I cannot do much but cry this morning - however ineffective that is. I don't personally know anyone on those ships in the Mediterranean, but I feel like they were my brothers and sisters in spirit, and that given opportunity I could have been on one of those ships.
I hope this is some sort of turning point about Canada's (and the U.S.) support for Israel. They have become the enemy that they were supported to help rid the world of. I think people in Israel should be able to live in peace, but they elected this right wing war mongering government. It is going to mean more violence. . .
In case you are asleep under a rock this morning - Israel boarded ships loaded with humanitarian aid meant for Gaza, in International Waters, this morning and killed at least 20 and injured over 60. I await more news. Turkey has withdrawn their ambassador (the largest/lead ship was Turkish and so are all the dead - as reported so far) They have been denounced by the U.N. including by Ban-Ki-Moon and by Sarkoszy in France -
Israel says that they were "fired upon:" first and reacted but Turkey says that there were no arms aboard. See here. She says in Part:
Woke up at 3 am today for some reason and looked at my blackberry twitter feed. I couldn't believe my eyes. Israeli Defense Forces had just attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla killing human rights activists and trying to defend it by some cock and bull story about lynch mobs. I haven't felt that kind of horror since I heard about the massacre in Sabra and Shatila in 1982, not because the death toll is as high but because of the understanding that the Israeli government will stop on nothing. Please go out to the protests in your town. List follows as does a statement from the Alternate Information Center, a Palestinian/Israeli group in Israel.
She lists protest in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa but let me know if you know of others - especially in Halifax, I have to take this grief and anger somewhere!
Musing on Conrad Black today - given his correct analysis (mostly) in the National Post (front page!) today, I think that part of the cure for what ails us, is to send the rich to jail for a while. . . where they learn things like - everyone behind bars in not guilty of a crime, people deserve to be treated with dignity even in jail. . .
Speaking to a three year old report on the government's plan on what to do with Canadian prisons Black says: "As so often in other fields, this document seeks to import to Canada much of the worst of American practice, and none of the best, unless Canada now idealizes gratuitous official severity." and, he claims, he knows whereof he speaks having spent considerable time in American prisons with the approach (punishment, not rehab, treat them like they are guilty until proven innocent . . .) now being proposed by the Harper government.
This Roadmap--which was released in 2007, and which the Harper government began officially responding to in its budget in 2008, setting out a five-year plan -- turns the humane traditions of Canada upside down. It implicitly assumes that all who are convicted are guilty and have no remaining claim to decency from the state, and that treating confinees accordingly is in the interest of the legally unexceptionable majority.
The Roadmap does not mention prisoners' rights, beyond basic food, shelter, clothing and medical care, and assumes that they are probably not recoverable for society and that the longer they are imprisoned, the better it is for society. Almost no distinction is made between violent and non-violent offenders.
Conrad black defending prisoners - imagine! He also says that the unborn have rights in a sentence in the middle of the article, and he holds other views I find abhorrent, but this was amusing, nevertheless.
Also musing about the Maoists in India. I was quite compelled by Arundhuti Roy's article in Outlook that defended the Maoists and their violence, see here, because they are defending those without rights or privilege in India and the movement is growing especially among the "tribal people". Several articles have been published lately that were very sympathetic to the Maoists or Naxalites as they are known in India. Their previous violence though has targeted police, military, paramilitary and corporations. There has been some (but little) collateral damage - killed civilians (and always because they were unluckily traveling on the same bus or train as lots of military or police. Now suddenly a civilian train travelling from Kolkata to Delhi is blown up, or the track was sabotaged, it seems to be still a little unclear - but it was clear that a last month, a bus load of police and security police wanna-be's was attacked and there were "civilian casualties" - although the bulk of deaths were police) and everyone is blaming the Maoists who have apparently only slaughtered (relatively) innocent civilians - what's the dealio?
I was pleased to see the news about Cuba's march against homophobia this year - apparently bigger and better than last year!
Although proud of Cuba for most of my life, I was always ashamed of their human right's record (although I understand the need to defend the state and the system) especially around gay rights, (and of course the right to dissent, although with the U.S. big hammer, backing dissenters it is a different situation from most states, and this is not the place for that post!) and was not uncritical of the state. I am pleased, however, to report that things are getting much better, and Cuba is called by some: "the most progressive Latin American Country on gay rights. " This may not be true as Venezuela is also quite progressive, at least "legally". In Cuba you can get a free state sponsored "sex change" operation (sex reassignment surgery) and free hormones to maintain your assigned gender. But relationships are not acknowledged. In Venezuela a law acknowledging same sex unions is expected, soon. It is written by several authors that Cuba does not acknowledge same sex unions because marriage has little meaning in the country for heterosexuals and so there is little demand for it. Which state has the most discrimination day to day, is not clear to me but is dealt with in several wikipedia articles dealing with this issue.
One of the factors that have helped change attitudes has been the government’s strong commitment to education, research and improvement. In 1972 it set up the National Working Group of Sex Education (GNTES). Composed of professionals of various ministries with a multidisciplinary approach, the group’s main mission was to create and implement the policy for a national program of sex education. Importantly, it was also tasked with research, counselling and education about issues surrounding sexuality. GNTES helped advise and advocate for gay, lesbian and transgender rights throughout the 1970s and ’80s. It set up municipal research, education and counselling services across Cuba and in 1989 became the National Centre of Sex Education (CENESEX).
CENESEX has been leading the campaign against homophobia. On May 17, 2008, it organised activities to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. Associated Press reported at the time, “Cuba’s gay community celebrated unprecedented openness — and high-ranking political alliances — with a government-backed campaign against homophobia on Saturday”. Mariela Castro, director of CENESEX and daughter of President Raul Castro, joined government leaders and hundreds of activists at a one-day conference that featured shows, lectures, panel discussions and book presentations. Mariela Castro told Associated Press, “This is a very important moment for us, the men and women of Cuba, because for the first time we can gather in this way and speak profoundly and with scientific basis about these topics”.
The president of Cuba’s national parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, told reporters at the conference that the government needs to do more to promote gay rights, but many Cubans still need to be convinced. The previous night, during prime time, Cuban state television ran the US film Brokeback Mountain, the story of two gay cowboys.
That said, other Gay organizations are not allowed/acknowledged, gay relationships are not recognized, they cannot celebrate a "Gay pride" day, and there is still a lot of homophobia in the population. (And I have no way to gauge whether it is better or worse in other countries in central and south America.) But I am happy that Cuba is not a monstrosity of homophobia and that there is state sponsored education to teach people to stop being discriminatory. You can read more at: Wikipedia - LGBT Rights in Cuba BBC - Castro Champions Gay rights in Cuba AP - Cubans March Against Homophobia Havana Times - Being Homosexual in Cuba. ______________________________________________________________
Also musing (in terror) this morning on Gaza. A flotilla of nine ships, from Ireland, Turkey, Sweden and other countries, carrying 700 activists and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid, are approaching Gaza by sea, in an attempt to break the Israeli Siege of Gaza. The siege continued since the 2007 election of Hamas, is a "collective punishment" of the people of Gaza for supporting the wrong government - this is illegal and an international crime.
The Gaza Strip (Arabic: قطاع غزة Qiṭāʿ Ġazza/Qita' Ghazzah, Arabic pronunciation: [qitˤaːʕ ɣazza]) lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers (139 sq mi). The territory takes its name from Gaza, its main city.
The territory has a population of about 1.5 million people, as at July 2009,[1] 1 million of whom were, as of March 2005, refugees[2] who fled to the territory from other parts of Palestine as part of the 1948 Palestinian exodus arising from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and their descendants. The population is predominantly Sunni Muslims and speak a Western Egyptian dialect of Arabic. . .
The Gaza Strip is one of the territorial units forming the Palestinian territories.[7][8][9][10] Actual control of the area within the Gaza Strip borders are in the hands of Hamas, an organization that won civil parliamentary Palestinian Authority elections in 2006 and took over de facto government in the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority by way of its own political maneuvering and armed militia in July 2007, while consolidating power by violently removing the Palestinian Authority's security forces and civil servants from the Gaza Strip.
From my post earlier this month: "Also thinking about Gaza today and the flotilla of ships on their way to hopefully break the seige of Gaza. See this article on Al Jazeera . . . Imagine 1.5 million people trapped in a prison strip of land, with no employment, not enough calories and no way to "escape" and no where to escape to. . . I cannot understand why there is not a huge outcry about Israel's policy of collective punishment of all of the people of Gaza. This piece says in part:
Ultimately Israel is faced with two questions: does it continue its policy of collective punishment and prevent the flotilla from entering Gaza until Gazans succumb to Israeli demands? Or does it allow the aid to enter and attempt to demonstrate to the world that Israel does in fact respect human rights?
Unfortunately neither of these options bode well for the Israelis, option one for the obvious public outcry that will spill out as a result of 800 people stranded in the water. And although option two would be smarter from a public relations perspective, it would be an indirect admission by Israel that its policy of collective punishment and continued siege is flawed, not to mention illegal. It seems Israel only has a few days left before it is to make up its mind on what could be one of its toughest tests yet."
Click on image below, for link to very recent article in Haaretz.
Hamas police ahead of the arrival of an aid flotilla.
Crowd for send off of boat from Turkey to free Gaza:
Israel is threatening to stop the fleet and is insisting that humanitarian aid is let into Gaza (although this does not include cement or steel to rebuild houses, enough calories for everyone to eat without starving, lots of medical equipment.) Their siege is meant to "punish' the people, including the children, of Gaza, to get them to change their support for Hamas - anybody know when that worked!?
An op-ed piece in the NY Times caught my attention yesterday. It is by Nicholas D. Kristoff and titled Sister Margaret's Choice. In it he tells the story of a Catholic nun - who some call a "Saint" who has been excommunicated by the Catholic Church because she did not stop an abortion.
According to the story:
“In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother’s life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy,” the hospital said in a statement. “This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee.”
Sister Margaret was a member of that committee. She declined to discuss the episode with me, but the bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmstead, ruled that Sister Margaret was “automatically excommunicated” because she assented to an abortion.
So not one priest who assaulted and sexually molested little boys and girls, has been excommunicated (I assume that I DO NOT have to provide links or evidence for that statement!) but, don't object to saving a woman's life, and get excommunicated. Kristof goes on to say:
I heard about Sister Margaret from an acquaintance who is a doctor at the hospital. After what happened to Sister Margaret, he doesn’t dare be named, but he sent an e-mail to his friends lamenting the excommunication of “a saintly nun”:
“She is a kind, soft-spoken, humble, caring, spiritual woman whose spot in Heaven was reserved years ago,” he said in the e-mail message. “The idea that she could be ex-communicated after decades of service to the Church and humanity literally makes me nauseated.”
“True Christians, like Sister Margaret, understand that real life is full of difficult moral decisions and pray that they make the right decision in the context of Christ’s teachings. Only a group of detached, pampered men in gilded robes on a balcony high above the rest of us could deny these dilemmas.”
I am in a bit of a rage over that one. Ordinary church goers just seem to ignore these things (unless they happen to their family) - N.S. is full of Catholics who somehow see these actions of the church and hierarchy as outside their experience with the church - there is no way to change the church from within, as it is not democratic in any way - or responsive to "the people" so the only answer is to run away! run away! and I encourage that! If you feel compelled to attend mass - just don't leave any money behind! They have to get responsive and responsible for what they preach, or start selling off assets, and although that will keep a lot of men in gilded robes going for a long time - they will be rather meaningless without a flock!
Just for fun - this is interesting -- First Human Infected with a Computer Virus. It is really about the electronics that people carry with in them - pacemakers, hearing aids etc. - other electronics may be available for more "cosmetic" or "enhancement" purposes and they will be "like part of us" but they will be susceptible to computer viruses. This is one of those problems that exists in principle but not yet in fact - but it makes sense that it is coming.
Here's the difference between the bank levy and the Robin Hood tax.
Dateline: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Kelly Crichton
With the G20 conference approaching, we have been hearing a lot of confusing talk about an international "bank levy" and also about the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) — also called the Robin Hood Tax. The two taxes are not at all the same thing and can't be conflated.
When discussions began prior to the G20 in Pittsburgh last year to "do something" about the banks and the mess the economy was in, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the idea of a Financial Transaction Tax — a re-working of the old Tobin Tax idea to properly reflect the times.
The FTT would be a tiny levy of .05 percent on all commercial global financial transactions. (The Tobin tax was just on currency trading.) The FTT would earn a very substantial amount of money — estimated to be at least $650 billion per year.
Half of the funds raised would remain in domestic hands, and could be used in the event of another financial meltdown, or to shore up domestic social programs. The other half of the funds would go into a global fund to aid development in the world's poorest countries and to help developing countries adapt their economies to the realities of climate change.
. . .
The FTT is very different from a bank levy, which would simply impose a tax on the banks. The bank levy would not be an instrument of global redistribution as is the FTT. And, in fact, it has been criticized as possibly creating an atmosphere of even greater recklessness, because, in effect, the banks would now have an "insurance" fund to fall back on.
An FTT on the other hand, is seen as something that could stabilize markets by discouraging the most egregious kinds of market activity, day trading, and short term speculation — what has often been called "casino capitalism" on the exchanges of the world.
The FTT — also known as the Robin Hood Tax — has had a great deal of publicity in the UK and Europe, in part due to the Oxfam International campaign and the participation of Ben Kingsley and Bill Nighy, but also because it was seen by many to be a global tax whose time had come.
Well, I do know that the Canadian banks are large and profitable and I had bought the argument that we did not need to bail out our banks, because we have heavy (and required) regulation of the sector. Then, I read this article, by Murray Dobbin, which should be required reading, for Canadians especially Conservative Party supporters. If his analysis or facts are wrong, please let me know, because I expect to be quoting this for quite a while to come. In it he says that it is myth that we did not "bail out" banks in Canada, that the Harper Gov did the following:
We are, according to the IMF, actually the third worst of the G7 countries, behind the U.S. and Britain, in terms of financial stabilization costs.
First, we put up $70 billion to buy up iffy mortgages from the big five banks, through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, taking them off the banks' balance sheets. That is almost the exact equivalent the U.S. bailout -- it spent 10 times as much, $700 billion, and its economy is about 10 times as large.
Secondly, the Harper government established a fund of $200 billion to backstop the banks -- money they could borrow if they needed it. The government had to borrow billions -- mostly from the banks! -- to do it. It's euphemistically called the Emergency Financing Framework -- implying that our impeccable banks might actually face an emergency. It is effectively a line of low-interest credit and while it has not all been accessed, it's there to be used. Could it help explain why credit has not dried up here as much as it has in the U.S.?
Third, the government now insures 100% of virtually all mortgages through CMHC eliminating risk for the banks -- and opening the door to the ridiculous flood of housing loans we have seen over the past few years. The result: housing has become unaffordable for tens of thousands of Canadians and new rental housing has dried up.
He also provides more analysis - absolutely worth a read - we are being lied to!
In addition, of course, the banks are profitable not just because of government guarantees/assistance - in fact they are about to announce big profits again (see this article in the Globe and Mail) and an increased profit rate, and just where do they make this money? From me and you - from "retail" banking profits - I cannot operate on cash these days and I pay a lot for the privilege. To have a chequing account that allows me unlimited interact withdrawals, to withdraw money from MY bank only, without charge, and to write unlimited cheques, I pay $12.95 a month plus $3.00 a month just to have an overdraft (then I pay interest on it, as well, if I use it.) That's close to $200 a year and I am sure it is over, once things like bank charges from "other" machines (at $1.50 a pop) are factored in - or interest on my overdraft, which I do use. I used to pay another $3.00 per month to have my cheques returned to me but since they now only return photocopies, and since I write so few cheques, I have cancelled that. . . At any rate, my employer uses direct deposit and unless I keep a large balance in my account, I cannot get rid of fees - our house lives kind of hand to mouth - so keeping a balance of $2-3000 is not on.
Also of note today, about banking, in Canada, is that home ownership costs are rising across Canada, and the reason is, primarily, the expected rise in Bank of Canada rates, according to this article from the Globe and Mail. Of course the banks were still charging over 5% for a 5 year mortgage when the Bank of Canada rate was near zero - so now they will be increasing to keep that 5+ % spread - and the 15% -20% that they earn on Credit cards - it makes it tough to try and keep the money from them. We do some credit union "banking" but they cannot look after everything - and since we moved to N.S. have found the credit union didn't want to do anything to get our business - and the banks treat us like "special customers" and yes I fell for it. . . I hope to slowly move everything over to a credit union again (as we did in Toronto and Vancouver) but even then the credit union's here, in Nova Scotia do not seem as progressive and consumer friendly as those we participated in (even so far as being on Board committees) in Ont. and B.C.
My last beef on financial services this morning (and it does affect other sectors) is again the Globe and mail reports (I should stop reading the financial pages it just upsets me!) an expected increase, this year, in Executive Compensation. It is also misleading in part as it says that there was "almost no increase in executive compensation", in one line, and then immediately says - Oh but cash compensation was "up" seven percent! OK - so they did not get their big stock options or they weren't worth as much because of the "meltdown" - I think that big CEO's helped create the mess and getting increases of over 7% while auto workers and others were asked to take "cuts" just demonstrates what wrong with the system! From the article:
A Globe and Mail review of pay for CEOs at Canada’s 100 largest public companies in 2009 shows top executives across Canada received, on average, almost no pay increase last year.
The cash portion of pay packages – salary and cash bonuses – did show substantial growth, with a combined median increase of 7.6 per cent. (Medians reflect the experience of the middle-of-the-pack CEO, while averages can be skewed by CEOs with particularly large or small compensation amounts.)
Read the article for more detail on how they fared, and how they are expected to be back to making real increases this year. (I say - where's mine!?)
OTTAWA — Canada is contemplating taking the lead on a key G20 pledge by announcing the elimination of some tax breaks for the oil patch prior to the June summit in Toronto, The Canadian Press has learned
G20 leaders agreed last September in Pittsburgh they would reduce distorting fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term and pledged to present concrete national plans in Toronto.
But sources say Ottawa wants to get ahead of the pack. They say senior officials are studying a proposal that would see Ottawa announce plans to reduce tax support for the oil and gas sector prior to the summit.
As the story suggests - "If Canada took unilateral action on fossil fuel subsidies, 'I think everybody would fall over dead' with shock, he said." Me too -but I do hope it happens.
A story from Canadian Press appeared in most big city papers yesterday and today, that is of interest - the Chronicle Herald Story can found here - but it was also covered in the Globe and the Star.
OTTAWA — The Harper government turned its back on advice from its own civil servants when it excluded abortion funding in its G8 maternal- and child-health initiative, The Canadian Press has learned.
Briefing notes prepared in January by the Canadian International Development Agency for International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda suggest access to safe abortion services could save numerous lives in developing countries.
Abortion was among the measures CIDA felt were necessary to meet the ambitious maternal health goals Ottawa plans to promote at the upcoming meeting of world leaders in Ontario next month.
Although not a personal fan of Marc Emery, I support his business and believe that he was treated appallingly, and that his extradition should break some Canadian law, or at least break the spirit of Canadian Law, if not the rule of law explicitly. I have written and called on his behalf, and I don't actually see how this is different from say, Saudi Arabia asking for the extradition of the publisher of Victoria's Secret Catalogue shipped in, or sending alcohol to Saudi -Arabia. Not smart, but does one get extradited from Canada where these things are legal because they are illegal somewhere else? I just don't get it. Why is this different? Why are we not protecting Canadian Citizens? I was shocked that he could be extradited to the U.S. for a business that he carried on in Canada and paid Canadian taxes on, and declared his business.
I found it interesting that the Marc Emery extradition story was carried, with some question, even in the Hindu in India. ________________________________________________________________
More and more today, we journalists have become prisoners of the language of power. . .
Let me show you what I mean. For two decades now, the US and British - and Israeli and Palestinian - leaderships have used the words 'peace process' to define the hopeless, inadequate, dishonourable agreement that allowed the US and Israel to dominate whatever slivers of land would be given to an occupied people.
. . .
Same again today. We western journalists - used yet again by our masters - have been reporting our jolly generals in Afghanistan as saying that their war can only be won with a "hearts and minds" campaign. No-one asked them the obvious question: Wasn't this the very same phrase used about Vietnamese civilians in the Vietnam war? And didn't we - didn't the West - lose the war in Vietnam?
Yet now we western journalists are actually using - about Afghanistan - the phrase 'hearts and minds' in our reports as if it is a new dictionary definition rather than a symbol of defeat for the second time in four decades, in some cases used by the very same soldiers who peddled this nonsense - at a younger age - in Vietnam.
Language being used to "confuse the issue" - check it out!
Lastly this morning, I am still thinking about Facebook, privacy and data accumulation and my part in it. One article in PCWorld suggests that Facebook should use opt out of complete privacy instead of opt-in if they are really committed to privacy.
We have heard the feedback. There needs to be a simpler way to control your information. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services. We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible. We hope you'll be pleased with the result of our work and, as always, we'll be eager to get your feedback.
If they get a turn off for "all third party services" I will likely remain on FB, as that is what makes me really crazy!
Have a great day - let me know what you think about any of this . . .
So today, it turns out, according to this story in the Guardian, that Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons during the years of Apartheid in South Africa.
The story is also subtitled: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons
The story says in part:
The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.
Mr. Khadr was not a mere bystander. He was indoctrinated into armed conflict by his father, a member of Osama bin Laden’s circle who was killed by Pakistani forces in 2003. But if his trial goes forward this summer as scheduled, he will be the first person in decades to be tried by a Western nation for war crimes allegedly committed as a child.
That has drawn justified criticism from United Nations officials and civil liberties and human rights groups. The conditions of Mr. Khadr’s imprisonment have been in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and international accords on the treatment of children.
Bring Omar Khadr home! people - we should be ashamed as a country not to restore a citizen, who was born in this country and who was recruited as a child soldier by his family, no less than if he had been dragooned by some militia in Africa, which this country condemns. We cannot have policies that are only trotted out when they are convenient - If we believe in the rule of law, as a country, (I do, but I know that Harper and Harperites do not, or at least they cause serious questions about their commitment on a regular basis) we must always condemn those who recruit and train child soldiers whether they are from our country or some other. Those child soldiers deserve a chance at life, rehabilitation and reintegration. At 15 Khadr could likely have been rehabilitated - and integrated into Canadian society - but after 7 years in Guantanamo - tortured and threatened and spending all of that time with jailers, and with others who also believe in extremism - that may never be possible, and that is the fault of Canada along with the U.S.
Saying that one should be patient and withstand trouble doesn’t mean one should be defeated and overcome. The whole purpose of engaging in the practice of patience is to become stronger in mind, stronger in heart. And you also want to remain calm. If you lose patience and your brain becomes confused with emotion, you will lose the power to analyze and figure out how to overcome the negative force that is opposing you. ~~~ Dalai Lama
I think I am pretty patient - I am patient with the grand children, usually patient waiting in lines, and goodness knows I have been patiently waiting my whole lfe for a change in the way the world works. (I really thought that capitalism would fall apart in my lifetime - It is such a bad way to organize things for people and the planet.) I want to "clear my mind" so that I can "figure out how to overcome the negative force that is opposing" me. I am taking this quote (above) from the Dalai Lama to heart this morning, because one outcome of my injury/accident is that even more than before(and it was considered a problem, before!) I cry easily. I don't cry because someone has hurt my feelings. I sometimes cry in pain, but usually I cry, because I am powerless to stop Monsanto, to build affordable housing, or because a plane crashed in India, or Israel killed unarmed young teen Palestinians, or some woman was stoned to death for adultery after a rape - I don't know how to get patient and emotionless about the world.
I cannot do yoga, ride a bike or paddle a kayak - I can walk. (Broken vertebrae - so-called burst L3 on Feb 1st) I need something that is easy and not "vigorous" and yet is calming and distracting and I thought today about something I don't think I can indulge in, in Halifax. In the past, in Toronto, I attended "Dances of Universal Peace" - I loved it - it was a fantastic way to meditate - while dancing and singing/chanting - simple movements and chants/songs and you are soon removed from your emotional reaction to things and feeling calm and relaxed - at least that was my experience.
My brain does become "confused with emotion" and I do I think I lose the power to analyze - I do get over the emotion quickly and it doesn't stop me from getting on with things - but it does cause ripples in the world around me - it upsets others, and I think it makes me murky indeed, in my thinking, even if only temporarily. In addition, one of the songs that I learned (but, of course do not remember) was a song to Kwan Yin (Quan Yin) goddess of compassion and wellness... We held the world in our arms and walked and chanted holding the world between our spread arms out in front of us. While holding the world in our arms, we were coached to imagine that we were loving the world intensely, and yet we were separated from the pain of the world and able to hold it at arms length. I need to practice more of that. . . This image is by Bob Spencer and can be found on the website of the Dances of Universal Peace. Click on image for link.
So I am looking for suggestions. If not Dances of Universal Peace (and remember no bending or twisting, no exercise other than walking - I can dance a little as long as it is not "ballistic") and a limited ability to meditate for more than 10 minutes at a time. I could do so for longer after yoga but now that my body is either sluggish or pent up it is much harder - also hard to find a completely comfortable position as I am in, at least a little pain, most of the time.
Great article by Antonia Zerbisias about Ottawa's approach to women and the request (I did not hear about this anywhere else) for as she says:
Funding for more than 20 established organizations that have helped women make great strides has been yanked by Status of Women Canada.
Nobody has explained the cuts.
That’s why, next Wednesday, both current minister Rona Ambrose and former minister Helena Guergis have been summoned to a special meeting of the House of Common’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women to explain their funding decisions and criteria.
“The committee does not believe that it has the data it requires to assess whether the department is funding appropriately according to its mandate,” says committee chair Hedy Fry, who was SWC minister in the Chretien government.
Women's groups cuts, equality for women cut as a goal and nobody to do the explaining. . . thank you to the committee for trying to bring some light to this . . .
Zerbisias provides further info about the cuts and what is being funded - bibles, bible colleges - this is scary changes to policy:
Consider the silence from the Conservatives on continued funding by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which helps women and girls in 174 countries.
Meanwhile, CIDA announced $357,146 for the Prince Albert, Sask.-based Chakam School of the Bible Inc. to build a school in Sudan.
Then there’s the $495,600 CIDA grant to Wycliffe Bible Translators of Calgary, which works so that aboriginal people in far-flung corners of the world can read the scriptures in their native languages.
“It’s okay to translate the Bible,” says Demers. “But there are aboriginal women here who are dying.”
In fact, adds Demers, groups seeking CIDA funding are being told to leave the phrase “gender equity” out of their grant applications.
Also thinking about Gaza today and the flotilla of ships on their way to hopefully break the seige of Gaza. See this article on Al Jazeera . . . Imagine 1.5 million people trapped in a prison strip of land, with no employment, not enough calories and no way to "escape" and no where to escape to. . . I cannot understand why there is not a huge outcry about Israel's policy of collective punishment of all of the people of Gaza. This piece says in part:
Ultimately Israel is faced with two questions: does it continue its policy of collective punishment and prevent the flotilla from entering Gaza until Gazans succumb to Israeli demands? Or does it allow the aid to enter and attempt to demonstrate to the world that Israel does in fact respect human rights?
Unfortunately neither of these options bode well for the Israelis, option one for the obvious public outcry that will spill out as a result of 800 people stranded in the water. And although option two would be smarter from a public relations perspective, it would be an indirect admission by Israel that its policy of collective punishment and continued siege is flawed, not to mention illegal.
It seems Israel only has a few days left before it is to make up its mind on what could be one of its toughest tests yet. And it is posing these questions that make the Freedom Flotilla so significant.
I have been and supporting the International BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, boycotting Chapters and MEC (formal boycott's although I am not sure that I agree with the decision to boycott MEC) and informally products made in Israel and O Solo Mio shoes since about half their stock id from Israel. See this new article about the success of the Cultural BDS movement.
Also musing this morning, about Internet privacy and whether to stay on Facebook. I have started blogging more (here - www.musingsfromtheshore.blogspot.com), tweeting, (ma_mchugh) and emailing people so that I am not so dependent on facebook. I feel like if I remove myself entirely from FB I am going to miss out on knowing about events and even keeping up to date with news outside the mainstream. . . but I do not want to be participating in the data mining (I am not too worried about my own data - go ahead and try to use my Palestinian Solidarity or feminist rants to sell me something personally!) as I am a large FB user - posting and reading other's posts more than once a day.
Lots of links to thoughtful discussion on FB and its challenges and also on Google, who are in trouble for collecting our data though they say they have not used it. I am in kind of future shock especially on what info corporations have on me - the issue is articulated in the Times Online:
Facebook’s privacy policy is now 5,830 words long, more than the US Constitution. “Our online selves are not just stuff for databases, they are part of us. Facebook has no real respect for its customers,” said Milan.
So far the charge has been led by the technorati. Danah Boyd, a Microsoft researcher and top tech blogger, wrote: “The battle that is under way is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It’s a battle over choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being duped, tricked, coerced and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences.
“Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is unfair. It gives users the illusion of choice and hides the details from them ‘for their own good’.”
Other influential techies, including Cory Doctorow, co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing, have already quit Facebook. More worryingly for the firm, the controversy is getting increasing attention in Washington DC.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic), an advocacy group, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook changes that have meant more information is made public by default and also shared automatically with other websites.
Lots of other discussions about this. I am looking at torproject.org and chi.mp as replacements although not entirely, of course - they do different things. . . - and of course this blog which will allow me to only post once a day to FB - until I decide whether to get out entirely.
Another interesting article can be found on the Economist site - yup everyone is now worried. . .
As the Economist says:
Facebook’s problem is more fundamental. True, the social network has some of the most extensive privacy controls on the web, but these have now become so complex—and are tweaked so often—that even privacy experts find them bamboozling. The company also has a powerful incentive to push people into revealing more information. Facebook generates most of its revenue from targeted advertisements based on users’ demography and interests, so the more data users share publicly the more money it can mint from ads. It may well be betting that users are now so hooked that they are unlikely to revolt against a gradual loosening of privacy safeguards.
The worst thing is Facebook’s underlying prejudice against privacy. Sign up and it assumes you want to share as much data as possible; if not, you have to change the settings, which can be a fiddly business. The presumption should be exactly the opposite: the default should be tight privacy controls, which users may then loosen if they choose. If Facebook fails to simplify and improve its privacy policy, it will justly risk the wrath of regulators—and many more Facebook suicides.
You know, I have issues with the N.S. NDP. No one, and no party, is perfect and they have done some good things and made some mistakes, in the last year. I worry that they are not moving fast enough and not being visionary enough. BUT the Chronicle-Herald seems to be on a bit of vendetta against the current governing party - are they not ordering enough newspapers?
First the expense scandal - which all things considered was 1) not that bad and 2) came to light BECAUSE the government was determined to clean things up and keep MLA's accountable. But they could not catch a break on that one. . . and were given no quarter for the fact that they were trying to improve the accountability and get expenses under control. I am embarrassed that the CH among other news sources in the province thought that a $300 brief case was too much for a PREMIER! or that he might have travelled on a 20 hour flight to Vietnam first class - as I understand it the ONLY first class flight he has taken as Premier! Like I said embarrassing.
I was appalled this morning to read the story in the CH about Dan O'Connor. I am not going to debate whether the premier's chief of staff should be allowed to defend the government anonymously, but for the CH to "out" him because they did not like what he said, was I think, pretty stinky! I was confused about a few facts, but Parker Donham sets it straight on his blog, Contrarian, today's entitled: Caught in a falsehood, Herald lies again.
He says in part:
A story by Judy Myrden in Friday’s Chronicle-Herald falsely conflated the cost of producing the
NDP Government’s new Electricity Plan with the cost of a Pictou County media briefing and announcement of the plan
The effect was to overstate the cost of the news conference by four times.
Called on the falsehood, the paper repeats it in today’s lead story, also written by Myrden.
Myrden then compounds this dishonesty by falsely accusing Premier Darrell Dexter’s chief of staff, Dan O’Connor, of denying he had anonymously posted comments to the Herald’s website pointing out the paper’s misrepresentation.
WTF? What is up with the Herald?
I knew that due to a recent court case in N.S. that, where defamation was involved, you could not expect to keep your posts anonymous if you got yourself involved in a libel suit and or the police were involved, but I did expect the paper to never "out me" on the front page no matter what I said. So I have asked the CH to remove my "log-in" membership - whatever they call it and do not plan to ever post a comment on their site again. I don't subscribe, but read the CH online - so I cannot cancel my subscription . . . It's my weak blow for privacy on the web, this week - next FACEBOOK!!!
This morning, the news is full of the story that "science has created synthetic life". There are a couple of issues, that arise for me, not the least of which is it requires a Live cell to make it happen - so, it is not entirely "synthetic", though the DNA that the cell contains is synthetic. As an editorial at the Winnipeg Free Press put it:
I am not opposed to genetic research, at least not on religious or moral grounds, but I find sometimes that geneticists seem to be a little arrogant - like they can predict with certainty what changing genes will do! In this case, the first story I read called Venter a "maverick biologist and billionaire entrepreneur"which is not very inspiring . .. and is worrying. Clearly his intention is not the betterment of human-kind and the planet ecology, but a dash to make as much profit as possible by patenting life-forms and processes to own them, and to keep them from being used by others if they turn out to be beneficial or they can be used safely.
I am OK with safe experimentation of this kind - but with safeguards in case one "accidentally" makes something dangerous, and with a non-profit intent - I think that advances in medical -science and health care would all be well outside capitalism and the profit motive - otherwise I am concerned (not that it keeps me awake nights but it is nevertheless still worrying) that we may all get wiped out by some accidental plague - or a bacterium meant to eat oil - will start turning water into something we cannot use - think Ice Nine -
So I am not anti-science just find science for profit, especially when dealing with DNA, to be a potential accident waiting to happen.
"It's quite a radically different approach," biochemistry professor Ann Simpson of the University of Technology, Sydney said.
"You've got to be very careful when you willy-nilly send something into the environment and you can't control its spread.
"And you can't control a bacteria spread once you release it."
Professor Simpson said this form of artificial life was unlike other form of biomedical advances, where changes are contained within an individual, drug or crop that could be carefully checked before they are released into the environment.
"Bacteria have been known to mutate and change, and [this could] change into something that they didn't predict, and it could be a problem."
I think of all the issues with GMO's used to alter food crops and the issues that arise around ownership of patents and seeds and how it is increasing starvation -- and this is a worry.
I was watching a movie, I adored, last night called Cairo Time. It made me think of a movie called India Song, by Marguerite Duras. Cairo Time is not so languorous as India Song and is more of a straight forward narrative, but the film has that quality of being a small snippet in time and is as much about the feel of Cairo,and the feeling of early attraction to another, as the story. . .
So thinking about those films started me thinking about the films that have had a major impact on me - the ones that stayed with me, have been integrated, in part, into who I am . . . So here's a list.
Movies from Childhood:
On the Beach (1959) - Surprisingly the first movie that I can remember seeing in a theatre - not likely the first movie I saw, but it is the first one that I remember - I would have been 6. I imagine that my parents just wanted to see the movie - but I don't know why they took me - I don't remember my sister, who would have been 4, being there. I was also incredibly bored and often had no idea what was going on (its about the end of the world after a nuclear war) but it was when I had a thought that church and movies were the same - dark places where kids had to sit still and "be good" I had thought it before but remember sitting in the movie thinking that god and Santa Clause were much the same - stories told to kids to make them be good. I think that those thoughts were the crux of all that I later became (rejecting religion early although I did try a number - Bahai Faith in particular - on in the early teenage years.) maybe even the movie made me think about justice ad preventing annihilation of the species?
Pinochio - 1940 Disney Feature - I do not know when I would first have seen it - maybe on TV, although I remember the theatre. What I do know is that I watched it with my sister, Geri, and, even today, Jimminy Cricket singing When YOu wish upon a star can make us both cry. I think I learned early to tell then truth and value it, and that school (and what a donkey you are if you don't do well) was a good place. I think this also contributed, surprisingly, to my sense of justice. When you wish upon a star made me want to, not just wish on stars, (which I still do) but also to reach for, strive for, your dreams and that was important. . . It is certainly a film that I remember from very early and that influenced me throughout my life (as I suppose did Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - I certainly grew up with my masochistic construction firmly in tact, 'til Kaja Silverman at least partly saved me from it (more on her and that influence later in this list.)
The next two movies that had a significant impact on me and I can still sing most of the score from both are Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Since the words and music are stuck so permanently in my brain - they must have had an inluence - though other than enjoying musicals I am not sure what. . . I may have learned that Nazi's are bad, and that being a nun is not for everyone, but I think I mostly learned not to complain and to be pure of, heart, and to work hard and play hard and to fall in love and to clean up my room and to laugh are all good things .. . I have seen the sound of music -sing along version! - recently but not Mary Poppins.
Piling on the masochistic construction through film. . . Dr. Zhivago Franco Zefferreli's Romeo and Juliet Brother Sun, Sister Moon
The Miracle Worker (1962) Made me want to be like Ann Sullivan or maybe a little like Helen. Certainly inspired or educated me about the struggles of others. I am not sure when I saw this - I have a feeling that I saw it a few years later than the theatrical release maybe on TV?
Saying that one should be patient and withstand trouble doesn’t mean one should be defeated and overcome. The whole purpose of engaging in the practice of patience is to become stronger in mind, stronger in heart. And you also want to remain calm. If you lose patience and your brain becomes confused with emotion, you will lose the power to analyze and figure out how to overcome the negative force that is opposing you. ~~~ Dalai Lama
