tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82196642024-03-07T02:39:37.484-05:00redjennyRed Jenny's commentary on news, politics and academia from a progressive viewpoint. Musings about arts, culture, gardening and research, too.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.comBlogger559125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-75956586429789475142013-01-19T08:00:00.001-05:002013-01-19T08:01:54.186-05:00On Pregnancy and Body Image<i>Hooray for hips and belly</i>
<p>I have never considered myself a particularly vain person. However, constant media messaging (your body is not good enough, therefore <i>you</i> are not good enough) has a way of working itself into everyone’s psyche to some degree. My whole adult life I’ve pretty much maintained the same weight, no matter what I did. I have not really been able to gain or lose much regardless of what I did. Although my weight is exactly normal for my height, its distribution had caused me some anxiety. I was scrawny on top, with visible ribs and a flat stomach, and big on the bottom. I went through phases of calorie counting and exercising but only managed to get bonier on top, while my bottom half happily went about its business as usual. People asked me if I was sick. So much for weight loss attempts.</p>
<p>Still, I couldn’t shake the other desire I had always had: to be stronger. I hated the fact that I was small and weak, that no matter how hard I worked out in the gym, I would never be stronger than the average couch surfing dude. I would never be able to easily lift, carry, push and pull things. I would never be athletic. (I rode my bike all around Toronto for years, living mid-town, going to school downtown and working uptown – 1-2 hours a day of biking, and <i>never got faster</i>. Other bikers passed me, breathing easily while I struggled. So frustrating! A doctor I went to about chronic fatigue told me I had so little muscle that my mitochondria couldn’t effectively use oxygen. Um thanks, but what do I <i>do</i> about it. True story.)</p>
<p>The best thing about getting older was losing whatever interest I had in "perfecting" my visible body, and learning to accept its limitations (more or less – I still hope I might magically grow 25 pounds of muscle). I also grew to appreciate its positive aspects: I was generally healthy, I was fully mobile, I could touch my tongue to my nose, thrift shopping is a breeze for me because I’m so small. </p>
<p>Being pregnant is a bit of a trip because for the first time, I have to gain weight. I have only gained 6 pounds so far (16 weeks, so I’m right on target) but I'm the heaviest I’ve ever been, and I'm only getting bigger. (No more flat belly!) Except for the fact that my clothes don’t fit, it’s oddly enjoyable. I feel a little bit rebellious, flaunting society’s dictates (all women must have the body of a 12 year old boy). I can be proud of getting fatter. I am enjoying food like nobody’s business – gawd everything tastes <i>so good</i> (except the things that taste <i>so bad</i>--get them away from me). I have ginormous boobs (well, for me), and my wide hips finally are coming into their own. These amazing hips are going to make labour and delivery easier (I hope) than 12-year-old-boy hips would. I am proud of what my body will accomplish (hello, creating new life). I am enjoying the experience of my changing body.</p>
Ask me how I feel when I get to the waddling stage.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-86909188367640087602011-11-14T13:47:00.003-05:002011-11-15T13:56:47.115-05:00Food Politics and American ElectionsI find it fascinating how often American election campaigning features the cultural politics of food. <br />
<blockquote>Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said in an interview with GQ out Monday that one can tell how "manly" a man is by looking at how many toppings he puts on his pizza. He also said a pizza covered in vegetables is a "sissy pizza."<br />
"The more toppings a man has on his pizza, I believe the more manly he is," said the former Godfather's Pizza CEO.<br />
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Cain explained that "the more manly man is not afraid of abundance" before calling into question the manliness of a pizza with vegetables on it.<br />
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"A manly man don't want it piled high with vegetables! He would call that a sissy pizza," Cain said.[<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57324204-503544/herman-cain-manly-men-like-more-pizza-toppings">CBS</a>]</blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUc6yXtfh_7VYKEPQCAa0Zq0jrVk7nbKtl_4SE6z9qmUCraiNZH2ZpUrXYsRlezlfpWWuexr58y8rr1arW472sWkLXquJ-H8nr8KRBb6zso9bY2wDEyFRL1t7Ns6E5iSLFf5EsHQ/s1600/sarah_palin_obama_moose_arugula_215235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="229" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUc6yXtfh_7VYKEPQCAa0Zq0jrVk7nbKtl_4SE6z9qmUCraiNZH2ZpUrXYsRlezlfpWWuexr58y8rr1arW472sWkLXquJ-H8nr8KRBb6zso9bY2wDEyFRL1t7Ns6E5iSLFf5EsHQ/s320/sarah_palin_obama_moose_arugula_215235.jpg" /></a></div>Lattes, <a href="http://youtu.be/ajegFDDHaA0">arugula</a>, organic, wine and sushi are pretty much bad words, conjuring images of elitist effeminate un-American liberals. Fried pork rinds, barbecue, and beer - now that's a presidential meal worthy of a true American leader! See how gender, nationalism and class stereotypes are all mobilized here. <br />
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This is not entirely surprising, given how much food is caught up with issues of identity and how symbol-heavy elections (especially American elections) are. There's a long history of wheat and beef being associated with 'civilization', while root vegetables were associated with lower-order humans. (Read more on this <a href="http://eco-health.blogspot.com/2008/12/racial-and-colonial-politics-of-meat.html">here</a>.) <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/">The Sociological Images blog</a> has a number of posts demonstrating gendered food in popular culture. Notable examples <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/06/19/we-call-it-a-menu-for-a-reason/">here</a>, <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/07/08/masculinity-and-food-marketing/">here</a> and <a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/02/16/feminine-dogs-need-alpo/">here</a>.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-90522957025376627242011-08-23T18:25:00.001-04:002011-08-23T18:17:04.885-04:00On Innovation and Capitalism<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pbpEQE_8JLs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
So in theory the profit motive drives innovation. Too many taxes, it is said, diminishes innovation. (Never mind that entrepreneurship - particularly <a href="http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Poor+social+security+hinders+entrepreneurship+among+women/1101979197818">among women</a> - benefits from a <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/in-norway-start-ups-say-ja-to-socialism.html">strong safety net</a>.) The government is supposedly inefficient and, having no incentive, incapable of innovation; this is a common justification for the <a href="http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/privatization">drive to privatization</a>. <br />
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Because of private enterprise and the profit motive, society benefits from such innovations as <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/daily/daily-dish/culinary-curiosities/2011/08/22/cne-fried-things/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Toronto+Life+Weekly+Dish+August+23+2011&utm_content=Toronto+Life+Weekly+Dish+August+23+2011+CID_6e5c69b0929f143c5cd518b6e8813f6b&utm_source=Newsletters&utm_term=Ex+Marks+the+Spot">deep-fried cola and the donut burger</a>. And 20 bazillion varieties of <a href="http://rochelle-frank.hubpages.com/hub/Is-Life-Getting-Simpler-Toothpaste-Proliferation-says-No">toothpaste</a>. Such innovation brings us choice, more of which is always good, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less">right</a>? <a href="http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/01/26/best-menu-option-ever-see-fewer-choices/">Right</a>? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlzhv2jI7GJbnTRXaRstvn5k2zMAYrosTm2r7FoqBoWPyipEjSFmn5julLtu5PP98PXZFGcKk3FNtVblU9FR3BUwwI1LYNfO2mQ_7AJILYlLJM1iQobTxA_FQ3fG6wNSev6jraQ/s1600/cne-donut-burger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlzhv2jI7GJbnTRXaRstvn5k2zMAYrosTm2r7FoqBoWPyipEjSFmn5julLtu5PP98PXZFGcKk3FNtVblU9FR3BUwwI1LYNfO2mQ_7AJILYlLJM1iQobTxA_FQ3fG6wNSev6jraQ/s400/cne-donut-burger.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Never mind that it might be causing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me">decision fatigue</a>:<br />
<blockquote>No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain. You start to resist any change, any potentially risky move — like releasing a prisoner who might commit a crime. So the fatigued judge on a parole board takes the easy way out, and the prisoner keeps doing time.</blockquote>The ability to make meaningful choices, to exercise agency and control over one's work and life, does correlate with <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/homo-consumericus/201009/job-control-occupational-status-and-your-health">an increase in wellbeing</a>. As do civil liberties and the ability to participate in the political process. Of course, if we are all too exhausted from deciding which of 100 television channels to watch, perhaps we are not able to be fully engaged with personal and civic choices.<br />
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Some of the best innovations have come from motives other than profit -- those inventions with necessity as their mother. Education, the arts, social innovation, nonprofits, open source are incredible producers of innovation (what if <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-trendsetters-go-on-strike,2001/">trendsetters went on strike?</a>). Social innovation has given us libraries, microcredit, socialized health care, new ways of <a href="http://archives.algomau.ca/drupal6/chronicle">managing archival information</a>. The profit motive gives us deep-fried butter-on-a-stick. Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-66041326940448672342011-07-19T09:47:00.000-04:002011-07-19T12:02:20.529-04:00DIY, Homesteading, Radical Housewifery/HomemakingThough I haven't read the book yet, the lifestyle described in <i><a href="http://radicalhomemakers.com/">Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming domesticity from a consumer culture</a></i> by Shannon Hayes is kind of seductive. I've flirted with these ideas a bit. Screw the rat race and 70 hour work weeks (all in the attempt to make partner, or get an elusive tenure-track position or not get fired). Instead focus on a slower pace of life, gardening, baking bread, living close to nature, voluntary simplicity, <a href="http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5226">reskilling</a> etc.*<br />
<blockquote>Mother Nature has shown her hand. Faced with climate change, dwindling resources, and species extinctions, most Americans understand the fundamental steps necessary to solve our global crises-drive less, consume less, increase self-reliance, buy locally, eat locally, rebuild our local communities.<br />
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In essence, the great work we face requires rekindling the home fires.<br />
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Radical Homemakers is about men and women across the U.S. who focus on home and hearth as a political and ecological act, and who have centered their lives around family and community for personal fulfillment and cultural change. It explores what domesticity looks like in an era that has benefited from feminism, where domination and oppression are cast aside and where the choice to stay home is no longer equated with mind-numbing drudgery, economic insecurity, or relentless servitude.<br />
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Radical Homemakers nationwide speak about empowerment, transformation, happiness, and casting aside the pressures of a consumer culture to live in a world where money loses its power to relationships, independent thought, and creativity. If you ever considered quitting a job to plant tomatoes, read to a child, pursue creative work, can green beans and heal the planet, this is your book.</blockquote><br />
I know and admire several people who I would class as radical homemakers/homesteaders/DIYers. Some off-the-grid, some minimally on it. Some with children, some without. Some with lots of land, some with tiny patches in the city. They pretty well all combine this with some sort of income generating work. I respect what they are doing. It's hard work!<br />
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Indeed <a href="http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2011/07/14/not-one-more-winter-in-the-tipi-honey/">Not One More Winter in the Tipi, Honey</a> (found with commentary over at <a href="http://www.historiann.com/2011/07/18/not-one-more-winter-in-the-tipi-honey-gender-and-labor-off-the-grid/">Historiann</a>) discusses gendered labour off-the-grid. <br />
<blockquote>Too often, modern homesteading asks women to return to the toil so many of their grandmothers left behind. No matter how progressive the homesteading couple, the unfamiliarity and the physical demands of DIY living make it easy to fall into traditional gender roles — to retreat to the stereotypically masculine and feminine skills most of us still learn first and best. The result is that in many modern homesteads, despite highly evolved intentions, men build the houses, and women, like their pioneer-era counterparts, cook over the wood stove. Or scrub the floors. Or care for the babies.<br />
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This old-fashioned division of labor means that women are often the first to encounter the worst realities of homesteading. While their partners are outside, impressing the neighborhood with their construction skills, women are inside, confronting the cultural invisibility of domestic work and the social isolation of rural life. </blockquote><br />
Of course, this is a generalization. I'm sure many relationships are more egalitarian, but so many fall back into these gender roles. Though I think some work traditionally gendered female is beginning to be seen as admirable and even cool - cooking, baking, knitting and gardening were definitely not 'cool' when I was young. Young women tried to get AWAY (to be liberated) from doing those valuable yet unpaid (and therefore not contributing to GDP, and therefore having no official value) tasks. I'm not sure yet that toilet-cleaning has made it into the newly-cool category, but maybe it is just a matter of time. <br />
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I guess my question is: Is it really that radical for a woman to stay home and do what women have been doing for generations? Actually, it might be.<br />
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Which brings me to the feminist activist <a href="http://shannondrury.blogspot.com">Radical Housewife</a> blog (<a href="http://shannondrury.blogspot.com/2010/05/radical-homemakers-vs-radical.html">named with tongue-in-cheek</a>), and a whole other way to be a woman who does not currently work for wages. One can still have a voice and be political and be a primary caregiver to children or a household. The danger is in supposing that simply "staying home" or dropping out of the paid work force will somehow automatically fix the world. Of turning completely inward and forgetting to be political. (Or confuse <a href="http://www.ontariolandowners.ca/">property rights</a> with real human liberties.) Forgetting to fight for social justice and rights for others. Forgetting to be active in our communities. Becoming blinded by our own halos. <br />
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*I know, I know, it sounds so <i>bourgeois</i> and indeed it may require a degree of privilege (I suppose being minimally middle-class or at least upper-working-class) but I suppose there are worse things that one could DO with that privilege. (This reminds me of a similar discussion going on over <a href="http://www.grist.org/living/2011-07-14-ask-umbra-book-club-is-minimalism-just-for-the-rich">here</a> - Is minimalism just for the rich?)Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-47552221410725489962011-06-15T20:51:00.002-04:002011-06-15T20:54:36.756-04:00Of Plastic Bags and ThingsAs described in <a href="http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4010">this article</a>, Rwanda is one of several places in the world that has banned plastic bags. Kigali, the capital of Rwanda is a beautiful and clean African city (I was highly impressed when I visited last year). This is due in part to the plastic bag ban. Rwanda is not alone; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_shopping_bag#Bans">apparently 25% of the world either restricts or bans the bags</a>. And people still manage to carry things! <br />
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Since it was implemented two years ago, Toronto's 5 cent bag fee has significantly reduced the use of disposable petroleum-based bags. When it first came into effect, there was a chorus of <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/sueann_levy/2009/05/28/9594731-sun.html">whining hyperbole</a> from those who thought they somehow had a right to free garbage bags or who thought they were being subjected to Soviet-style repression, <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/26/yoni-goldstein-toronto-s-ridiculous-new-plastic-bag-laws.aspx">etc</a>. <a href="http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2009/12/c6703.html">etc</a>. But most Torontonians got on with their lives, getting into the habit of bringing reusable bags with them.<br />
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As <a href="http://wayneroberts.ca/archives/605">Wayne Roberts points out</a>, the city's bag "tax" is just the beginning of what is truly required. Charging a "nominal payment for the convenience offered by plastic throwaways" was enough to start a conversation, to gently encourage people to use less plastic. I used to get funny looks when I said "I don't need a bag"; now I am always asked if I need one. I would say it has been a successful first step: relatively painless, and relatively effective.<br />
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Now our illustrious gravy-destroying mayor plans to go to the trouble of actually <a href="http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/132768--rob-ford-hopes-to-scrap-plastic-bag-fee-this-year">getting rid of</a> the bag fee (a "Nightmare" according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business). Toronto might never be as clean and beautiful as Kigali.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-27273232922012048322011-05-10T11:26:00.001-04:002011-05-10T11:17:22.351-04:00How useful am I?<iframe src="http://www.progressivebloggers.ca/tools/vote_widget.php?permalink=[PERMALINK]"
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scrolling="no"></iframe><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2I0H5G0yuUhwiQWIinWSC1q2FN8I0OIe3Fx3la3YF-6fylF1qnVqSfMFzZIbDX6OHH0LrsbX0_pkQagtq4QwSNmJ_q44WsNhRDtOHnOaw2BG75hCMeiWXRTn0bGJr-DBd826k0Q/s1600/worker_and_parasite_by_spacecoyote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="252" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2I0H5G0yuUhwiQWIinWSC1q2FN8I0OIe3Fx3la3YF-6fylF1qnVqSfMFzZIbDX6OHH0LrsbX0_pkQagtq4QwSNmJ_q44WsNhRDtOHnOaw2BG75hCMeiWXRTn0bGJr-DBd826k0Q/s320/worker_and_parasite_by_spacecoyote.jpg" /></a></div>As an academic, I question my usefulness. Society will always need carpenters (or plumbers or tailors or nurses or farmers). Their benefit is pretty clear and obvious. Will it always need historians? How important is my obscure research that might only be read by a handful of other obscure historians? Am I a producer or a parasite?<br />
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I think it is a normal to want to be a productive member of society. To know that the work into which you put your life force actually benefits humanity in some small way. Even to be able to ask these questions demonstrates a great deal of privilege. <br />
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On the one hand, academia is often criticized for being an ivory tower, from being divorced from "real life". On the other, academics are among the most engaged people I know. Rarely are they unconcerned with politics, society or human relationships. <br />
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In the hierarchy of academia, often the applied sciences and business are considered to be most useful - 80% of Canada's research funding is allocated to science and health. And in 2009, the Conservative government decided to increasingly allocate the social sciences and humanities research funding to business-related degrees. Already (<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/the-power-of-failure/?ref=opinion">as often decried during the most recent crash</a>) so many of the best young minds are wasted in the financial sector moving money and creating paper wealth instead of solving society's problems. Even if I don't solve any major problems myself, maybe I will be partially responsible for teaching the generation that might do so.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-62236305261920887222011-05-05T10:57:00.004-04:002011-05-05T12:31:35.178-04:00Hello blog, I have missed youI think I feel like blogging again. My last post was about a year and a half ago. What have I been doing in that time? I have been working on my PhD in history. I found I was <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-cult-of-busy-protects-capitalism.html">too busy</a>, and had too little energy for writing. Also my eyes hurt.<br />
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I just passed my comprehensive exams. To give you a sense of the scope, this involved reading 200 books over the last year, and then being examined on them with 3 written and 1 oral exam. It was a grueling process that involved regular 60-70 hour weeks. The last day I took off was Christmas (and I felt guilty about it). I can liken it to training for a marathon. Then it was over. Now I feel very strange. I'm absolutely exhausted, and feel a bit at loose ends. I've heard about the post-comps slump. I think that so much of my time and energy and self has been wrapped up in this process, that now I don't quite know what to do with myself. <br />
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I have to start preparing a research plan. But I feel a bit lost. I've never done anything of this scope before. <br />
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What are my plans for this blog? I figure I can use this blog to help me think through some of the issues, concerns, fears and thrills involved in researching my thesis. It will probably also still contain arts, culture and political commentary, and my usual musings on various topics. Probably commentary on academia as well. Many things in my life have changed since I began this blog back in 2005. (2005! I can hardly believe it's been so long!) My perspective has changed. I've become less sure about some things, more sure about others. The more I've learned the more I've become convinced of my own ignorance. It's been an encouraging, and yet humbling 6 years (6 years!) I feel old and young, wise and foolish. I hope some of you join me on the next stage in my journey.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-49993237915720579812009-12-03T23:36:00.000-05:002009-12-03T23:36:33.999-05:00This must be a joke... please tell me this is a joke<a href="http://www.thestar.com/living/shopping/article/734115--nature-s-laws-of-shopping-men-hunt-women-gather?bn=1">Nature's laws of shopping: Men hunt, women gather</a><br /><blockquote>University of Michigan psychologist Daniel Kruger has found that how we shop has an awful lot to do with how we once found our food. Men hunt. Women gather. Conjugal chaos ensues.<br />[...]<br />As a scientist, he refused to do the sensible thing – shrug his shoulders. He wanted to know the reason. He combed over studies of aboriginal tribes and did a battery of tests on student volunteers. The results will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology. <br /><br />Kruger found that our habits haven't changed. Our environment and our goals have.<br /><br />In prehistory, women gathered or foraged for food. This kept them close to home, performing a daily, intensive and social activity. A good memory, a keen eye and a lot of patience when choosing help make a good gatherer.<br /><br />Men hunted for meat. This was an intermittent, asocial activity that earned them prestige only through the biggest catches. Short bursts of energy were followed by long periods of sitting around waiting for women to bring in the harvest.</blockquote><br />There are so many things wrong with <a href="http://www.thestar.com/living/shopping/article/734115--nature-s-laws-of-shopping-men-hunt-women-gather?bn=1">this article</a>, I don't even know where to begin.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-3613915122752646532009-09-13T20:13:00.002-04:002009-09-13T20:17:49.460-04:00Ending Africa's Hunger... by funding Monsanto?<blockquote>More than a billion people eat fewer than 1,900 calories per day. The majority of them work in agriculture, about 60 percent are women or girls, and most are in rural Africa and Asia. Ending their hunger is one of the few unimpeachably noble tasks left to humanity, and we live in a rare time when there is the knowledge and political will to do so. The question is, how? Conventional wisdom suggests that if people are hungry, there must be a shortage of food, and all we need do is figure out how to grow more. <br />[...]<br />The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of more than $30 billion, has embarked on a multibillion-dollar effort to transform African agriculture. It helped to set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2006, and since then has spent $1.3 billion on agricultural development grants, largely in Africa. With such resources, solving African hunger could be Gates's greatest legacy. <br /><br />But there's a problem: the conventional wisdom is wrong. Food output per person is as high as it has ever been, suggesting that hunger isn't a problem of production so much as one of distribution. <br /></blockquote><br />The Gates Foundation is focusing on technology, spending about a third of the $1.3 billion on promoting and developing seed biotechnologies, one of the largest recipients of which is everybody's favourite corporation, <a href="http://www.monsanto.com/search.asp?queryText=gates">Monsanto</a>.<br /><br />However, all is not lost...<br /><blockquote><br />Despite institutional neglect, ecological farming systems have been sprouting up across the African continent for decades--systems based on farmers' knowledge, which not only raise yields but reduce costs, are diverse and use less water and fewer chemicals. Fifteen years ago, researchers and farmers in Kenya began developing a method for beating striga, a parasitic weed that causes significant crop loss for African farmers. The system they developed, the "push-pull system," also builds soil fertility, provides animal fodder and resists another major African pest, the stemborer. Under the system, predators are "pushed" away from corn because it is planted alongside insect-repellent crops, while they are "pulled" toward crops like Napier grass, which exudes a gum that traps and kills pests and is also an important fodder crop for livestock. Push-pull has spread to more than 10,000 households in East Africa by means of town meetings, national radio broadcasts and farmer field schools. It's a farming system that's much more robust, cheaper, less environmentally harmful, locally developed, locally owned and one among dozens of promising agroecological alternatives on the ground in Africa today. <br /></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/patel_et_al">Read the whole article from <span style="font-style:italic;">The Nation</span></a><br /><br />Previously blogged about <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2007/03/problem-with-bill-gates-philanthropy-in.html">here</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-17413394796850777792009-08-09T09:31:00.003-04:002009-08-09T09:48:30.008-04:00Mass Murder of WomenBob Herbert: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/08herbert.html?_r=2&ref=opinion">Women at Risk</a><br /><blockquote>"I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me," wrote George Sodini in a blog that he kept while preparing for this week's shooting in a Pennsylvania gym in which he killed three women, wounded nine others and then killed himself.<br /><br />We've seen this tragic ritual so often that it has the feel of a formula. A guy is filled with a seething rage toward women and has easy access to guns. The result: mass slaughter.<br /><br />Back in the fall of 2006, a fiend invaded an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, separated the girls from the boys, and then shot 10 of the girls, killing five.<br /><br />I wrote, at the time, that there would have been thunderous outrage if someone had separated potential victims by race or religion and then shot, say, only the blacks, or only the whites, or only the Jews. But if you shoot only the girls or only the women — not so much of an uproar.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Or, can you imagine if the gunman was Arab, Muslim or black. The news would be filled with analyses of black violence or Muslim misogyny or whatever. Just look at how some people try to make <a href="http://www.google.ca/search?q=Gamil+Rodrigue+Gharbi">Mark Lepine into a secret Muslim</a>, so that the violent impulses can be blamed on his Algerian-ness instead of his male-ness. Why is it when a white man commits a similar act, neither whiteness nor maleness are examined? <br /><br /><blockquote><br />According to police accounts, Sodini walked into a dance-aerobics class of about 30 women who were being led by a pregnant instructor. He turned out the lights and opened fire. The instructor was among the wounded.<br /><br />We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected.<br /><br />We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.<br /><br />The mainstream culture is filled with the most gruesome forms of misogyny, and pornography is now a multibillion-dollar industry — much of it controlled by mainstream U.S. corporations.<br /><br />One of the striking things about mass killings in the U.S. is how consistently we find that the killers were riddled with shame and sexual humiliation, which they inevitably blamed on women and girls. The answer to their feelings of inadequacy was to get their hands on a gun (or guns) and begin blowing people away.<br /><br />What was unusual about Sodini was how explicit he was in his blog about his personal shame and his hatred of women. “Why do this?” he asked. “To young girls? Just read below.” In his gruesome, monthslong rant, he managed to say, among other things: “It seems many teenage girls have sex frequently. One 16 year old does it usually three times a day with her boyfriend. So, err, after a month of that, this little [expletive] has had more sex than ME in my LIFE, and I am 48. One more reason.”<br /><br />I was reminded of the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in a rampage at the university in 2007. While Cho shot males as well as females, he was reported to have previously stalked female classmates and to have leaned under tables to take inappropriate photos of women. A former roommate said Cho once claimed to have seen “promiscuity” when he looked into the eyes of a woman on campus.<br /><br />Soon after the Virginia Tech slayings, I interviewed Dr. James Gilligan, who spent many years studying violence as a prison psychiatrist in Massachusetts and as a professor at Harvard and N.Y.U. “What I’ve concluded from decades of working with murderers and rapists and every kind of violent criminal,” he said, “is that an underlying factor that is virtually always present to one degree or another is a feeling that one has to prove one’s manhood, and that the way to do that, to gain the respect that has been lost, is to commit a violent act.”<br /><br />Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. But we should take particular notice of the staggering amounts of violence brought down on the nation’s women and girls each and every day for no other reason than who they are. They are attacked because they are female.<br /><br />A girl or woman somewhere in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count.<br /><br />There were so many sexual attacks against women in the armed forces that the Defense Department had to revise its entire approach to the problem.<br /><br />We would become much more sane, much healthier, as a society if we could bring ourselves to acknowledge that misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem, and that the twisted way so many men feel about women, combined with the absurdly easy availability of guns, is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions. </blockquote><br /><br />I don't for a minute believe that all men hate women or that all men are violent or whatever the right wing wants you to think feminists believe, but that there is an undercurrent in our culture which accepts too much violence in general and too much violence against women in particular. <br /><br />We need to take a good honest look at our society and take responsibility for these sick people we raise. We need to promote healthier ways to deal with anger and other strong emotions. We desperately need a healthier masculinity. We also need to abandon our antisocial and ultra-competitive society that rewards domination.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-10705737350460723482009-07-22T17:12:00.001-04:002009-07-22T17:01:10.636-04:00Blame CUPEAre you tired of blaming fate, the vagaries of nature, or God for your misfortunes? Try blaming CUPE. It's fun and easy.<br /><br />Here's an example, provided by the Toronto Sun. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZSHGAajFygRWqfzn9q4CwFehWGsurzbalasK9HZN3t8T7DbXSYho1wQPU5a2wFgovPWDvz__nQyA4lduOVWFl6ALSNR2wVfW6Yy3YFBWrDx-3SGufzFhhYY5QL68idXjoamvOg/s1600-h/storage.canoe.ca.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 331px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZSHGAajFygRWqfzn9q4CwFehWGsurzbalasK9HZN3t8T7DbXSYho1wQPU5a2wFgovPWDvz__nQyA4lduOVWFl6ALSNR2wVfW6Yy3YFBWrDx-3SGufzFhhYY5QL68idXjoamvOg/s400/storage.canoe.ca.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361390621659678818" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/07/22/10215566-sun.html">CUPE killed summer</a>. That's right. Summer is dead, and CUPE perpetrated the murder. <br /><br />Try it yourself. Car won't start? Blame CUPE. Weather too cold? Blame CUPE. Miss the bus? Stub your toe? Spill your coffee? You know who to blame.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-23293497699689611472009-06-24T15:09:00.005-04:002009-06-24T16:24:15.574-04:00Solidarity with City Workers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MgiLm6J1kJZcQawbvw3ISRAeAcouY6zjwBceKGeOadEabiHYcoZRMKP6lkDWBIJC9KsRzik1zufaSlglmt3t34rk82qTZYMrGaDCPJlCjABSCguRGhu5aXdHDZBY9ia5wqs3xA/s1600-h/5a521844491eaa376cc45eacd22a.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 168px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MgiLm6J1kJZcQawbvw3ISRAeAcouY6zjwBceKGeOadEabiHYcoZRMKP6lkDWBIJC9KsRzik1zufaSlglmt3t34rk82qTZYMrGaDCPJlCjABSCguRGhu5aXdHDZBY9ia5wqs3xA/s200/5a521844491eaa376cc45eacd22a.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350981111009557890" /></a>In my inbox today:<br /><blockquote>OCAP STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH TORONTO CITY WORKERS<br /><br /> The members of CUPE 416 and 79 who work for the City of Toronto<br />are now on strike. The business media has begun its inevitable campaign of<br />misinformation to produce the greatest possible backlash against these<br />workers. We are encouraged to focus on uncollected garbage and suspended<br />services but not, of course, to give any regard to the rights of public<br />sector workers or to think as working people about what is at stake in<br />this strike.<br /> <br /> OCAP, as a matter of basic principle, stands in solidarity with<br />workers' struggles. We don't hate or blame workers who have been able to<br />win a living wage or support calls for them to be driven into poverty. <br />Rather, we want to see the poor provided with wages and incomes that raise<br />them out of poverty.<br /> <br /> This strike occurs in a context that makes it especially important<br />for all of us that it end in victory and that the concessionary demands of<br />the 'progressive' Miller Administration be defeated. The Mayor defended<br />his shameful efforts to gut the collective agreements of City workers by<br />pointing to rising welfare caseloads brought on by the economic downturn. <br />What a disgusting statement. To pit City workers against those who are<br />being forced to turn to the wretched sub poverty pittance that welfare<br />provides is an outrage. This comes from a man who boasts that there are<br />more cops on the streets under his regime than every before and who is<br />taking us towards an obscene billion dollar a year police budget, while he<br />has frittered away the welfare reserve fund<br />to a fraction of where it was when he took office.<br /> <br /> The Mayor points to the state of the economy to justify his attack<br />on City workers. In doing this, he makes clear what side he is on when it<br />comes to who should pay for this economic crisis. As unemployment shoots<br />up, we face the situation with an empty shell of an unemployment insurance<br />system that shuts out most of the unemployed and with a post Mike Harris<br />welfare system that fails to provide the necessities of life. None of the<br />'solutions' to the crisis involve meeting the basic needs of the<br />unemployed and poor. For those who still have jobs and unions, the<br />bankrupt corporations they work for will be bailed out at vast public<br />expense while their rights as workers are destroyed and they are presented<br />with massive concessionary demands.<br /> <br /> The process of attacking workers started in the auto industry and<br />other parts of the private sector. The drive for austerity is now<br />spreading, inevitably, to the public sector. Beginning with militant<br />fights by postal workers in the 1960s, public sector workers have spent<br />decades struggling for decent wages and conditions.<br /> <br /> The present crisis of capitalism will mean an all out confrontation to<br />take back those gains. Moreover, an attack on the workers who deliver<br />public services can't be separated from the attack on the services<br />themselves and the rights of those who receive them. That is the context<br />of this strike and we in OCAP know what side we're on. We call for full<br />support for the City workers. Send messages of solidarity. Be there with<br />them on their picket lines. Stand with them in their fight because they<br />are fighting for all of us.</blockquote><br />Finally, some common sense. I am shocked (although I guess I shouldn't be, after the reaction to the TTC strike - though even that wasn't nearly so bad) at the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/655644">mean-spirited selfishness of local citizens</a>.(Just read the comments on any news story about the strike). I can't believe how many people think that city workers shouldn't have x,y,z (benefits and perks, job security, decent wage, etc) because private sector employees don't have these things. It's like the child who breaks a toy someone else is playing with. If I can't have it, nobody can. Of course my metaphor breaks down because lots of the people complaining are not exactly in dire straights. We're talking lawyers and middle management here.<br /><br />Not that the media is helping any. Zeroing in on the bankable sick days as if that is what this fight is really about. If you didn't live here, <a href="http://www.torontosunsucks.com/2009/06/look-at-garbage-piling-up.html">you'd think the streets were flowing with garbage</a>.<br /><br />Cognitive dissonance abounds. Garbage collectors shouldn't be given the same increases as police officers got because garbage collectors aren't as important. But me oh my, it's been TWO days without garbage collection and already they are screaming to have someone take away their refuse. Somehow forgotten is that fact that it is not just a garbage strike. Inside and outside workers include paramedics, parks and rec staff, workers at swimming pools and community centres, health inspectors, office workers, social workers, child care workers, and even the people who clean the nasty (and desperately important especially for the homeless) public washrooms. They supply incredibly important services.<br /><br />What I think we should realize is just how many services we receive from the city and how invaluable they are. If we were to try to buy all these services, few could afford them. They make all of our lives better, and they happen so routinely we rarely even notice them. Using the recession as an excuse to claw back hard-won benefits from public-sector employees is just wrong. Pretty much the entire world (even the IMF) understands that a recession is the time to spend on public works, not cut them. And if you are cutting, why not start at the top (police chief? city manager?) and work your way down instead of starting at the bottom (non-unionized workers have already been screwed with wage freezes earlier this year)? <br /><br />If this were France, we'd probably have a general strike just to support them. Everyone would take the day off work (parents wouldn't have to worry about child care at least) and we'd all sit in the streets drinking wine.<br /><br />Perhaps we could also use this as an opportunity to meditate on the excess of waste we produce as a society. Two days without collection and all hell breaks loose? Honestly. What is wrong with us?Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-71020371160849134692009-06-21T21:30:00.002-04:002009-06-21T21:42:54.593-04:00Entitlement<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUg_5J-IGUU9beO_QtybLgKD5VGL2g4qwGPzdj8tLiEFErJ2osKZCG8EGxpQDzZ597aMIwWP-tMUEZlrBqjYd3zxfHRcusaOVE5IFbKLKJokN0MUd61ynJZ32rJZ_M7mMPZmlzPw/s1600-h/plastic-bags.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 292px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUg_5J-IGUU9beO_QtybLgKD5VGL2g4qwGPzdj8tLiEFErJ2osKZCG8EGxpQDzZ597aMIwWP-tMUEZlrBqjYd3zxfHRcusaOVE5IFbKLKJokN0MUd61ynJZ32rJZ_M7mMPZmlzPw/s400/plastic-bags.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349959518373106658" /></a><br />Puzzle me this: Why is it that the same people who bitch about workers sense of entitlement (you know, workers wanting decent treatment and wages) themselves feel entitled to free plastic bags? (<a href="http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/sueann_levy/2009/05/28/9594731-sun.html">It's</a> <a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/26/yoni-goldstein-toronto-s-ridiculous-new-plastic-bag-laws.aspx">true</a>)<br /><br />I think its a marvelous success so far: <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/654243">Toronto's new 5 cent plastic bag law has reduced the use of plastic shopping bags by something like 75%</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_AwT2PH1AQiFSzIArTm-dhBKa0vV77jhRyIsGElNF62k6R3qLPVnNfQoKS5b3Dk7LW3j8zA686avA44grbhs1N9FsU_YVpfMOO0q1BPq69VcYtt6N7NYK1rco_Y4zpnk5P6Rkg/s1600-h/plastic-bags-jj-001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_AwT2PH1AQiFSzIArTm-dhBKa0vV77jhRyIsGElNF62k6R3qLPVnNfQoKS5b3Dk7LW3j8zA686avA44grbhs1N9FsU_YVpfMOO0q1BPq69VcYtt6N7NYK1rco_Y4zpnk5P6Rkg/s400/plastic-bags-jj-001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349959515711456514" /></a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-78736639849341908082009-06-11T16:38:00.000-04:002009-06-11T16:33:44.646-04:00First the Recession didn't exist...First the recession <a href="http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/decisioncanada/story.html?id=bdd94abe-f280-4dbe-8545-fa0090674dbc">didn't even exist</a> (<a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080530/gdp_drop_080530/20080530?hub=TopStories">No recession for Canada</a>, er.. well maybe <a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20081123/flaherty_recession_081123/20081123/?hub=QPeriod&subhub=PrintStory">a "technical" one</a>), and now <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/649178">the recession is going away</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090302/gdp_drops_090302?hub=MSNHome">yep</a>, <a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Alberta+sticks+with+loss+forecast/1385888/story.html">ok</a>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/06/11/statistics-industrial-capacity.html">uh-huh</a>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/06/05/f-backgrounder-unemployment-canada-countries.html">sure</a>, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/04/09/unemployment-march-jobs.html">I believe you Stevie</a><br />After all, <a href="http://www.warrenkinsella.com/index.php?m=03&y=08&entry=entry080324-213942">your finance minister has such a good track record</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-11780679298880219632009-05-11T11:21:00.000-04:002009-05-11T11:10:07.258-04:00It isn't surprising...... that <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/631974">'Status Indians' face threat of extinction</a>, since the Indian Act was implemented specifically for the purpose of eradicating indigenous peoples and culture. Indian Status was designed to reduce the Indian population, a neat solution to the "Indian Problem".<br /><br />Within a few generations, it was assumed, the Indian population would nearly disappear. This was ensured through the restrictive nature of Indian Status: an indigenous woman who married a white man lost her status, as did her children, plus if you were enfranchised to vote or got a university education you were no longer considered an Indian.<br /><br />In the past 40 years there have been many changes to the Indian Act, some positive and some negative, but most aboriginals in Canada are unable to access the benefits of the Act, while dealing with many of the negative consequences of their heritage. Canadians often display an incredible degree of racism, particularly towards aboriginal individuals and groups. Don't believe me? Just <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/631974#Comments">read the comments</a> on the Star article, if you can stomach it.<br /><br />Personally, I can't imagine if the government was able to decide for me who I am (legally speaking). Imagine they all of a sudden decreed that only those with two Christian parents could be Christian, or that those women who vote were no longer legally women, or that men who go to university are no longer legally men, or if you have a slice of pizza you are now Italian. <br /><br />Also see <a href="http://intercontinentalcry.org/how-the-indian-act-made-indians-act-like-indian-act-indians/">How the Indian Act made Indians act like Indian Act Indians</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-73372519410005946572009-05-09T15:55:00.003-04:002009-05-09T15:41:28.061-04:00ACTION ALERT: Keep Terminator Seed out of CanadaMember of Parliament <a href="http://www.alexndp.ca/">Alex Atamanenko</a> (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.<br /><br /><blockquote>What is Terminator? Terminator Technology genetically engineers plants to produce sterile seeds at harvest. It was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the US government to prevent farmers from re-planting harvested seed and force farmers to buy seed each season instead. Terminator seeds have not yet been field-tested or commercialized. In 2006, Monsanto bought the company (Delta & Pine Land) that owned Terminator. Terminator is sometimes called Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) - the broad term that refers to the use of an external chemical inducer to control the expression of a plant's genetic traits.<br /><br />Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.<br /><br />Actions you can take:<br />1. Send an instant email at <a href="http://www.cban.ca/terminatoraction">http://www.cban.ca/terminatoraction</a>.<br />2. Organizations can endorse the call for a ban: go to <a href="http://www.banterminator.org/endorse">http://www.banterminator.org/endorse</a><br />3. Write a personalized letter. Remember: postage is free to your elected officials! You can use your postal code to search for your MP at <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca">http://www.parl.gc.ca</a> (Note: The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois already support a Ban on Terminator in Canada.) For more information see <a href="http://www.cban.ca/terminator">http://www.cban.ca/terminator</a><br />4. Distribute Ban Terminator postcards in your community! To order postcards email <a href="mailto:btpostcards@usc-canada.org">btpostcards@usc-canada.org</a><br />5. Donate to support the campaign -- the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network implements the Canadian strategy of the International Ban Terminator Campaign <a href="http://www.cban.ca/donate">http://www.cban.ca/donate</a><br />6. Sign up to Ban Terminator news <a href="http://www.banterminator.org/subscribe">http://www.banterminator.org/subscribe</a><br /><br />Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5<br />Phone: 613 241 2267 ext.5<br />coordinator@cban.ca, <a href="http://www.cban.ca/">www.cban.ca</a></blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.banterminator.org/The-Issues/Introduction">Learn more about Terminator Technology here</a><br /><br />Via <a href="http://www.everdale.org/node/267#ban">Everdale</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-38531773661676299412009-04-30T10:52:00.001-04:002009-04-30T10:47:44.609-04:00The Power of PoetryA while back, <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2007/02/poets-for-global-justice.html">I posted a poem</a> written by Drew Dillinger. It begins:<br /><blockquote>it's 3:23 in the morning<br />and I'm awake<br />because my great great grandchildren<br />won't let me sleep<br />my great great grandchildren<br />ask me in dreams<br />what did you do while the planet was plundered?<br />what did you do when the earth was unraveling?</blockquote> <br />Words have power. And these are powerful words.<br /><br />I am not the only one who think so. Recently a congresswoman <a href="http://www.drewdellinger.org/pages/video/153/the-power-of-poetry_spoken-word-in-the-halls-of-congress">quoted the poem</a> during Congressional hearings on climate change legislation. <br /><br /><object width="400" height="307"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4345732&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4345732&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="307"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/4345732">DellingerPoem_Congress</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user948307">drew dellinger</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-16878048119208026772009-04-21T10:14:00.001-04:002009-04-21T10:12:37.305-04:00The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMX0RN7wrM_yfeSlMav0lHt36Lxox_OX9pi6ZG6yU2GyabHCVNA1NWcuq3YgD3I1OQcpGWLLj829LybcmB7iC-KoQScg4biQ0evkBztFQdKI3op-BZYhlBTzgglKRgx-sCaKyVrQ/s1600-h/homeless_in_fresno.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMX0RN7wrM_yfeSlMav0lHt36Lxox_OX9pi6ZG6yU2GyabHCVNA1NWcuq3YgD3I1OQcpGWLLj829LybcmB7iC-KoQScg4biQ0evkBztFQdKI3op-BZYhlBTzgglKRgx-sCaKyVrQ/s400/homeless_in_fresno.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327147074775571746" /></a><br />One of the fundamental human requirements is shelter. How do homeless people survive? Where do they sleep? On friends and family's couches and floors (if they are lucky), at shelters, in churches, in parks, on sidewalk grates, in abandoned buildings, in doorways, under bridges, in cars, or wherever else they can. <br /><br />And of course, they sleep in tents. The burgeoning tent cities in the U.S. have <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2009/03/tent-cities-of-homeless-on-rise-across.html">finally made the national awareness</a>. Interestingly, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/rights/137045/%22people_shouldn%27t_have_to_live_like_this%22%3A_the_real_story_behind_%22tent_city%22_--_and_how_the_media_get_it_wrong/">it seems as though the media is only interested in the newly homeless</a>, those middle class folks who lost their homes because of the economic collapse. In other words, those who they believe are homeless because of circumstances, not because of some kind of individual moral failing. Unlike, you know, the <i>other</i> kind of poor.<br /><blockquote>Over the past few months, reporters from around the world have flocked to the now-famous tent city in Sacramento, Calif. When they find out that 55-year-old John Kraintz has been living in a tent for almost seven years, they turn around and walk away.<br /><br />"They don't want to talk to me," he says. "They're searching for people who just lost their homes. It's kinda tough to lose a home when you've never owned one. Sorry, but most of the people here have been homeless for a long time." </blockquote><br />Homelessness is seen as an anomaly, a sign of the economic crisis, not as a structural problem with capitalism. But <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2007/05/edmontons-army-of-homeless.html">there are homeless during the boom times</a>, too, lots of them.<br /><br /><blockquote>"The other day, I heard a German reporter ask if this is happening because of the recent economic collapse," says Kraintz. "This has been happening for 30 years, but the powers that be have been able to pretend it doesn't exist. Why aren't reporters asking about flat wages, jobs being shipped overseas and the lack of affordable housing?" <br /><br />Burke agrees, saying one of the many issues ignored in most articles about tent city and homelessness is the fact that poor people cannot afford housing, especially in an expensive state like California.<br /><br />"People who are poor end up homeless through no fault of their own, but because people higher up on the food chain have made affordable housing a very scarce commodity," she says. "If we had sound housing policies and programs that helped people when they have a run of bad luck, we would not have a tent city." <br /><br />Kraintz says he knew the system would finally blow up. It was just a matter of time. The question, according to him, is this: Do the powers that be have the political will to create a fairer, more just economic system? <<a href="http://www.alternet.org/rights/137045/%22people_shouldn%27t_have_to_live_like_this%22%3A_the_real_story_behind_%22tent_city%22_--_and_how_the_media_get_it_wrong/">Alternet</a>></blockquote><br /><br />Photo Credit: A tent city in Fresno, from a <a href="http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/01/31/16692241.php">2004 article by Mike Rhodes on Indybay</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-90115623395997869142009-04-16T21:25:00.001-04:002009-04-16T21:18:42.410-04:00Early Farmers in the Americas - Farming because they wanted to, not because they had to<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090408-first-farm.html?source=email_gg_20090415&email=gg">This</a> is an interesting article, especially for me, with my interest in indigenous precolumbian agriculture in the Americas.<blockquote>Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy "pioneer" crops, according to new evidence of the first farming in eastern North America.<br /><br />Because the area appears to have been well stocked with wild food sources, the discovery may rewrite some beliefs about what led people to start farming on the continent, scientists say.<br /><br />Rather than turning to farming as a matter of survival, the so-called Riverton people may have been exercising "free will" and engaging in a bit of gastronomic innovation, archaeologists say. </blockquote><br />This does not surprise me in the least. We always assume 'prehistoric' peoples started farming because they had to, as a survival technique, but we don't ever stop to think that they might be just like us, inventing new things simply because they want to. Did we <i>need</i> the iPod or the car? Was our survival significantly enhanced because of either of them? We grow later to think we can't live without electricity, flush toilets, and the internet, because they make our lives easier or more enjoyable. <br /><blockquote>Around the world and throughout ancient history, people switched from mainly hunting and gathering to farming as a way to cope with environmental stresses, such as drought—or so the conventional wisdom says.<br /><br />But the new research "really challenges the whole idea of humans domesticating plants and animals in response to an external stress [and] makes a strong case for almost the polar opposite," said lead study author Bruce Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.<br /><br />Before they began farming, the Riverton people lived among bountiful river valleys and lakes, apparently eating a healthy and diverse diet of nuts, white-tailed deer, fish, and shellfish, the study says. <br />[...]<br />But that doesn't mean farming didn't give the Riverton culture a practical advantage: In addition to their normal fare, the people may have relied on the crops as a stable source of food—insurance against shortages of wild food sources.. </blockquote>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-9670597261256047122009-04-06T11:13:00.000-04:002009-04-06T11:06:32.640-04:00If Janitors Were Like CEOs - Comic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRad-B4YFftHb4Xin93N1n7XxJO8uheJiCIEjcLwCVf9aIzp1Iwitexb6psa9EYUxQhEaDIZItvYF-uqfPAt9kFx9bt1-qmoFE6H2_si0J3hsb6H5h-XEBf0v7fnOZ3E4VCO3d1A/s1600-h/507.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRad-B4YFftHb4Xin93N1n7XxJO8uheJiCIEjcLwCVf9aIzp1Iwitexb6psa9EYUxQhEaDIZItvYF-uqfPAt9kFx9bt1-qmoFE6H2_si0J3hsb6H5h-XEBf0v7fnOZ3E4VCO3d1A/s400/507.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321594418561798610" /></a><br />haha! I wanna be a janitor. By <a href="http://www.mattbors.com/2009/04/ceo-janitors.html">Matt Bors</a>Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-49817770762471560862009-03-31T22:58:00.000-04:002009-03-31T22:45:31.204-04:00Sometimes not knowing is betterAt least when you're talking about <a href="http://www.smuckers.com/products/details.aspx?groupId=3&categoryId=46&flavorId=25">these</a>. I am convinced we are seeing end times when slapping peanut butter on bread is too much work for us.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixiEuVAgT10XM03_c1lEgl3q9zvjwFar_yfq8x6p9eOThYIXV7jMiONfSBEfAVprcwr4uK0K_-d6wLQ607I2jjF-wtUrvdbd7OhAnIsVLba6xau_ctnvCiQ77oqlYlODan6gWDyA/s1600-h/uncrustables.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixiEuVAgT10XM03_c1lEgl3q9zvjwFar_yfq8x6p9eOThYIXV7jMiONfSBEfAVprcwr4uK0K_-d6wLQ607I2jjF-wtUrvdbd7OhAnIsVLba6xau_ctnvCiQ77oqlYlODan6gWDyA/s400/uncrustables.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319543176566162946" /></a><br /><br />And I thought <a href="http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/Brands/featured-brands/bagelfuls.html">Bagelfuls</a>, <a href="http://www.eggsolutions.ca/products/precooked-scrambled-eggs.htm">precooked eggs</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunchables">Lunchables</a> were bad.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-37478809142358577402009-03-24T11:35:00.002-04:002009-03-24T13:22:07.294-04:00Impatient for Spring<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDrVxqWf8jwXZP5EQ-QgYkkV5e_qeZ4eA1CGcOj0Sc7xWsLpqup2tTZWPoN-JROaheJq3CyP-gLiBT-IED_7ZvYXe3SMqfVy_ivDIeWnkADWqAmwwUqR5zae4RlzuIH_oVaPrLqQ/s1600-h/IMG_2540.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDrVxqWf8jwXZP5EQ-QgYkkV5e_qeZ4eA1CGcOj0Sc7xWsLpqup2tTZWPoN-JROaheJq3CyP-gLiBT-IED_7ZvYXe3SMqfVy_ivDIeWnkADWqAmwwUqR5zae4RlzuIH_oVaPrLqQ/s400/IMG_2540.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316770093158485698" /></a><br />March 2, 2009 - Impatient for spring and inspired by <a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Growing-Lettuce-Indoors-Small-Space-Gardening.aspx">Mother Earth News</a>, I planted three kinds of lettuce (obtained at <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviiGBtfm1gRNgFgyIFFCiwASRv8d51X1c9o1jp9rYQhC4Ia3eV2vwHiunuZErKfX-LFj3SsyTydL4AIXan6cF5G6wWj2sHk_jKgrlAYFbqDpCpyr90RXkD9BUD32YD3UsPJAL/s1600-h/SeedySaturday-2009phub_net_cable_rogers-sm.jpg">Seedy Saturday</a>). <a href="http://cornucopiaseeds.com.au/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=375">Green oak</a>, <a href="http://www.uharvest.ca/zenstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=71">red deer tongue</a>, and mystery lettuce (from the seed exchange).<br /><br />March 21, 2009 - Off to a respectable start:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmp6YGU60Whnn_PiWM2KJayu_0OZiGgn_EwfrQP-X4upzaqmoaCWOxO-ITR8RaVg3T6GYDxe1EAY3qt-7P6e6Rt8SwIVhdJZGnclSt3K8kZ_hWAgdHCj9PEpbv0NP0IeMERRLqA/s1600-h/IMG_2527.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmp6YGU60Whnn_PiWM2KJayu_0OZiGgn_EwfrQP-X4upzaqmoaCWOxO-ITR8RaVg3T6GYDxe1EAY3qt-7P6e6Rt8SwIVhdJZGnclSt3K8kZ_hWAgdHCj9PEpbv0NP0IeMERRLqA/s400/IMG_2527.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316766883463704194" /></a><br /><br />The first to germinate was the mystery lettuce, followed by the oak leaf. Red deer tongue still hasn't germinated. Bad seeds? Wrong germination temperature? Once the first round germinated, I sprinkled more seeds randomly. <br /><br />Today:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiyKp-JYo5AaYs3T4gdjck1kc5dy7AOLg4qAn80wTg4jHHP5k1P6F0Uu2D1lT93PsJmt3jthadgrdTwmlaWue_VgPJVDbQGUyz2al-bFWR4878Cq3HJnXjmgdfGVJVjQk6cBwJ5w/s1600-h/IMG_2530.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiyKp-JYo5AaYs3T4gdjck1kc5dy7AOLg4qAn80wTg4jHHP5k1P6F0Uu2D1lT93PsJmt3jthadgrdTwmlaWue_VgPJVDbQGUyz2al-bFWR4878Cq3HJnXjmgdfGVJVjQk6cBwJ5w/s400/IMG_2530.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316768988907595810" /></a><br /><br />They are such beautiful babies!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzScIDjjMEFxbzW2kC3oFcPALg5K_LGOi99otx8YcDulARBFAMOx_iGyhGyL9-njeWh0DpTLDtdW-nF1cEJMkajv18Ea4nESgRfmXwl0g3GnwkVBy_LCzAZhf9fX84cA9EbSJchw/s1600-h/IMG_2541.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzScIDjjMEFxbzW2kC3oFcPALg5K_LGOi99otx8YcDulARBFAMOx_iGyhGyL9-njeWh0DpTLDtdW-nF1cEJMkajv18Ea4nESgRfmXwl0g3GnwkVBy_LCzAZhf9fX84cA9EbSJchw/s400/IMG_2541.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316770096125190082" /></a><br />p.s. Can you imagine only having spring <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16833-moon-shadows-on-saturn-rings-are-a-sign-of-spring.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news">once every 30 years</a>?Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-10890390647230446912009-03-17T23:27:00.000-04:002009-03-17T23:23:06.087-04:00Canada's Banks: Accidentally not in Crisis Yet<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/video.html?maven_playerId=rmrseason6player&maven_referralParentPlaylistId=f18847688bccfe169d2b11db9d6ad9fa5340a7a4&maven_referralPlaylistId=a25fb9af4e39fa1ee0ed9918be60fc7fcbe9012f&maven_referralObject=1063776506">Hahahaha!</a><br />From <a href="http://www.rickmercer.com/">Rick Mercer</a><br /><br /><a href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/03/16/david-dodge.aspx">The National Post agrees</a>:<blockquote>Canadian banks – saved from stomping around as monoliths on a world stage backed by Canadian taxpayers -- are the least ugly in what can only be called a reverse beauty contest among banks.</blockquote><br />You know how we used to laugh at the guy who keeps all his cash in a big old sock, or the woman who has all her savings under her mattress? Well, the risk-averse look <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/03/17/canada-banks.html?ref=rss">pretty smart right about now</a>. Phew! Thanks goodness the regulators saved the banks from themselves.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-34826564800556966082009-03-13T20:54:00.002-04:002009-03-13T20:45:19.645-04:00Post-Civilization<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6rCKXgLnhl2uGBwk97be4Jc0TJkEkb187EKYl1HiXRkCurX3Y4qmbRuEvQGp9VCm3ETvHo_wEGeU7mG5U6U99_zUZWBldTHBSsTgXWhKx2fUkUqgD_siUqwQ4WHKyixC4EF0sA/s1600-h/postciv-web.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6rCKXgLnhl2uGBwk97be4Jc0TJkEkb187EKYl1HiXRkCurX3Y4qmbRuEvQGp9VCm3ETvHo_wEGeU7mG5U6U99_zUZWBldTHBSsTgXWhKx2fUkUqgD_siUqwQ4WHKyixC4EF0sA/s200/postciv-web.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312836861850168066" /></a><a href="http://www.tangledwilderness.org/?p=55">Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization</a> is an interesting read. <br /><blockquote>Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises:<br /><br />1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.<br />2 – It is neither possible, nor desirable, to return to a pre-civilized state of being.<br />3 – It is therefore desirable to imagine and enact a post-civilized culture.</blockquote><br />I certainly don't agree with the whole thing but I do like its spirit: "We are for an ecologically-focused green anarchism and we are for mutual aid, free association, and self-determination."<br /><br />Download it <a href="http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/post-civ-web.pdf">here </a>(small PDF file), or try <a href="http://www.tangledwilderness.org/?p=102">Post-Civ!, a deeper exploration</a> for more detail.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8219664.post-25108185718977437512009-03-10T11:09:00.002-04:002009-03-10T11:26:54.331-04:00'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US<blockquote>Homeless encampments dubbed "tent cities" are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report. </blockquote><br /><a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/search/label/homelessness">Homelessness</a>, car camps and tent cities are certainly <a href="http://redjenny.blogspot.com/2007/05/you-let-people-live-like-abandoned.html">not new</a>, but they are growing rapidly. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3pHyQpMX-tYvuboNpEYms8THhkvEAw0aBmAwHQIer1lb0GODizp5k7RUqjtEx7WfPQk7uvuZamXG033qlllTMM3NF85rwKk6ucrsMsmSy0R-WFPdGzkPj4FjZDLJWtGXObrPIA/s1600-h/Tent-Cities-460b_981655c.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3pHyQpMX-tYvuboNpEYms8THhkvEAw0aBmAwHQIer1lb0GODizp5k7RUqjtEx7WfPQk7uvuZamXG033qlllTMM3NF85rwKk6ucrsMsmSy0R-WFPdGzkPj4FjZDLJWtGXObrPIA/s400/Tent-Cities-460b_981655c.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311573481564512018" /></a><blockquote>In Reno, Nevada, the state with the nation's highest repossessions rate, a tent city recently sprung up on the city's outskirts and quickly filled up with about 150 people. Many, such as Sylvia Flynn, 51, who came from northern California, ended up homeless after losing their jobs and home.<br /><br />Officials say they do not know how many homeless the city has. "But we do know that the soup kitchens are serving hundreds more meals a day and that we have more people who are homeless than we can remember," Jodi Royal-Goodwin, the city's redevelopment agency director, said.<br /><br />In California, the upmarket city of Santa Barbara is housing homeless people who live in their cars in city car parks while Fresno, has several tent cities. Others have sprung up in Portland in Oregon, and Seattle, where homeless activists have set up mock tent cities at city hall to draw attention to the problem.<br /><br />Meanwhile, new encampments have appeared, or existing ones grown, in San Diego, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio.<<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2991742/Tent-cities-of-homeless-on-the-rise-across-the-US.html">Story</a>></blockquote><br />Some quick internet searching uncovered many others, in <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/mar/09/it-time-tent-city-dallas/">Dallas</a>, <a href="http://campquixoteoly.googlepages.com/about">Olympia</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnOOo6tRs8">L.A.</a>, <a href="http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/031308/news_2008031300252.shtml">Athens, Georgia</a>, <a href="http://www.wltz.com/news/local/31032189.html">Columbus</a>. Others, like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syPBwjfE8b4">Tenessee</a> and <a href="http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2007/01/tent-city-story.html">St. Petersburg</a> have been shut down.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29528182/displaymode/1107/s/2/">MSNBC</a> has a photo essay on a large tent city in Sacramento, juxtaposing it with the Sacramento tent city of the Great Depression. <br /><br />There are homes sitting empty, while people have no place to live. Excess supply coexisting with excess demand. The invisible hand has failed these people.Red Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07720489192755635941noreply@blogger.com4