BED. My worker didn’t believe me that such a bed existed. He told me I was a liar, but he said he was sorry he couldn’t believe me. WRAGS wouldn’t do something like that. Too bad that I hadn’t taken pictures of it or something.
On my way to see my worker I stopped in at a few 2nd hand stores and found I could get a decent bed for $50 from St. James. I thought great it’ll save him $40 and I’ll have a bed tonight. After explaining my self to the little king of my particular kingdom I was told I could have a bed from WRAGS, take it or leave it. What choice did I have? Sleep on the floor for a couple of days or until I could get a bed on my own. I choose the WRAGS bed. I thanked him and left. I only hope this one is in better shape then the last bed I got and that it gets here a lot sooner. In the mean time I‘m kinda grouchy most of the time. You know - lack of sleep and the sleep I do get is very uncomfortable. Please bear with me and I’ll try not to be a bear. – Hal
It’s a few days later now and I got my bed. It’s not new but it’s a long way off the floor and I fell asleep for about 8 hours as soon as I lay down, even though it was 6 in the evening. Now it’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep so I thought I’d add a little bit to my story. Hope you found it interesting.
By Harold Asham
Legal Services Society Tries to CopeLegal Services Society Tries to Cope
I am pleased to advise that the LSS Board of Directors has extended the term of the LawLINE legal advice service to March 31, 2006. In the coming months it is expected that the LSS Board will put a 2006/2007 budget to government which will include this service as a permanent program.
In the fiscal year April 2004 to March 2005 the LawLINE opened 14,661 cases (7532 information/ referral cases; 7129 legal advice cases). Case categories included 39% family; 16% debt or consumer; 11% criminal; 6% health and estates, 6% housing; 4% income security; and 4% employment. Calls come to the LawLINE roughly in proportion to the population distribution around the province; 64% of callers were female and 36% male.
The demand on our service is growing. We appreciate there continues to be waits for callers to get through. We are reviewing our ability to provide direct services to community advocates, outside of our phone queue. For the moment, this is something we are not able to offer but there are various steps we are taking to make our resources as available as possible. Once we open a particular file, we do have a voicemail system for these existing clients to leave further information for us so the queue can be avoided after an initial call. Several LawLINE staff monitor and post to PovNet or may do off-PovNet follow up. Our staff is participating in LSS regional and provincial training conferences for advocates, and we also contribute to various PLEI materials.
Allan A. Parker
Program Manager
LawLINE, Legal Services Society of BC
http://www.lss.bc.ca/default/Default.asp
News from the libraryNews from the library
New books:
The
Sundogs: a novel by Lee Maracle. (823 MAR) Set in 1990, this novel (Maracle’s first) is about the struggle of a First Nations family, and heroine Marianne, in the year surrounding the downfall of
Beyond the pale: dramatic writing from First Nations writers & writers of colour. (822.8 BEY) This is a unique collection of short plays by playwrights of different dialects, different experiences and perspectives in
Looking for La Bomba: the Cuban adventures of a musical oaf by Richard Neill. (917.29 NEI) This is the hilarious story of a would-be British musician following an impossible dream to play music in
The Indian Lawyer: a novel by James Welch. (823 WEL) This mystery-thriller, though not a new book, is a vivid tale of the American West. The hero, Sylvester Yellow Calf, was raised in poverty on a Blackfoot reservation and is now a prominent lawyer – and is not at home in either world.
The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 reader by Michael Moore. (791.437 MOO) The movie was the first documentary ever to win the Best Picture award in
Sorry everybody: an apology to the world for the re-election of George W. Bush. Website, www.sorryeverybody.com, by James Zetlen. (973.931) Here are 1,000 photos from citizens around
So – come on into the library, in order to read these books and many more new ones like them! Or, just come in and use our Internet computer, to see the X-Bush website!
The Tragic Death Of Olaf SolheimThe Tragic Death Of Olaf Solheim
Remember Expo '86?
A World's Fair
came to
to celebrate
the city's 100th birthday.
The event inspired developers
to continue building
the corporate, skyscraper city,
a machine effectively designed
for making money (1)
and for excluding those
who don't have the money
to live in it.
In anticipation
of the tourist invasion
about 500 to 600 tenants
were evicted from
Downtown Eastside hotels
in the spring of 1986.
Owners renovated the rooms
and increased the rents.
Another 1000 to 1500
lodging house rooms
were switched from monthly rental
to tourist rental status.
After all, "The world runs by greed,"
Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute,
and he also stated
that displaced tenants
would "save everyone
a lot of trouble
if they were
all put on buses
to the Kootenays." (2)
The people being evicted
were mainly older men
who were long-term residents,
and who had worked
to help build
the
Some were retired.
Others were unemployed
and disabled.
Most of them were poor.
They thought of
their hotel rooms
as home.
They had a circle of friends
in the neighbourhood,
and they belonged
to the community
of the Downtown Eastside.
They didn't want
to be thrown out
like garbage.
They didn't want
to become refugees
in their own land.
Olaf Solheim was
one of these men.
He was a gentle
eighty-seven year old
with a long white beard.
He had worked
most of his life
as a logger
in
and he had lived
at the
for over forty years.
Olaf was from
and in Norwegian
Solheim means sunny home.
Olaf was thrown out
of his home
in the spring of 1986
to make way
for Expo '86 tourists.
DERA helped him
find another place,
and even hired a homeworker
to help look after him.
His world was broken, however,
and he was disoriented.
He wandered the streets
for a few weeks.
He refused to eat,
and then he died
on April 18, 1986.
Dr. John Blatherwick,
the city's medical health officer,
said, "The spark went
out of him after the eviction.
He just stopped living."
When the manager
of the
was asked why
he didn't let Olaf stay,
he replied,
"We're not a nursing home." (3)
Olaf wasn't the only person
to die because of the evictions.
Two men committed suicide
soon after receiving
their eviction notices,
and Jim Green,
who was the manager of DERA
from 1981 to 1991,
said that eleven
Expo-related evictees
had died
as of March, 1988. (4)
In the year 2005
gentrification is still
a major problem
for the Downtown Eastside.
The development of Woodward's
will increase the pressure
of gentrification,
as will the
Winter Olympics of 2010.
Not only does
the Downtown Eastside
need thousands of units
of social housing,
as Jim Green pointed out
in 1985, (5)
but the welfare rates
and minimum wage
need to be raised.
When people have no money,
they can't pay rent
and they can't buy food.
They are excluded
from their own community.
was built by DERA
as social housing.
It was named in memory
of Olaf Solheim.
He would want us
to continue the fight
for a just society,
so that what happened to him
won't happen to residents
of the Downtown Eastside
in the next five years.
Sandy Cameron
(1) "The Developers," by James Lorimer, pub. by James Lorimer & Co., 1978, p.79.
(2) "Economist backs busing evictees," by Terry Glavin, The Vancouver Sun, April 23, 1986.
(3) "Ten Years And Counting," by Joe Armato, Carnegie Newsletter, April 15, 1996.
(4) "Urban Mega-Events: Evictions and Housing Rights: the Canadian Case," by Dr. Kris Olds. On the Internet. Look under Olaf Solheim.
A JOURNEY of HOPE
An influence from pain, and wastings said "it's easy to get a person off the streets, but the work is to get the streets out of the person."
One's integrity comes from the balance we build: Mentally, emotionally, physically and most of all spiritually. _
Our journey is from our heads to our heart, to put things in the place of acceptance so we can grow and develop into strong individual - fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and, most of all, friends.
Our connection to the Creator is to remind us: We need not think our way into healthier living, but remember to live our way into healthier thinking.
All My Relations,
Dwayne K Haluk (NWT)
New Board of DirectorsCarnegie Community Centre Association
Elects New Board of Directors
At its Annual General Meeting on June 2, the CCCA AGM (how’s that for acronyms) hosted over 30 people – members – to hearing reports from all organized groups under this charity umbrella: Finance, Programs, Volunteers, Seniors, Publications, Oppenheimer Park, Library & Education and Community Relations. oh yeah, there was an election too..
While the executive was voted on later, the 2005/2006 Board of Directors is:
President – Margaret Prevost
Vice-President – Muggs Sigurgeirson
Treasurer – Peter Fairchild
Secretary – Gena Thompson
Member-at-Large – Robin Cole
Chris Laird Robyn Livingstone
Stephen Lytton Mathew Mathew
Joyce Morgan James
Dora Sanders Bob Sarti
Gerald Wells Ernie Williams
A Hit: "Crime and Punishment”A Hit
The musical play “Crime and Punishment” has been nominated for 13 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, including Outstanding Production in small theatre, the Sydney Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Play, and the Critics Choice Innovation Award. (The show was co-produced by NeWorld Theatre and the PuSh Festival in association with Vancouver Moving Theatre.) You may remember that the cast of the show included several five performers from The Downtown Eastside Community Play: Grant Chancey, Klisala Harrison, Kuei-Ming Lin, Stephen Lytton, and Elwin Xie. Community play alumni received special mention for direction (James Fagan Tait), lighting design (Itai Erdal) and sound design and musical direction (Joelysa Pankanea). The awards will be announced at the Commodore on June 20. Congratulations to the whole cast and artistic team!
The StormThe Storm
The heaven covered by blankets of haze,
Grey to the eye and eerie to the heart,
Though oddly tranquil.
Her children of the sky run along,
The force of their feet shakes the very clouds.
Sound echoes across the land.
The fear of the storm is what mystifies the willing, A
nd the power of her cowards the strongest man.
Her power lights up the sky.
Her breathe is forceful but steady.
Heeding warning to the coming rains.
In the end the grey skies are parted,
Heaven's light ines through, lighting the path.
But the storm will return,
Covering Gaia's blue eyes once more.
Bringing the stormmistress back.
For she is endless and eternal.
Jason M Tizzard
NATIONAL Aboriginal Day!NATIONAL aboriginal day! Art and Cultural Celebration
Scheduled Events June 17-June 21 At the
Friday - JUNE 17
10:00 Arts, Crafts & Food Market
12:00 Traditional "Mothers & Grandmothers
Dance Society - Traditional Prairie
1:00 Red Blanket Smgers & Drummers
Traditional Medicine Songs
2:00 Mooshum's Little Metis Jiggers &
Shaganappi Metis Fiddlers
3:00 Raven Reflections
Haida Fashion Designing
4:00 Arlette Alcock
Metis - Contemporary Folk
5:00 Old Elk Powwow Troupe &
Black Fish Singers
6:00 DiggingRoots (
BlueslJazz/Reggae
7:00 Pamyua (
Music & Yup'ik (Inuit) Dance
At the
10:00 Arts, Crafts & Food Market
12:00 Dancers of Dame1ahamid
Westcoast Traditional Dancing/Singing
1:00 Insignia (Contemporary)
Progressive Rock Music
2:00 Children of Rainbow Drum Group
Toddler & Elementary Students
3:00 Art Napoleon
Aboriginal Roots Music
4:00 Old Elk Powwow Troupe &
Black Fish Singers
5:00 DiggingRoots (
Blues/Jazz/Reggae
6:00 Nisga'a Ts'amiks Dancers
Westcoast Traditional Dancing/Singing
7:00 Pamyua (
Music & Yup'ik (Inuit) Dance
At the
10:00 Arts, Crafts & Food Market
12:00 Urban Heiltsuk Dancers
Westcoast Button Blanket Dancers
1:00 FaraPaJrner (R&B/Pop) &
OEO (Underground Rap)
2:00 Mooshwn's Little Metis Jiggers &
Shaganappi Metis Fiddlers
3:00 DiggingRoots (
Blues/Jazz/Reggae
4:00 Sandy Scofield Band
Metis - Contemporary
5:00 Old Elk Powwow Troupe &
Black Fish Singers
6:00 Marcel Gagnon (
Contemporary Singer/Songwriter
7:00 Pamyua (
Music & Yup1ik (Inuit) Dance
Special Closing Performances Billy Joe Green &
Derek Miller
YALE BLUES CLUB - Aboriginal Blues
Monday - JUNE 20, 2005 @ 7:00 pm
Proposed Entertainment: .
11:00 pm - Derek Miller Band (
9:30 pm - Billy Joe Greene (
8:00 pm - Marcel Gagnon (
7:00 pm - futellifunk (port Coquitlarn, Be)
VOGUE THEATRE - Aboriginal Musical Production & Community Award Show
Tuesday, JUNE 21,2005
Opening by Elders – Chief Bill Williams (Squamish), Mary Charles (Musquearn), Leonard George .
Hosted by: Tina Keeper (North of 60) and Chief Leonard George (Tsleil Waututh)
. Janet Rogers - Spoken Word (
. Children of the Rainbow Drum Group (
. Dalannah Bowan (Jazz)
. My Girl & Friends (House Band)
. Aboriginal Youth Theatre Proj eet
. Pamyua (Yup'ik - Inuit)
. Spakwus Slolem - (Squamish Nation)
at
Pancake Breakfast: 9:00 am -11 :00 am
PARADE:11 :00 am -12:00 pm: up
Aboriginal Day Festivities at
12:00-5:00 pm: Performances; Arts & Craft Booths; Info Booths; Food Concessions; Family, Youth & Children's
Activities; Canoeing; Feast (Rain or Shine; Bring chairs!)
at
11:00am – 3:00pm Celebration, Activities & Food
- BBQ
- Crafts
- Music
- Drumming and Dancing
Help always needed with planning and running the event.
Watch for posters with more details!
Little ThingsLittle Things
Have to be thankful
for the little things I got
can’t take things for granted
they can always disappear
sooner than not
Children out there dying
in the streets of Americanada
in the streets of
been a whole lotta horror goin’ round
and a whole lot comin’ back
Got to be thankful
for the little things I secure
things can always get worse
of that I’m sure
So don’t feel sorry
don’t cry for what you have not
just be thankful
for the little things you got
Al
Happy Endings?Happy Endings?
The more things change the more they stay the same
the more you struggle the deeper the quicksand
the more you try the worse it gets; funny
you’d think we’d learn but we never do
Only thing matters to me anymore
is the bright sunny smile of my daughter
when she bounces up bringing solace
to an old man, tired and worn out
by swimming against the current all the time
I wish there was a happy ending
I keep praying that it’ll work out that way
you do your best… sometimes it’s not good enough
smile while you can
stock up against the game getting rough
Only thing keeps me here
is wanting to see how it all plays out
scared to death of living but too chicken to die
this body hurts me through time and space
and I am just holding onto the ride
RALL
It is a lie.It is a lie. It is not true that we have to take part in this lethal market.
It is not true that the only options are between different kinds of war.
It is not true that we must take sides with one or another stupidity.
It is not true that we must renounce intelligence and humanity.
It is possible to have another world, different than what the violent supermarket is selling us.
It is possible to have another world where the choice is between war and peace, between memory and forgetting, between hope and resignation between the gray tones and the rainbow.
It is possible to have a world where many worlds fit.
It is possible that from a “No!” will be born an imperfect, unfinished, and incomplete “Yes!” that gives back to humanity the hope of rebuilding, every day, the complex bridge that joins thought and feeling. Viva life! Death to death!
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Fine Dining in the Downtown EastsideFine Dining in the Downtown Eastside
The Harbour Light Centre, on E.Cordova between Main and
after day, year after year.
The hours are 11-11:55am in the mornings (what an eye-opener at the crack of dawn for many folks) and dinner from 5-6pm in the raucous evenings.
Breakfast/lunch and supper are terms used quite loosely – for good reason
Breakfast is particularly hard to describe, partly because it is perfectly undescribable – what I can say without literally gagging from the memory. It is certainly a dish worthy of being gobbled up by the mouthful on an episode of Fear Factor in the food segment: To chow down on Harbour Light’s world famous liquefied roadkill – unidentifiable rottening fish, of dubious origin.. from parts unknown…
‘A marriage made in Sally Ann’s heaven of the sea’s and highway’s fire in hell cuisine.’
If fear is not a factor, you can again partake of this same rancid, bubbling and reheated concoction when it is once again scooped out of the rusting cauldrons in the early evenings.. curiously and, as always, quite generously (the humanity of it all!).[Go figure: with getting about $2 for every plate from the gov’t]
Lunch is served – or picked at – or dumped out – 7 days a week, and Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings sees Dinner. Takeout orders are supplied to the downtrodden and down ‘n out, too weak or too intoxicated to stagger into this sanitized, tightly controlled, unequaled in its depravity for such fine food: This establishment of the Straight & Narrow.
I might add that the décor is based firmly on pre- and post-modern San Quentin and
It is preferable to have the grunge, lived-in look, with no jacket or tie required. Plenty of free parking for shopping carts.
Bon appetit!!!
Robyn the culinary critic Livingstone
Music Program Random NotesMusic Program Random Notes
Yeah, I finally got about half of that load of laundry done, and I was pondering those Elizabethan wherefores, and whatever's that were creeping into a discussion Dean '0 and I were havin' about grammar, and proper this, and proper that, and then it struck me that those critters who came up with musical notation were probably wonderful linguists; Poetry Rogues, or defrocked clergymen who'd seen the light they weren't supposed to talk about in proper company; The one that said the churches banning of particular intervals in musical composition was a load as tall as the great pyramid.
Yeah, the churches of the middle ages banned 6th, 7th, and other harmonic relationships in the music of the time for reasons you'd have to be a forensic psychologist to begin to understand what or why harmonies common to folk music, or more modem blues music, were banned from earshot if the gig was in a church.
"Brother Maximillian, your music will be the death of us all! The church has no other choice than to excommunicate you and your evil harmonies!" or somthin' like that. And old Bro Max hits the road with a band of gypsies and starts writing down all those previously unrecorded tunes. Meanwhile the inquisition gets wind of old Bro Max, and his previous gig playin' one of those big old church organs, and they decide that educated men have no business preserving the music of common people.(especially all those bluesy harmonies that tend to elicit emotions in people that the church disapproves of).
Yeah, the Inquisition can't have music that gives people feelings being preserved in musical notation so old Bro Max gets put on the Inquisition’s most wanted list.
Poetry Rogues, gypsies, vagabonds, lowlifes: excommunicated and reviled. Kept to a lower social order by the social politic of the day that was dictated by pious old windbags who claimed to speak for a god no one has ever seen. Well, no one who ever sat in judgement over someone hauled in front of the Inquisition anyway. If I was God I wouldn't talk to those bozos. I'd be talkin' to old Bro Max. tellin" him to hop that ship in the harbour before the next tide. Course, he'd probably have to go as a deckhand or somthin' cause poetry rogues are always poor of coin.
Their coin was their muse, and that muse is as imbedded into culture as a genetic trait is to one’s own person; One doesn't exist in the same way without the things that have combined to make you yourself. So, contrary to the social cant of the day, the devised system for notating music was a way for their muse to speak in the physical across space, and time. It’s as if some spirit had whispered into their ears about a sometimes whenever, where music would be as appreciated as breathing itself. Giving the culture we live in its mulatto; its diversity that stodgy old farts of every era hate in equal portion to their hatred of the feelings certain kinds of music can elicit.
I guess we can thank all the old Bro Maxes for listening to their muse, and hopping that boat way back whenever. I mean, can you imagine a Friday night dance at the Carnegie with nothing but Gregorian chants to wiggle your hips to?
Till next time, M.
