To say this week has been interesting is an understatement.
1) I cannot get the story about the Re-rape in the Congo out of my head. Awake or asleep, I am haunted by what's happening there. I'm compelled to do something and an idea has germinated. I will post more here when I can and I may be calling on a few of you to help me out.
2) An aid worker was shot dead in the streets of Kabul. This isn't the first time this thing has happened but I'm wondering when it was, exactly, that people stopped respecting the neutrality of aid workers. The image of a red cross used to provide protection for those who sought it and for those who worked under it.
3) The conclusion of the US election cannot come soon enough. Whoever wins the job (but are they really 'winning'?) inherits a terrible mess and Democrat or Republican, I think the next President will be hard pressed to win a second term.
4) Omar Khadr has been held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay for 2,248 days without a trial. And it was announced today that his trial will now not start until a new US administration has been sworn in. Lord knows we'd hate to rush them.
5) This is my last weekend in my apartment. I move next week and start down a new path. I'm excited, a little wistful and somewhat reflective. But mostly I'm just tired of packing.
Enjoy your weekend.
24 October 2008
20 October 2008
The first casualty of war....
...is not truth, it's women.
I have always been rather amazed and amused at the people who fought so hard to keep women from combat positions in the military. Their arguments were often based on the principle that women didn't belong in combat or that war was no place for a woman.
The brutal irony is that women have been in wars since time began and as Stephanie Nolen reported in the Globe and Mail this weekend, it continues. Conflict ebbs and flows in the Congo and as any one of the 23 armed militia groups makes a play for power by overtaking or burning villages, they resort to the tried and true way to destroy a population - rape.
In the Congo it is particularly vile (of course I'm trying to come to terms with the idea that there are degrees of vileness here) because for a number of the women, this isn't the first time. This isn't the first time and the world does nothing.
It isn't that G8 leaders aren't aware - because they are. But they are currently too busy loaning money to bankers who have been forced to give up their multi-million dollar salaries because they have no concept how to balance risk and greed. And before that they were focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and global warming. Besides, it's only women we're talking about, right?
In my experience the best way to determine the direction a country is going in is to measure the rights their women have. The Taliban stripped women of virtually every conceivable right, including the right to be seen, and there was not a peep from the Western world. In fact, the greatest outrage expressed by anyone in the west prior to 9/11 was when the Taliban destroyed the precious Buddha statues of Bamyan. The imposition of the burka, the summary executions, the erosion of women being considered human beings was all secondary to these archaeological treasures.
Rape has been a weapon of war for millennia. And it continues because it is allowed to continue. How is it in 2008, the United Nations - that leader of civil society - has organizations covering every conceivable issue from the Postal Union to HIV/AIDS yet it has a measly, tiny underfunded group - UNIFEM - to cover women's issues. On what exactly should we base our belief that women and what happens to them matters to anyone?
Much of what concerns the UN - refugees, famine, disaster, HIV/AIDS - disproportionately affects women, yet there is no one - no government, no organization - no one who speaks for women on the international stage with enough gravitas to ensure action.
What's happening in the Congo happens in Darfur. It's happened in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Mozambique; it happened in Bosnia, in Rwanda, in Korea. It is jarring in its universality.
Women have been in war since the beginning of time and to say otherwise is to deny history.
Write to your newly elected Members of Parliament or to your Congressman; write to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN; write to your newspapers; talk to your friends, to your family; talk to strangers but do something. Anything. Demand action and express your outrage. When we allow this to happen to any woman, we are giving complicit permission for it to happen to all women.
I have always been rather amazed and amused at the people who fought so hard to keep women from combat positions in the military. Their arguments were often based on the principle that women didn't belong in combat or that war was no place for a woman.
The brutal irony is that women have been in wars since time began and as Stephanie Nolen reported in the Globe and Mail this weekend, it continues. Conflict ebbs and flows in the Congo and as any one of the 23 armed militia groups makes a play for power by overtaking or burning villages, they resort to the tried and true way to destroy a population - rape.
In the Congo it is particularly vile (of course I'm trying to come to terms with the idea that there are degrees of vileness here) because for a number of the women, this isn't the first time. This isn't the first time and the world does nothing.
It isn't that G8 leaders aren't aware - because they are. But they are currently too busy loaning money to bankers who have been forced to give up their multi-million dollar salaries because they have no concept how to balance risk and greed. And before that they were focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and global warming. Besides, it's only women we're talking about, right?
In my experience the best way to determine the direction a country is going in is to measure the rights their women have. The Taliban stripped women of virtually every conceivable right, including the right to be seen, and there was not a peep from the Western world. In fact, the greatest outrage expressed by anyone in the west prior to 9/11 was when the Taliban destroyed the precious Buddha statues of Bamyan. The imposition of the burka, the summary executions, the erosion of women being considered human beings was all secondary to these archaeological treasures.
Rape has been a weapon of war for millennia. And it continues because it is allowed to continue. How is it in 2008, the United Nations - that leader of civil society - has organizations covering every conceivable issue from the Postal Union to HIV/AIDS yet it has a measly, tiny underfunded group - UNIFEM - to cover women's issues. On what exactly should we base our belief that women and what happens to them matters to anyone?
Much of what concerns the UN - refugees, famine, disaster, HIV/AIDS - disproportionately affects women, yet there is no one - no government, no organization - no one who speaks for women on the international stage with enough gravitas to ensure action.
What's happening in the Congo happens in Darfur. It's happened in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Mozambique; it happened in Bosnia, in Rwanda, in Korea. It is jarring in its universality.
Women have been in war since the beginning of time and to say otherwise is to deny history.
Write to your newly elected Members of Parliament or to your Congressman; write to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN; write to your newspapers; talk to your friends, to your family; talk to strangers but do something. Anything. Demand action and express your outrage. When we allow this to happen to any woman, we are giving complicit permission for it to happen to all women.
16 October 2008
War, Inc.
Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye once said that 'literature has no purpose but to be literature itself.' And it's possible to extrapolate that position to say that no artistic endeavour - dance, music, film - has a purpose other than to be exactly what it is. But every once in a while there is a moment that transcends that and allows the artistic expression to be more, to be greater. War, Inc is one of those moments.
The movie, released on DVD this week, is a political satire that did not receive wide distribution when it released and more is the pity. The movie is smart, uncomfortable at times and one that can live on in your head long after you've hit the stop button on your remote.
Let's get some of the fluffier stuff out of the way, shall we? There is some seriously inspired casting for this movie. I could listen to Ben Kingsley call out bingo numbers so I'm easy to please but he is wonderful in his mania and while I normally would be tempted to scoff at the inclusion of Hilary Duff in anything, full marks to her and to those who thought to cast her.
Now on to the substance. This movie is dark and like most satires is probably closer to the truth than anyone would really be comfortable with. It is a funny, witty, smart indictment on where the G8 countries and the US specifically are headed with our occupations and "liberation" of poor backwards countries who have the temerity to insist on sovereignty and who don't toe the line imposed by others.
The problem in reality and so aptly demonstrated in the film is not conquering the country but rather what do we do with it once we have it? The Iraq War, the Afghan War, much like the fictional war in Turaqistan are as much about marketing as they are about freedom or democracy.
It amazes me the hubris that Presidents and Prime Ministers possess when they boldly announce that they are going to bring democracy to some country as if it is something that can be exported rather than organically grown within a country's borders. History has proven time and again that change, real directional, substantial change comes from the inside - through revolution - not from imposition of values that bear no resemblance to those of the conquered country. It was not Ronald Regan who convinced the Soviets to tear down the Berlin Wall, it was a movement started by the people whose lives were controlled by the Wall. It was not NATO nor the US who finally rid Serbia of Milosevic but it was the people who had determined they had enough.
I am offended that democracy is defined as the ability to hold elections or host a free market economy. Zimbabwe regularly has elections and despite out of control inflation and corruption that knows no bounds, Mugabe still reigns. That isn't democracy, just a reasonable facsimile - much like the 'freedom' offered to the citizens in Turaqistan in War, Inc.
In the movie the hero/anti-hero Brand Hauser, played with such deftness by John Cusack, regularly downs hot sauce as a way to cope with stress. What a brilliant allegory for how the world has remained largely unengaged with the future of Iraq, Afghanistan and other resource rich targets. Protests have decreased, not increased, as the wars have continued. And we seem to drinking down all kinds of hot sauce to distract us from what is really going on.
We have been seduced by the marketing, so distracted by the flash that most of us have gone eerily quiet. In Canada we tend to affect an ugly smugness in the false belief that we occupy some moral high ground that the US is unfamiliar with. There may - may - have been a time that was true but not any longer. Canada has become a brand unto itself in Afghanistan. We hand out backpacks and notebooks and all kinds of sundries with the maple leaf in full display. Our politicians board Hercules planes for the chance at a photo op replete with flak jacket and school children to prove to the people back home that we are achieving some kind of success.
And yet not a single person can reasonably articulate what the conditions for victory look like. Absent that information we very much run the risk of making Afghanistan, Turaqistan with our branding of freedom and democracy in full view but without actually delivering either.
Our silence is our complicity. And on Tuesday last, 41% of my fellow citizens opted to stay silent and not vote. Voting is a right but rights are not free; they come teeming with responsibilities and one of those is to show up, be heard and provide the government with a mandate so they can act in our name. How on earth can we be expected to gift that to another country when we're still working it out for ourselves?
There are situations in the world - Darfur, for example - that require the world's attention and intervention but for the most part we do not act. Those are not easy wins (though the case could be made that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are proving easy in the long run, but the initial win was easy to come by) and really, who has the patience to see it through? The first rule of marketing is to create a need and then fill it. Our governments created a need for victory and then delivered on it. Too bad no one told the Iraqis and the Afghans about it.
I challenge you to watch War, Inc. And then watch it again. Then ask yourself if our governments' actions are a triumph of marketing over leadership.
7 October 2008
Happy New Year!
Okay, it's my new year but happy! happy! regardless.
Today was such a fabulous day. The sun was shining, the leaves were brilliant and despite long meetings with lawyers, it was great! I also heard from so many friends including several who are far from me but never far from my thoughts.
I received a card today and the picture on the front made me think of simpler times when I would dream of wings and fairies and the world seemed large even if it only existed outside my front door.
I am wistful for days of child-like wonder and the belief that anything is possible if you dream it. I wish that for all of you and send my love to each and every one of you who have been such a blessing in my life.
6 October 2008
Getting ready for a fresh start
Forgiveness is like setting a prisoner free, only to discover the prisoner was you.
I tend to view birthdays as a fresh start; while not the standard new year that everyone marks, it does represent a new year for the celebrant. And as my birthday is fast approaching I’ve been reflecting on what kind of new year I would like to have.
The last year has been a challenging one in many ways. I learned much – some of it I would have rather not known. I learned that I have limits and that I only hurt myself when I don’t respect them, regardless of how much it would please another person for me to ignore them. I learned that when another person will not accept ‘no’ as an answer then they are disrespecting you; after all we all have the right to accept or decline what we choose and our choices, while displeasing to some, should still be respected. I learned the grief can grab you when you least expect it and unleash a myriad of feelings that you are neither prepared for nor wanting to deal with. I learned that being told to “go f*ck yourself”, have my dear friend told to “go f*ck herself”, being told that my hair, my clothes, my job and my weight were all inadequate and unacceptable are not the actions of a friend. Allowing it to happen once is once too often, allowing it to happen more often than that is self-destructive and there is no room in my life for it.
I have carried the anger about that and the subsequent fall out all year. But I have decided, in preparation for my birthday that I am setting the anger and the hurt down. It does me absolutely no good whatsoever to carry it with me. I have discovered many things about myself including what I will and will not accept in my life and that is more valuable than anything. I’ve also figured out that being angry expends much more than it is worth. Resentment leeches energy and provides nothing in return. But it is easy – anger is definitely easy – forgiveness is not.
Forgiveness is difficult to offer, especially when no one is asking for it. Forgiveness doesn’t allow for retribution, revenge or righteous indignation. But forgiveness does allow for peace. And after the year that I’ve had, that’s all I want.
I am an incredibly blessed person; I have a family who loves me and I have dear friends who are generous both with their time and their spirit. I get to spend time with people who make me laugh, who make me think, who push me to offer my best even when I’m feeling less inclined to do so. I have reconnected with friends who have seen me through the best of times and the worst of them and there is no joy comparable to having those connections.
My friend JT likes to say that your birthday marks the first day you started to contribute to the world. And in that spirit, before the clock strikes midnight and signals the start of my new year, I am going to wipe the slate clean. For transgressions against me, I offer my unequivocal forgiveness and for those who I have transgressed against, I ask the same in kind.
I have a fresh new year to begin tomorrow and I will greet the day with a light heart, a happy spirit and ready to embrace all it has to offer.
Much love to all of you.
comments are closed
I tend to view birthdays as a fresh start; while not the standard new year that everyone marks, it does represent a new year for the celebrant. And as my birthday is fast approaching I’ve been reflecting on what kind of new year I would like to have.
The last year has been a challenging one in many ways. I learned much – some of it I would have rather not known. I learned that I have limits and that I only hurt myself when I don’t respect them, regardless of how much it would please another person for me to ignore them. I learned that when another person will not accept ‘no’ as an answer then they are disrespecting you; after all we all have the right to accept or decline what we choose and our choices, while displeasing to some, should still be respected. I learned the grief can grab you when you least expect it and unleash a myriad of feelings that you are neither prepared for nor wanting to deal with. I learned that being told to “go f*ck yourself”, have my dear friend told to “go f*ck herself”, being told that my hair, my clothes, my job and my weight were all inadequate and unacceptable are not the actions of a friend. Allowing it to happen once is once too often, allowing it to happen more often than that is self-destructive and there is no room in my life for it.
I have carried the anger about that and the subsequent fall out all year. But I have decided, in preparation for my birthday that I am setting the anger and the hurt down. It does me absolutely no good whatsoever to carry it with me. I have discovered many things about myself including what I will and will not accept in my life and that is more valuable than anything. I’ve also figured out that being angry expends much more than it is worth. Resentment leeches energy and provides nothing in return. But it is easy – anger is definitely easy – forgiveness is not.
Forgiveness is difficult to offer, especially when no one is asking for it. Forgiveness doesn’t allow for retribution, revenge or righteous indignation. But forgiveness does allow for peace. And after the year that I’ve had, that’s all I want.
I am an incredibly blessed person; I have a family who loves me and I have dear friends who are generous both with their time and their spirit. I get to spend time with people who make me laugh, who make me think, who push me to offer my best even when I’m feeling less inclined to do so. I have reconnected with friends who have seen me through the best of times and the worst of them and there is no joy comparable to having those connections.
My friend JT likes to say that your birthday marks the first day you started to contribute to the world. And in that spirit, before the clock strikes midnight and signals the start of my new year, I am going to wipe the slate clean. For transgressions against me, I offer my unequivocal forgiveness and for those who I have transgressed against, I ask the same in kind.
I have a fresh new year to begin tomorrow and I will greet the day with a light heart, a happy spirit and ready to embrace all it has to offer.
Much love to all of you.
comments are closed
4 October 2008
Making up my mind....
5 leaders.
3 hours.
2 languages.
2 debates.
After all of the hoopla this week with the English and French debates, I have finally decided who I would like to see as Prime Minister of Canada.
*insert drum roll*
Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois.
Now my choice is slightly problematic in so much as a) the BQ only runs candidates in the province of Quebec and I actually live in Ontario and b) there are those pesky traitorous beliefs held by the BQ.
But overlooking those minor inconveniences for a moment I would like to point out of the five leaders Duceppe was the most articulate - in both languages. He held Harper's feet to the fire asking very pointed questions. The highlight for me was when he pointed out to the other four that the BQ, ironically, is the only party that has put forth a "Buy Canadian" policy.
There are many criticisms to be lobbed at the BQ - they only have to campaign in one province, they only represent one viewpoint etc. But I would like to point out that a couple of years ago the BQ were the Official Opposition and Duceppe and his party had to act in the interests of all Canadians and did so admirably.
Duceppe could have also phoned it in during the English debate, after all, he had nothing to win and nothing to lose but he didn't. He showed up and debated while the others spent their time taking pot shots and going for the cheap one liner.
The other leaders should take a page from his book. At a time when the public opinion of politicians is at an all time low, Duceppe's performance reminds us of what's possible.
Now, I just need to a) get him to drop the whole Quebec separating platform and b) move my house to Quebec.
3 hours.
2 languages.
2 debates.
After all of the hoopla this week with the English and French debates, I have finally decided who I would like to see as Prime Minister of Canada.
*insert drum roll*
Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois.
Now my choice is slightly problematic in so much as a) the BQ only runs candidates in the province of Quebec and I actually live in Ontario and b) there are those pesky traitorous beliefs held by the BQ.
But overlooking those minor inconveniences for a moment I would like to point out of the five leaders Duceppe was the most articulate - in both languages. He held Harper's feet to the fire asking very pointed questions. The highlight for me was when he pointed out to the other four that the BQ, ironically, is the only party that has put forth a "Buy Canadian" policy.
There are many criticisms to be lobbed at the BQ - they only have to campaign in one province, they only represent one viewpoint etc. But I would like to point out that a couple of years ago the BQ were the Official Opposition and Duceppe and his party had to act in the interests of all Canadians and did so admirably.
Duceppe could have also phoned it in during the English debate, after all, he had nothing to win and nothing to lose but he didn't. He showed up and debated while the others spent their time taking pot shots and going for the cheap one liner.
The other leaders should take a page from his book. At a time when the public opinion of politicians is at an all time low, Duceppe's performance reminds us of what's possible.
Now, I just need to a) get him to drop the whole Quebec separating platform and b) move my house to Quebec.
3 October 2008
OMG!
Today might just be the Best.Day.Ever.
If you remember, I made a 2008 To Do List and on that list was the plan to find a signature scent.
Well after months of searching and a few headaches - I found it!!!
No, I'm not actually going to tell you what it is - you'll just have to sniff me! (and how fun is that??) But yay for me! I can cross something off the list.
artistic rendition of me at the perfume counter on my quest>>>>>
And then!!! Then I was strolling through Chapters and I saw it - calling to me from across the aisle.
Phillipa Freaking Gregory has a new novel. And it's about Mary, Queen of Scots. *squeeeee*
The one drawback is it's currently only available in hardcover (does anyone actually buy hardcover any more?) and so I may have to bide my time until it moves to trade paperback because I refuse to buy hardcover but *squeeee* And if I'm uber lucky? Alison Weir's new book on Elizabeth I will hit trade paperback at the same time.
Woo and Hoo!!
If you remember, I made a 2008 To Do List and on that list was the plan to find a signature scent.
Well after months of searching and a few headaches - I found it!!!
No, I'm not actually going to tell you what it is - you'll just have to sniff me! (and how fun is that??) But yay for me! I can cross something off the list.
artistic rendition of me at the perfume counter on my quest>>>>>
And then!!! Then I was strolling through Chapters and I saw it - calling to me from across the aisle.
Phillipa Freaking Gregory has a new novel. And it's about Mary, Queen of Scots. *squeeeee*
The one drawback is it's currently only available in hardcover (does anyone actually buy hardcover any more?) and so I may have to bide my time until it moves to trade paperback because I refuse to buy hardcover but *squeeee* And if I'm uber lucky? Alison Weir's new book on Elizabeth I will hit trade paperback at the same time.
Woo and Hoo!!
1 October 2008
26
26.
That is the ranking that our band, Dimes in the Dark, scored on our version of "She Sells Sanctuary" by the Cult during our Rock Band session last Saturday. Now I would like to think it was my attempts at growling and posing like Ian Astbury that got us there but truth be told, the song was Slean's pick and she clearly new what she was doing!
Daddio was rocking it on the drums, Slean was grooving on the bass and our monster guitarist Tyrone Kink took us to another level.
And when we were done, our performance was ranked 26th. In.the.whole.world. I feel like a freaking Olympian! Look ma! I'm a Rock Band stah!
Daddio had to hit the road but we were not quite done and so with Che on the drums and Slean still on bass, we entered the Saturday night rap challenge. Yes. I said rap challenge.
The first song - Give It Away - by the RHCP - went fairly smoothly and while I wasn't covered in silver paint (thank god for small favours!) I do think I did a decent job rolling the chorus together.
The second song of our challenge - Testify - by Rage Against the Machine was....er...interesting. I'm just going to be really honest here and admit that I am not as angry as Zack de la Rocha. I am no where close to being that angry and so while the song is funkalicious, I was, at the end, simply a happy white girl rapping. I don't think I'll be inspiring any coup d'etats anytime soon.
We did score a million points. Not too bad for another night of rock 'n roll living!
That is the ranking that our band, Dimes in the Dark, scored on our version of "She Sells Sanctuary" by the Cult during our Rock Band session last Saturday. Now I would like to think it was my attempts at growling and posing like Ian Astbury that got us there but truth be told, the song was Slean's pick and she clearly new what she was doing!
Daddio was rocking it on the drums, Slean was grooving on the bass and our monster guitarist Tyrone Kink took us to another level.
And when we were done, our performance was ranked 26th. In.the.whole.world. I feel like a freaking Olympian! Look ma! I'm a Rock Band stah!
Daddio had to hit the road but we were not quite done and so with Che on the drums and Slean still on bass, we entered the Saturday night rap challenge. Yes. I said rap challenge.
The first song - Give It Away - by the RHCP - went fairly smoothly and while I wasn't covered in silver paint (thank god for small favours!) I do think I did a decent job rolling the chorus together.
The second song of our challenge - Testify - by Rage Against the Machine was....er...interesting. I'm just going to be really honest here and admit that I am not as angry as Zack de la Rocha. I am no where close to being that angry and so while the song is funkalicious, I was, at the end, simply a happy white girl rapping. I don't think I'll be inspiring any coup d'etats anytime soon.
We did score a million points. Not too bad for another night of rock 'n roll living!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
