April Reign

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2006-11-11T11:04:00.003-05:00

nothing to see here

testing br function

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Moving

2006-10-24T23:49:00.000-04:00

Movimg to a new site you can find me hereAnd here is the rest of it.

Progressive?

2006-10-23T09:08:00.001-04:00

Progressive;

Meaning #2: a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

It would be wonderful to think that progressive women and progressive men are working towards a similar goal in which equality for all is one of the founding principals.

Unfortunately just as in other times of "progression" many men have change in mind just not change that requires anything from them.

In the French Revolution, women's republican clubs demanded that liberty, equality, and fraternity be applied regardless of sex, but this movement was extinguished for the time by the Code Napoléon.

With regards to family, the Code established the supremacy of the husband with respects to the wife and children; this was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. It, however, allowed divorce on relatively liberal basis compared to other European countries, including divorce by mutual consent.

In our own progressive communities there are examples of men who just don't get it.

They don't get how sexist comments affect us all, they still have beliefs of female promiscuity (when was the last time that term was used on a man) they show demeaning pictures of women as if they are being clever, in short they display an ignorance unworthy of someone who would take on the mantle of progressive.

"the progressive poetry blogburst"

2006-10-21T14:46:00.000-04:00

Credit to skdadl of pogge for coming up with this idea

the pome only has to be four lines long (minimum), but it must mention the Court Challenges program at some point.

Here is my attempt;

SWC, CCP, like so many birds the acronyms fly by
The hunters sit intent on death
Progress, they say, has drawn it's last breath
I need you again progress sighs
Mourn their blindness, then organize

Tag to progressive bloggers reading this!

Dogs, frat boys and the sad state of Parliament

2006-10-21T09:07:00.000-04:00

Much has been said about Belinda Stronach, not a lot of it nice. Some have said that insults against her should not be taken as insults against women or as a reflection of how the conservative party views women.

I beg to differ.

Here are some quotes from tories and reformers, now the reformatories;

"Pass the tequila, Sheila, lay down and love me again."
– John Crosbie
"Slut." William Kempling to Copps
Stronach"whored herself out for power." Tony Abbott
"She sort of defined herself as something of a dipstick, an attractive one, but still a dipstick." Runciman

There are many more but I wouldn't want to belabour the point.

Much has been said about Belinda's wealth and the how it helped her rise to power. Can someone point me in the direction of the person in parliament who isn't at least somewhat wealthy and/or well connected?

Let's not forget she supports abortion rights, gun control, same-sex marriage and (real) women has been quoted as saying "If Ms. Stronach is elected as leader of the Conservative Party, social conservatives will no longer have a voice in Canada."

Further evidence of tory support for women;

Slashing funding to the SWC, even taking out the word equality.

The PM taking over during the environment announcement. When asked about policy Ambrose couldn't even form her own opinion but kept referring to Harper's words.

Support for Mackay's insulting and unparliamentary behaviour.

This is a party for bigots, misogynists, flat earthers and Bush wannabes.

They do not deserve either the votes of nor the respect of the citizens of this country. Most particulary Canadian women.

Court Challenges Program

2006-10-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

Tories and their supporters must be so proud

Reg Warkentin is challenging the military pension act's "gold diggers clause," but his legal battle is in jeopardy after the federal government cut a program that funds human rights court challenges.

Reg Warkentin married Hilde when he was 62. Because he was older than 60, she will not get his military pension when he dies.

"Virtually we've been cut off at the knees," he said. "Unless somebody comes up with more money, this thing will never get to the Supreme Court."

The clause in Section 31 of the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act says a woman who marries a veteran who is 60 or older cannot receive her husband's military pension if he dies.

Good thing that was nipped in the bud!

Other scary people helped by the CCP include such dastardly sorts as Rural Dignity of Canada

The organization worked in coalition with fishery, environment, church and labour groups across the country to lobby on behalf of the protection of essential small-community infrastructures.

Thanks goodness we have the tories and their blogging minions to save us from such evil.

To support the reinstatement of the program write to Harper and your MP

Hmm where have I seen this before?

2006-10-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

The Bush administration guts another set of laws and policies that protect workplace equity for women.
And this example of the Bush administration's efforts to weaken women's rights is not the only case. For example, the Administration has repeatedly sought to weaken the 86-year-old Women's Bureau, the only federal agency whose work is solely devoted to the concerns of women in the workplace. Early on in the Bush administration, the Department of Labor erased all information about eradicating the wage gap from the Women's Bureau website. Recently, it announced a plan to outsource half of the career positions at the Women's Bureau national office, which would cripple the Bureau's ability to advance working women's concerns. And in 2001, the Department of Labor tried but failed to close the 10 regional offices of the Women's Bureau.

The administration has also championed efforts to restrict the availability of overtime pay for workers, both by narrowing the categories of employees eligible for overtime, and by enabling employers to coerce their workers to take comp time rather overtime. This is especially harmful for women, because many women rely on overtime pay to supplement their inadequate wages.

Moreover, in an alarming example of selecting the fox to guard the henhouse, President Bush recently recess-appointed Paul DeCamp, an attorney who has spent his career trying to curtail legal remedies for women, to head the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. Among other things, DeCamp represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women -- the largest employment class action ever certified -- from suing the company for sex discrimination in pay and promotions.
AlterNet

United Health Care

2006-10-16T07:08:00.000-04:00

the same company that has more than one of these types of charges against it

The United Healthcare Insurance Company, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, will pay $3.5 million to settle charges that it defrauded the federal Medicare program, the Justice Department said yesterday. United Healthcare ''knowingly mishandled'' phone inquiries from Medicare beneficiaries and health care providers, then made false reports to the federal government about how it handled the calls, the department said in a news release. The activities took place for five years ending in 2000, the government said. United Healthcare did not admit wrongdoing in reaching the settlement. UnitedHealth's press office did not return a phone call. A former United Healthcare employee began the case in 2001 by filing a whistleblower lawsuit, in which the Justice Department intervened.

NYT

has become involved in the NHS

Many observers said, however, that developments in the past 12 months meant that the writing was already on the wall for primary care trusts. At the start of the year, North Eastern Derbyshire Primary Care Trust invited United Health Europe to run two general practices. In May, Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust signed a £5m contract with Care UK, under which the private firm will provide GP services for more than 7000 patients in East London

link

and has routinely denied claims

is now news again

The chief executive of one of the nation's largest health insurance companies retired under pressure Sunday, the latest executive to fall in an options-based pay scandal that is unfolding at scores of companies nationwide.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced that William McGuire, 59, was leaving — along with a director who oversaw executive compensation and the firm's top lawyer.

The announcement came in the wake of a board-commissioned investigation that found that stock option grants were "likely backdated" to allow insiders to maximize financial gains.

President and Chief Operating Officer Stephen Helmsley was tapped to replace McGuire. He said little about the stock options controversy in a statement released Sunday.

"In light of the recently completed investigation, I have determined that it is in the best interests of the company that I assist Steve Helmsley in an orderly transition to succeed me as CEO," McGuire said.

link
Golly gee willikers beav I can hardly wait till they take hold in Canada.

Defining Pro life

2006-10-14T10:03:00.000-04:00

Pro life, as I have said before, is a term that needs to be reclaimed by those who feel that a woman is entitled to the basic human right of having control over her own body.

Anti abortionists are not pro life. They are pro shame, pro blame, pro control, pro legislating wombs as wards of the state, and they are pro caring about the unborn as opposed to the already born, but they are most certainly not pro life.

This excellent article describes one woman's journey from black and white to the multitudes of gray.

To engage in productive dialogue about abortion, we must account for justice and equity; we must strive to make our country one where laws, practices, programs, and attitudes nurture women and allow them the opportunity to bring babies into the world when they can support them, provide them excellent healthcare, send them to college without putting themselves in massive debt, and promise them truthfully there are living-wage jobs waiting for them.

Come to think of it, if this isn't a genuinely pro-life position, I don't know what is.

Reflections from a Former Anti-Abortion Activist

Anti abortion/anti woman

2006-10-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

The latest tact by the anti abortionists is to say that women cannot make their own decision re abortion.

The task force took as a statement of biological and psychological fact that a mother's connection to her unborn baby was more authentic than her own statement of desire not to be pregnant.

They trot out women who have regrets about their abortion, stats on women who have committed suicide, (perhaps the suicides had more to do with other things in their lives but lets not go there)and generally manipulate the tear ducts like a maudlin Disney film.

The danger I see here is twofold.

First though some women may regret their abortion, there are also many who regret their pregnancy.

So far those who support choice have refrained from dragging around women who have had severe post partum depression, who have stayed with an abusive husband because of welfare laws which make it impossible to leave and still care properly for their children, women who have been forced to carry to term a rapists baby, or 11 year olds who have been forced to carry their fathers baby to term, and parade them as some sort of freak show for all and sundry.

There are many choices in life we regret. I regret a few things but I'm not looking to define how others can live their lives based on those regrets.

Secondly if it is to be accepted that women cannot make their own decisions about this, what else are we unable to make decisions about?

Are we unable to decide who to vote for? Who to marry? Are we unable
to gain an education because our minds are too frail? Perhaps we are unable to determine what has been rape and what has been merely a sex act which as women our natures detest.

It seems to me that most of these issues are based on the fear of womens autonomy, the fear of their sexuality and the fear that church will lose control of people's lives as Wordsworth penned

"What are fears but voices airy?
Whispering harm where harm is not.
And deluding the unwary
Till the fatal bolt is shot!"

Oh say, can you see?

2006-10-11T18:51:00.000-04:00

Being able to see and therefore work helps people stay out of poverty.

CBC

About 153 million people worldwide have easily correctable vision problems that lead children to fail at school and leave adults unable to work, according to a new report released Wednesday.

A simple sight test and glasses or contact lenses could allow people to live productive working lives, said the authors of the report by the World Health Organization.

About 90 per cent of people with uncorrected refractive errors — near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism — live in low- and middle-income countries, the agency found.

"Individuals and families are frequently pushed into a cycle of deepening poverty because of their inability to see well," the WHO said in a statement released ahead of World Sight Day on Thursday.

I know an Ontario premier who needs to read this. As he didn't see fit to reverse the welfare cuts and will force more working poor to choose between poverty or not paying bills just in order to get eye exams let alone glasses.

We need to help those in the third world but can we really support a premier who thinks it is ok for Ontario citizens to face the same issues of poverty as those in third world countries?

The good old days?

2006-10-11T18:24:00.000-04:00

Life if R.E.A.L.(ly out of touch) women get their way;

The following is from a 1950's Home Economics textbook intended for high school girls, teaching how to prepare for married life.

1. Have dinner ready: Plan ahead even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him, and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospects of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.
2. Prepare yourself: Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot or work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.
3. Clear away the clutter: make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too.
4. Prepare the children: Take a few minutes to wash the children hands and faces if they are small, comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.
5. Minimize the noise: At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad to see him.
6. Some DON'TS: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day.
7. Make him comfortable: Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.
8. Listen to him: You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.
9. Make the evening his: Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment; instead try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his need to be home and relax.
10. The Goal: Try to make you home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax.

Blogging.....Tool of the Devil

2006-10-10T20:48:00.000-04:00

Ask yourself, “Do I have a tendency to want to have a voice?”

This has grown so out of control it is routine for a person to start a daily blog entry with a single word that details his or her mood. A blog entry will start: “Current mood: ____” The level of shallowness and emotional immaturity this represents is astonishing! In the grand scheme of things, why would the world at large care?

People naturally want to make a mark in this world; they want to make a difference, and many believe blogs will allow them to do this. However, most blogs, especially by teenagers, serve as nothing more than public diaries. (Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with a personal diary, as long as it is kept private.) Although certain professional weblogs can make a positive difference within some elements of society, teen blogging does not.

Stop and consider. The biggest mark you will ever make is to build God’s character and be born into the God Family. Blogging will not help you achieve this.

http://www.thercg.org/youth/articles/0403-bagy.html

Yes ask yourself "Do I want to have a voice?"

No NO!! Of course you don't. You want others to speak for you, tell you what to think and lead you to the path of glory.

Wow, I can see how not having a voice and doing what someone else tells them saves kids from predators.

Blogs can easily link to each other. This social network allows people to become “friends” fairly easily with another blogger. As soon as this happens, the person is viewed as a friend by anyone who visits the blog. Whether or not the person is a friend, the appearance of evil is glaring in such situations. Young people in the world are far different then those in the Church. The things they will say and do—even on someone else’s blog—will make one blush.

This “friends” problem goes further than just appearances. Just as in person, such people will pull you toward the world and its temptations. This is just another reason blogs are unnecessary for God’s youth.

Yes that's right don't make friends kids it might be with the wrong sort of person. Ya know like someone who actually likes you for who you are, partying, worrying, questions about life and all.

Good for Irene Mathyssen

2006-10-05T18:45:00.000-04:00

NDP demands Oda resign as Minister for Status of Women

OTTAWA – Today, NDP Critic for the Status of Women Irene Mathyssen demanded Bev Oda resign as the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. The changes Oda has made to the funding mandate for the department will severely limit the ability of organizations promoting equal rights for women. These restrictions are unacceptable. They prove that Oda is not committed to promoting the interests of Canadian women.

“The Minister refuses to face the fact that women have not yet achieved equality in Canada,” said Mathyssen. “Study after study and report after report have all come to this conclusion, but the Minister refuses to acknowledge the importance of the work that women’s advocacy groups do.

“Instead, she shuts down organizations or cripples them by cutting their funding. She does not represent women in this country. She must step down,” insisted Mathyssen.

Tuesday, Oda released the new federal guidelines for funding to women’s programs. These guidelines will eliminate federal funding for research programs and cut all advocacy and lobbying activities on behalf of women.

“This is an outrage!” said Mathyssen. “These absurdly restrictive guidelines will mean the end of essential research relating to women in Canada. Long-term and national initiatives will no longer be eligible for the crucial funding they rely on.”

The Minister’s dedication to the Status of Women file is shaky at best. The new mandate was released Tuesday; a week after the last mandate expired.

“This is a clear attack on women’s rights in this country. The conservatives are trying to silence Canadian women.” said Mathyssen. “We are moving backwards. Instead of promoting women’s equality in Canada, the Conservative government is abandoning its obligation to 52% of the population.”

"5 things feminism has done for me"

2006-09-27T15:46:00.000-04:00

1. I am entitled to express my opinions without having my organs removed

In Victorian times, if a woman’s temperament could not be “controlled” by loosening her corset or being kept in a quiet place with a cold compress applied to the head and neck, it was common for her reproductive organs to be removed.

or being placed in an asylumn or solitary confinement

The idea of the Wondering Womb developed during this time, as madness was associated with menstruation, pregnancy, and the menopause. The womb itself was deemed to wander throughout the body, acting as an enormous sponge which sucked the life-energy or intellect from vulnerable women? (Ussher 74). Thus, women became synonymous with madness, as they were deemed to be emotional and unstable. If a woman of the Victorian era were subject to an outburst (due to discontentment or repression), she would be deemed mad. The word Hysteria became the general term for women with mental illness and cures included bed rest, seclusion, bland food, refrain from mental activities (such as reading), daily massage, and sensory deprivation. Though these treatments do not seem too appalling, they were comparable to solitary confinement and would often drive a woman to further insanity.

2. receive an education and teach others without being murdered for doing so

3. has provided me the opportunity to have greater control over my reproduction. The ability to have control of and say over ones self is one the founding principals of democracy, self esteem and sanity.

Sanity
is a state of constantly evaluating your own behavior, and your own intentions, and the behavior of others, and the intentions of others, towards survival for all.

4. the right to vote, to hold office and property

5. To determine when, if or whom I marry, to expect to be respected as a person to have autonomy, not to have to walk five paces behind or apologize for being a woman...
Most of all feminism has allowed me to have a life with hope.

Can a Man be a Feminist?

2006-09-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

Anti - feminists would like to break feminism down to a hatred of men. How then can a man be a feminist? Perhaps, just perhaps that is not what feminism is about.
I had the good fortune this morning to stumble upon this opinion piece in the Daily Kent Stater, written by Christopher Taylor

I am a male. I am a feminist.

Yes, men can be feminists, too.

I have attempted to ask men of all different types of backgrounds if they were feminists. I received shocked reactions and puzzled looks as if I had asked a final-round Jeopardy question.

The most common theme about feminism in dictionaries describes it as a doctrine or movement to ensure "equal rights." How is this idea still so foreign to us, and why the hell is it even being debated?

I particularly liked his insight in this paragraph

Here's another fun quote from Marianne Brennan on Humanevents.com: "As a woman, I have every right to drink, to dress however I want, and to go to a man's room alone. I also have every right to walk into an urban ghetto and scream racial slurs, but if I got shot, no one would argue that I wasn't complicit in my own victimhood."

What? Not only is she stereotyping "urban ghettos" as areas reserved for blacks, but she is comparing an action full of ignorance and hatred with a woman who likes to have a drink every so often. One is deliberate; the other is not.

I have been fortunate to know many feminist men. I married a feminist man, of course how could I do otherwise? It would be impossible for me to share a life with someone who thought I was lesser or wanting somehow.
Just as I rejoice that so many boys are being raised by strong feminist women, I rejoice that so many girls are being raised by strong feminist men.
As these children grow they will learn to treat each other with respect, concern and to recognize each other as equal partners. This can only bode well for the future, for laws and attitudes that will govern society.
Here's to you, feminist men!! And may there be many more!!

Swept off your street

2006-09-10T11:07:00.000-04:00

In Winnipeg there is a program to get people off the streets and into jobs. Sounds laudable until you read what they are actually doing.
Currently the project involves about a half dozen people working for "close to minimum wage" sweeping streets, removing posters and generally gaining no transferable work skills. How wonderful!
No doubt their 20 hours at close to minium wage will go a long way to getting and keeping a roof over their head, food, clothing... Hope they have someone helping them budget that $140 a week. Wouldn't want them to blow it all in one place.

Might be a good idea for the union to approach these workers and sign them up right away before the city finds more jobs these ~~indentured servants~~ new employees can do at a third of the cost./span>

The Minister of Citizen Control

2006-09-05T10:25:00.000-04:00

On Sept 1st the Guardian ran a story about Blair's plan to insinuate the state into the lives of pregnant youth and women in order to 'weed out the problem unborn'

Tony Blair has said it is possible to identify problem children who could grow up to be a potential "menace to society" even before they are born.

Setting out plans for state intervention to prevent babies born into high-risk families becoming problem teenagers of the future, the prime minister said teenage mothers could be forced to accept state help before giving birth, as part of a
clampdown on antisocial behaviour.

Mr Blair defended the need for state intervention and said action could even be taken "pre-birth" if necessary as families with drug and alcohol problems were being identified too late.

This approach seems classist, sexist and completely out of touch with the real issues affecting people's lives as voiced later in the article

Norman Lamb, chief of staff to Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, said: "Empty threats to pregnant mothers will do little to restore confidence in a government that has failed to tackle poverty, crime and social exclusion for the last nine years."

Today the Guardian has run another story in connection with this issue.

The prime minister said the links between such social problems and anti-social behaviour and crime were well established and it was possible to predict the families where things might go wrong.

Early intervention would avoid the "colossal expense" later on, he said, pointing to the cost to the state of keeping children in care, of teenage pregnancy and of mental health beds.

So Blair and his ministers can identify who the criminals are going to be and who is going to have mental health issues? WOW and amazingly none of them will come from "good families". You know the good families.. they have money.. live in the right neighbourhoods and of course never deal with teen pregnancies, criminal behaviour or mental health issues. Wonder where Maggie went wrong? But never mind that.

This is very interesting;

Agencies and professionals needed to work in new ways to tackle these problems and should be freed of rules and bureaucracy, he said. A range of new approaches would be tested in areas where critical problems exist.

Mr Blair is expected to join Hilary Armstrong, the minister for social exclusion, next week to launch an 'action plan' thought to include a pilot scheme to deal with the most challenging families.

Freed of rules. Hmm which rules would those be?
According to the article the government is not on track to ending child poverty.

Blair should spend more time on creating policies and plans for lifting people out of poverty instead of punishing them for being poor.

Sounds like state control of the proletariat is the real agenda.

Blow out the candles on your carrot

2006-09-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

So you've decided there is an epidemic of childhood obesity, what do you do?
End fast food advertising directed at children? Require more stringent adherence to guidelnes keeping sugars and additives down in breakfast cereals and other foods children eat? Provide healthy foods for school lunch programs? Raise the amount of money provided by food stamps and other food programs? Increase welfare payments?
Well they are all interesting ideas but not as good as banning birthday cake from schools.

A growing number of schools around the US are banning birthday cakes, saying the tradition has become too unhealthy.

Millions of students go back to school next week as their annual summer holiday comes to an end.

But one thing will be missing from classrooms across the country.

For generations American children have brought homemade cakes and cupcakes to school to celebrate birthdays with their classmates.

Like the rest of the country, children are facing what health officials call an epidemic of obesity.

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that one out of every six school-age children in the US is overweight.

The birthday cake bans are part of a wider national trend of schools discouraging sugary junk foods between classes in favour of healthier snacks, like fruits or yogurt.

But the new rules are not without controversy.

/span>

Buddy can you spare $38 to $141?

2006-09-03T16:45:00.000-04:00

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Montreal has decided to pretend that the homeless actually have somewhere to go and if they don't they face fines of 38 to 141 dollars.
CTV

Trying to find shelter for them and keeping them out of public parks is an increasingly complex problem. Montreal has about 500 beds in its three main shelters.

The city has instructed police to first suggest a list of shelters. But eventually they will be slapping sleepers with fines ranging from $38 to $141.

Because shelters are often listed as the only address for some of the homeless, shelters say that tickets arrive every day for nuisance crimes such as spitting on the street or crossing a street against a red light.

If you're living on the street, it's unlikely you have money to pay a fine. Montreal has a solution for that, too: unpaid fines win the sleeper a stay in a city jail.

Surely we are better as a society than this. Surely we can find someway to deal with people that allows them to keep their dignity?
Every city has it's share of abandoned buildings. These could easily be turned into rooming homes that would allow privacy, a permanent address and keep the "riff raff" off the streets. Providing this housing free of charge would still cost less than jailing everyone and increasing police workload.
Interesting that in all the decisions that are thought up, none actually seek to help the problem, save money, or provide answers. They simply seek to answer the need so many have to see the poor and mentally ill punished.

Come on Girls Give it up!

2006-09-03T15:33:00.000-04:00

Haven't you always dreamed of being an actress? Now you don't even need to leave home!
From the Guardian

'Eighty per cent of women only sometimes - or never - experience orgasm. Facts are facts and there we are. Deal with it,' she writes in What Makes Women Happy?, to be published this month by Fourth Estate.

According to Weldon, sensible members of the sisterhood should, therefore, follow the example so graphically set by the actor Meg Ryan in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally, and fake orgasms whenever necessary.

'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'

One can only hope this was written tongue in cheek./span>

Paging Dr Day STAT

2006-08-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

From the San Fransico Chronicle

The Democratic-controlled Legislature is on the verge of sending Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would create a state-run universal health care system, testing him on an issue that voters rate as one of their top concerns in this election year.

On a largely party-line 43-30 vote, the Assembly approved a bill by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system that would provide coverage to all Californians. The state Senate has already approved the plan once and is expected this week to approve changes that the Assembly made to the bill.

Schwarzenegger has said he opposes a single-payer plan like the one Kuehl's bill would create, but the governor has not offered his own alternatives for fixing the state's health care system. As many as 7 million people are uninsured in the state, and spiraling costs have put pressure on business and consumers.

"We know the health care in place today is teetering on collapse," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. "We need to do something to improve it, to reform it, and this is what we are bringing to the table."

Predictably the insurance companies are weighing in

But eliminating health care insurance plans would eradicate the groups that have the most experience with getting people insured and to doctors, said Chris Ohman, president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans.

Ohman said other places that are trying universal health care -- such as Massachusetts and San Francisco -- are using health care plans to help facilitate the implementation. He said the insurance companies are in the best position to manage costs.

Yes they are doing such a great job of keeping costs down now.

When treating patients with real health problems, the managed care model is inherently inefficient and costly. The incentives discourage early diagnosis because gatekeepers are financially motivated to spend as little time with patients and as little money as possible. Once a significant condition is identified, specialist referrals are delayed. Yet specialist care is better, and more cost-effective, for seriously ill patients.

RICHARD AMERLING, M.D.

How forward thinking of Dr. Day and the rest of the privitization crowd to want to embrace a system shown to be inherently wrong for patients, more costly and less efficient.

Protect the bigots!!

2006-08-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

If there is anything society should have learned by now it is the of everyone bigots need the most protection. Have your human rights if you must but don't expect them to have to like or deal with it.
From the CBC

Alberta's opposition parties made good on a promise Monday to delay debate on a Tory private member's bill that would have allowed commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

Speaker Ken Kowalski chastised opposition members for eating up the time allotted for debate with procedural matters, killing backbencher Ted Morton's controversial Bill 208.

"I know what's transpired today," Kowalski told the assembly.

"There's no hope in hell this afternoon that any private member's bill is coming up."

The bill sought to protect marriage commissioners who refused to conduct same-sex marriages because of their moral or religious beliefs, and would have made it necessary for parents to give permission before any aspect of same-sex relationships is discussed in the classroom.

Morton, MLA for Foothills-Rocky View said the bill was intended to protect freedom of speech for everybody, including those who publicly oppose same-sex marriage, from being sued or fired - something he said happens in other provinces.

Next on the agenda a private members bill that would allow shopkeepers to opt out of serving anyone who isn't white, married or a priest.

Hosting, Or how I learned to stop worrying and embrance chaos

2006-08-29T09:44:00.000-04:00

Internet hosts - the new snake oil salesmen. Trying to find a reasonably priced, reliable, good tech support host is like trying to find Shangra La.
Our first experience was with a host I knew from previous experience to be fairly reliable. Didn't do so well, however, it did turn out they had a server meltdown, so benefit of the doubt and all we're moving back there.
But our current host is bloody useless. Constant database errors, useless tech support. In fact the last issue I resolved myself but they were kind enough to send me an email telling me the issue was fixed now. REALLY!!!!!!!!! Damn glad you told me. Word to the wise NEVER pay for more than a month at a time. We are losing about 200 dollars over this which none of us is in a position to do. Who is really?And so now I have to take avantage of the extremely kind tech god Steve and have him go through all the ups and downs of file and database transfers. I feel fortunate to have such kind and understanding board members who are of course also friends.

An Apple a Day

2006-08-23T17:46:00.000-04:00

Keeps the doctor away.
Or as doctors are now singing Stay away if you can't pay.
Dr. Brian Day's election to the head of the Canadian Medical Association is a pretty clear message from doctors that profits come before all else.
You would think that part of the requirements for medicine would be a good grasp of math. Why then are doctors like Dr. Day so keen on privatization as a way to help with waiting times? Surely if there are not enough doctors now to care for everyone taking doctors out of the system will result in higher wait times.
Of course this isn't about wait times, nor is it about care. It is about money those who want to charge whatever the market will bear, and those who have money and a grand sense of entitlement to have their needs placed before those of others.
The Ontario Health Coalition has fought hard to keep health care public and accessible Natalie Mehra said;

“The choice of the delegates is an unfortunate one for the majority of patients in Canada,” said Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “Brian Day has spent years advocating for the dismantling of the public health system through privatization and the de-listing of health services. These are not innovative ideas. They are old ones relentlessly pushed by the small but well-heeled group who have personal business interests in promoting privatization. We are deeply disappointed.”

It is a sad reflection on the type of society we have that medical care is seen as something that can be withheld based on one's ability to pay.

McHummers

2006-08-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

Do they hum because they don't know the words?
Words like environmentally friendly, energy efficient...
It isn't bad enough their food pollutes children's bodies, their "prizes" are models of vehicles that pollute the air the children breathe.
If you would like to send McDonalds a message and create your own sign click here

Canada?

2006-08-01T22:54:00.000-04:00

There can be no peace in the region until the militant group and Israel agree to uphold a lasting ceasefire with clear conditions, he told a packed special meeting of the Commons foreign affairs committee. "This has to be a lasting peace," he said. "It cannot be simply a temporary solution to allow for the rearmament of the terrorist body and simply begin the violence again."

Condi Rice? George Bush? Try Tory Peter MacKay.
In the lastest in the game of who can suck up more to Bush administration, the tories have shown once again there is no level to which they will not sink.
Witnesses had been invited to speak, though natuarally those chosen were the one's who showed support for the Harper administration;

"I came by myself. We didn't get invited," el-Akhras said of his attempt to speak at the committee before being led away from the table.

"He defended the act of Israel," el-Akhras said of MacKay's comments. "We want justice."

Others said witnesses chosen to speak to MPs about the evacuation were hand-picked by the Conservatives who head the committee.

Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, called the process "a charade."

He and other national Arab representatives were excluded in favour of witnesses more likely to be favourable to the Conservatives, he suggested.

"To me this is dirty politics. It's something that troubles me a great deal in a Canadian democracy that we have . . . such tricks being played just to show that the prime minister has support."

One wonders how MacKay, Harper et all can see the news reports, watch the broken bodies, too many of them children, being carried out from the rubble and still sit there smug in their self-righteousness.
How nice that our country once known for mediation, peace keeping and neutrality can now be seen as part of the coaltion of the willing. Willing to do whatever the Bush admistration says, willing to put profit before lives, willing to pass off dictatorship as democracy.
The conservatives have made it clear that they have their own agenda and that the wishes of the Canadian public have no place in that agenda.Let us hope that when the next election rolls around Canadians give these Bush jrs a swift and decisive kick out of parliment.

WalMart: Running From Workers Rights ...Always

2006-07-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

It's been a bad week for poor old WalMart.
They lost a court battle in Saskatchewan,where they were trying underhanded techniques to thwart worker unionization.

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. has lost its battle to have the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board prohibited from hearing cases related to efforts to unionize stores in the province. In a written decision, Court of Queen's Bench Mr. Justice Frank Gerein said there was "absolutely no evidence" of attempts to interfere with the operations of the labour board or to require members of the board to read certain union documents that were highly critical of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart had tried to argue the board is biased and should be prohibited from dealing with cases related to the chain. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has applied to the labour relations board for certification to represent workers at Wal-Mart stores in Weyburn, North Battleford and Moose Jaw.

And in Germany they took a loss to sell off all of their stores.

"As we focus our efforts on where we can have the greatest impact on our growth and return on investment strategies, it has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment, it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire," Michael Duke, a vice chairman of Wal-Mart, said in a statement.

Must be terrible trying to keep up in an environment where you can't treat your workers like crap and all your business practises must be above board.

The Sentimental Value of Motherhood

2006-07-06T20:07:00.000-04:00

I was recently watching a comedy show where the comedian started talking about how Hollywood treats the Irish. He said you only need to look at the movie the Titanic to see that the Irish are expendable but of great sentimental value.

I thought that a very apt description of mothers, mothering and motherhood especially under the new conservatism that is ensnaring society. While women are to now consider themselves pre-pregnant, abortion as a right is being threatened, and motherhood is touted as the be all and end all, little is being done to really support those who choose to be mothers.

While women drop out of the workforce even for short periods of time to have children their male counterparts are going on to achieve greater gains by not having to take time off. Though there are laws on the books to encourage fair hiring practises in reality women are often asked questions about marriage, motherhood and childcare, and certainly not in any positive sense. As well though we are fortunate in Canada to have a maternity benefits program there are still restrictions on number of hours worked in the last year, and the amount of benefit is only to a maximum of 55% of your income or $413 a week, whichever is less. You must have worked a minimum of 600 hours prior to your claim, more if your employment is sporadic or you recently joined the workforce.

Daycare programs that would enable mothers to work are woefully short of spaces; even fewer are programs, which cater to mothers who work shifts. Promises have been made for decades without any real movement and the current government’s agenda is to put daycare even further back on the list. The $1200 payment they offered as daycare plan is seriously flawed. [1]

Excerpt from an informative paper on childcare;

If the democratic and civic function of a child care centre were fully applied, the choice of moving to an industrialized area that is unsafe for children would not come up, since from the outset, we would not have created areas that are unsafe for humans. Nor would a child care centre adopt sectarian values because the search for the common good runs counter to sectarianism. We would know that we have to adopt holistic strategies, adapted to the different learning methods and living conditions of the children, because we would know that all people have specific characteristics that strengthen the group and ensure its survival over time.
Child care centres would link up with the other services and programs in the community, since it is only in that way that they can facilitate the transitions, ensure the continuity of services, and reflect a shared vision. Finally, we would treat all members of the group – children and adults – as well as the group itself as equally important, since the individual cannot exist without the group, nor can the group exist without the individual.

The concepts of community, of all working together for a common goal, of supporting families and incorporating the concepts of ensuring universal access to quality childcare in order that women are free to participate in the workforce without penalty, are foreign to any of our current governments. All emphasis is put on running government as a business forgetting the common good is the government’s business. A government which truly supported mothers and children would see universal childcare centres central to supporting mothers as a reality and not motherhood as sentimentality.

The stigma of single parenthood falls squarely on the shoulders of women. When was the last time you saw a study devoted to how unmarried fathers negatively affect children’s lives? Or cuts the taxpayers money. It is somewhat surprising that scientific studies haven’t been conducted to find out how these women are getting pregnant on their own. When single fathers are mentioned at all it is to laud them for doing so well without a mother in the house. Yet single mothers are under a constant microscope to do not as well as a two parent family, but even better.

Politicians can vent about single mothers and welfare rolls not only with impunity, but also with assurance it will gain them votes. This is how we respect mothers who have left abusive situations? By cutting funding to shelters, cutting welfare payments and assuming that everyone on welfare is trying to cheat the system? We reward those who (in accordance with conservative beliefs) choose to keep their child by calling them immoral and not wanting to provide them with the extra supports they will need to continue their education in order to find decent paying future employment? Widows are treated no better despite the sentimentality on that subject as well.

And after a life of caring for others, of losing out on the fast track, of taking ‘low power’ positions how are mothers rewarded? With pensions that in too many cases leave them in poverty and a Hallmark card vision of what being a grandmother means. And though our society sentimentalizes grandmothers it does little to ensure their well being, instead leaving them to finish their days on the street, in small rooms or warehoused in low cost nursing homes where death may well be a welcome relief.

Sentimentality is what we offer when we try make ourselves believe we care for those who care for others, instead of facing the reality that we are a society unwilling to take care of the caregivers.

[1] [http://www.caledoninst.org/ The Incredible Shrinking $1,200 Child Care Allowance: How to Fix It, Ken Battle, April 2006]

P3 or Private, Profiteering, Propaganda

2006-06-29T22:29:00.000-04:00

I’ve been studying various documents for quite some time in order to blog about P3’s. I’ve read documents on schools, hospitals, utilities, and roads and in each and every instance there has been more cost to the taxpayer, erosion of service, job loss, wages rolled back, and loss of public control and government accountability.

The statistics and reports are quite astounding. Take this one for instance:

Between October 2003 and July 2004, housekeeping services in all 32 hospitals in the Lower Mainland

and southern Vancouver Island were privatized (see Table 1). Many of the same hospitals and some LTC

facilities also contracted out their dietary, security, and laundry services during this period. (Not all regional

health authorities or health care employers in BC chose the privatization route: the Interior and Northern

health authorities did not privatize support services; the northern end of Vancouver Island was also left

in-house.) By March 2004, approximately 6,500 housekeeping, food, laundry, and security workers affiliated

with the HEU and the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union had lost their jobs; another 2,000

were gone by July 2004.

This wholesale dismantling of in-house health support services has no Canadian parallel. The closest

match is Alberta, where two of Calgary’s four hospitals privatized their housekeeping services; however,

Calgary chose to introduce changes over an extended period. In BC the rate and pace of change were

stunning: 8,500 health care support jobs vanished from the public sector in under a year.

--snip--

Not surprisingly, these blatantly involuntary partnership agreements between

Local 1-3567 and the companies had a number of negative features. The

agreements run for six years, unlike the typical labour contract of two to

three years’ duration. The 2003 Aramark/IWA Local 1-3567 agreement for

health care started a housekeeping aide at $9.50/hr, rising to $11.21/hr after six years.5 The median wage

for housekeeping aides across the three IWA Local 1-3567 agreements with Aramark, Compass, and Sodexho

was $10.25/hr.6 In comparison, the wage for the same job under the HEU’s Health Support Subsector

collective agreement was $18.32/hr – 79 per cent higher than the privatized rate.

Contracting out effectively wiped out more than 30 years of pay-equity gains for British Columbian

women in health housekeeping jobs.7 Further, the province went from being a national leader in pay

rates for health support services to being the lowest in the country, significantly lower than the Canadian

average. In 2003, a privatized cleaner in a BC hospital was earning 26 per cent less than the national

average union wage for the job.8 This decline in income is especially punishing in light of the high cost

of living in Vancouver, where housing costs are steeper than anywhere else in the country.9

--snip—

Despite these absences, the majority of our participants said they were reluctant to take time off for health

problems. Just under half of our participants said they would call in sick only if they were incapable of

working. Some reported to work despite poor health. One housekeeper worked with the flu because her

contractor was very short of staff; another ignored an injured knee and, after three months, was in considerable

pain.

Their reasons suggest a corporate strategy of discouraging paid sick time by pitting the worker’s physical

well-being against their economic survival. Many workers said their employer had a strict requirement

to provide a physician’s note if they called in sick, even for one day. The deterrent is obvious: getting

an appointment on short notice is not easy, some physicians charge money for notes, and sick people

often don’t feel like getting out of bed to see a doctor. A lead-hand housekeeper spoke proudly about challenging the company’s policy of requiring a note after one day’s illness. As a result, a note is necessary only after an absence of two days or longer.

Workers were aware that repeated absences could be grounds for dismissal.

“Nobody wants to call in sick because they’re afraid,” said a cleaner and

former in-house worker. “Now if you’re sick two times and go home, that’s it. You’re fired.”

From a patient perspective it is just as scary. 10% of patients leaving British PFI hospitals are malnourished, cleaning staff have been cut back to the point that hospital infections are running rampant and leading to preventable deaths.

Schools built in the P3 style are at the mercy of corporations. They want to make money above all else. This has resulted in school activities being cancelled and/or costing significantly more as gym rentals cost so much more. Most parents are concerned about good nutrition for their children and that their kids not be subjected to advertisements while in school. Unfortunately parents have little or no say. The P3 owners make contracts and the schools must accept them. Many schools are finding that construction was badly done and school boards are on the hook for repairs. In at least one instance children were not allowed to hang artwork or play on the grass, as this would depreciate company property.

The 407 Highway in Ontario is a P3. Leased for 99 years to a private consortium the government has little or no say about tolls, safety or any of the other problems associated with the highway.

On June 9^th 2006 highway 401 was tied up for four hours:

…..when a private clean-up crew demanded payment up front before it would clean up a diesel spill. "Whenever we are doing anything on the highway, we have to be sure we're going to get paid," Bob Chabot, owner of Centennial Sweepers, told the media. "We can no longer afford to subsidize the province of Ontario."

Because of situations like this the government is reconsidering these contracts right? Wrong! In fact:

Earlier this year, former Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar announced pilot projects for so-called 'Area Term Contracts' (ATCs) for provincial highways. Unlike the current Area Maintenance Contracts, which generally last five years and cover only basic road upkeep, ATCs will last up to 20 years and cover not only maintenance but also all road reconstruction and rehabilitation.

"Under the government’s plan, giant corporate entities will have total control over every aspect of our highways – except paying for them," says O’Brien. "That will be left to taxpayers. We’ll have to pay a pretty penny, because there is no way a company can risk signing a 20-year contract without making sure its expenses and its profits are secured by a fat cushion of our tax dollars."

The appeal of P3 for governments is that it allows them to hide debt and have the public believe they are keeping to budget however, it will end up costing the taxpayer much more over the long run, gives us less control over public areas and in Feb. Standard & Poor's:

…lowered the authority's credit rating (down to 'AA+' from 'AAA') because of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD)'s increasing debt: a projected $5.5 billion by 2009.The downgrading is directly linked to expensive P3s such as the rapid transit line from the airport to downtown Vancouver (RAV) line) and the Golden Ears bridge. P3 projects result in much higher costs and less accountability for taxpayers."Early in the planning process, regional politicians were told P3s would hide debt, but accounting rules don't allow this," CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill said. "Now that debt is on the books for projects that are as much as 25 per cent over budget projections."

P3 stands for Public, Private, Partnership. Private, Profiteering, Propaganda is far more apt a name.

I encourage everyone to read as much about this subject as you can and to write to the appropriate level of government every time you hear of a P3 situation. The money you save may be your own.

My Body, My Choice

2006-06-22T20:17:00.000-04:00

Politics and anatomy. What do the two have to do with each other? Little. Unless of course your anatomy happens to include a womb.

Why are politicians so concerned about how, when, why or where women have sex? Why do they take upon themselves the right to legislate control over our reproduction?

I don't think it has much to do with their "faith". I don't think it is a concern for the amounts paid to welfare, or a concern for the health and well being of the female electorate, nor even a concern for the wee babes.

No I think it has to do with keeping status quo.

Control over reproduction has allowed women control over when, or if to have babies, and therefore, has raised their levels of personal and social autonomy.This autonomy has allowed women to be a great force for change. It has allowed them to enter politics, though there are still major barriers, and help advance rights for women, minorities, gays, the disabled. In short as women's rights surged forward, so too did the rights of others. Barriers were recognized and started to come down.

Women are still the front line defence of the family. It is they who tend the sick, calender the appointments, cook, clean, and because of these things they are aware of the needs not being meet by current systems.

Many women lobby for extended benefits, for healthcare, for education, a living wage, for the things that allow people to have knowledge and time to challenge the status quo. This is threatening for men who are used to being power brokers. Men who gather on golf courses to arrange deals that benefit themselves.

Is it just coincidence that the highly conservative governments of both Canada and America have brought in tax changes which require the lowest incomes to pay more while providing cuts to the highest income earners?

Tax cuts mean less revenue, less revenue means less money to spend and the first things to go are those programs which help the lower and middle classes and women in particular. Daycare and other programs which are directed toward children also suffer. Naturally without daycare women have difficulty getting work.

Many states are now bringing in bills to overturn Roe V Wade. Some do not even have provision for exemption for rape, incest or loss of life.

So if you turn to the hospital for an ectopic pregnancy you will be turned away, as to save your life would require ending the pregnancy. Hope your affairs are in order.

If a 12 year old girl finds herself pregnant by her father, she will be forced to carry that child to term.

If you are raped, you will have to bear your rapists baby, after all it isn't the baby's fault.

Of course birth control will be made cheap and easy to get right? Wrong! Viagra may be covered on drug programs but not birth control. Good girls don't have sex and if they do it is with the purpose of reproducing. Why else would the CDC be telling women to treat themselves as pre pregnant? Is it because they are preparing women for upcoming change. A change which will see women no longer in control of their reprodution but instead having it controlled by the state. Kind of like the one child policy, but in reverse.

With little access to birth control, daycare or other support systems, women will once again find themselves more controlled by their womb than their will.

Without a choice in reproduction it will be harder still for women to enter politics, to try create change, to have a say in their own lives.

America still believes firmly that ' father knows best' little wonder then that in this prevailing storm of patriarchy women's rights and freedoms are blowing in the wind. This is all backed by fundamentalist churchs of course who see it as our god given duty to both breed and obey. It is easy for them with their money from the faithful and a ready ear from politicians to lobby against human rights. It is much harder for the average woman trying to hold a job, mother her kids, keep her home in order, and still be a partner (or if single act as both partners) to lobby for them.

Studies have shown that societies which value women and in which women have a voice are more free, more egalitarian, healthier and even wealthier. It would seem like all socieites would want to strive for this. Lets not forget though that fundamentalists do not want a society where women and gays have equal rights or any rights. The ruling classes do not want any threat from the lower classes and health is seen as a commodity to buy and sell.

Power corrupt governments of various times and countries have used control of women's reproduction to further their own ends.

Whether you are left or right wing, whether you see yourself as a person of faith or not, whether you see yourself as a feminist or not, women must bond together and fight against this attack upon our person.

In America, write to your various levels of government and let them know you will not vote for anyone seeking control of your body. In Canada, write your MP and CC the leaders of all the parties.

Father's Day

2006-06-18T11:37:00.000-04:00

Fathers Day naturally brings memories of my father. Though he died shortly before my 8th birthday he had and still has a strong influence on my life.
Neither my mother nor my father ever treated me as a child per se. I was treated as a person who had not yet learned certain things, and my quest for knowledge was always indulged.
My father would often buy me books. I can remember how exciting it was to come downstairs to breakfast and find a book waiting there for me. To this day I have a love of books and of reading. For me one of life’s small pleasures is the smell and feel of a brand new book.
Having fought in the Second World War both my parents while having a strong sense of duty, also taught me to question those in authority.
My father felt that the only way to avoid the atrocities of the war was to keep our leaders accountable to the people at all time and in all things. In some ways I am glad he is not here to see the way the current leaders are behaving. I know that he would feel his efforts in the war had been squandered.
My father also taught me the value of truth. He would say that adherence to honesty forces you to think about your thoughts and actions. Many of those currently in power could use this valuable lesson.
Though he came from a time and place where he may well have been excused for not being so he was a great feminist. He thought sports as important for girls as for boys, he thought education a must for girls he felt it gave them a chance to see a future outside of marriage and childbearing. Not of course that he had anything against marriage or children, however he thought it wrong for young girls to see that as their only option.
I miss my father most especially on this day, the lessons he hadn’t yet taught, the stories he hadn’t yet told, most of all on this day I miss the love he gave me.

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's and especially to Mike who not only is a great dad to the four children we have together but took on a ready made family of myself and two kids and never made any difference between them.

Support Six Nations Call for a Just and Peaceful Resolution at Caledonia

2006-06-13T19:07:00.000-04:00

Rally!
Sat June 17th, 1-4pm.
Queen's Park, Toronto

Speakers
Drummers
Ceremony of well-being.

Bring a noisemaker.
Bring a donation of dry/canned food for the reclamation camp at
Caledonia.
Bring many people with you! Families, kids, friends, everyone.

Back the call for Canada to engage in nation-to-nation negotiations in
good faith.
Support the Six Nations non-violent stand in Caledonia against over 200
years of duplicity.

And that Saturday evening, the rally organizers invite you to their
Humanist Movement seasonal party (potluck)
Annex Art Centre, 1073 Bathurst St.
8pm.

For more info:
sisis.nativeweb.org

www.humanistmovement.ca

Local Health Integration Networks

2006-06-13T14:14:00.000-04:00

82% of the province has never heard of LHINs or don’t know what they are. You would think then that the province would be doing all they could to ensure that all Ontarians have a chance to learn about, and have input into this system. Perhaps even have a chance to vote on whether or not this is the direction they want their health care system to be going.

Unfortunately, the government isn’t interested in public input and is steamrolling ahead with Bill 36 regardless of the fact that few voters know what it is about, that it opens the door to privatization, that workers stand to lose their jobs, or that health care may become decidedly less accessible for many.

During a public meeting in Port Perry the chair of the Central East LHIN, Foster Loucks, said, “The health care system doesn’t belong to the LHIN board or the province, it belongs to the people and this process has to be driven from the bottom up.”[1] He also stated, “We are accessible, we want to hear from you and we need your assistance.”

These are interesting statements given that at the same meeting he mentioned that only 16% of Ontarians had any idea what the LHINs are about.

LHINs have responsibility for:

Hospitals
Long-term Care Homes
Community Care Access Centres
Community Health Centres
Community Mental Health and Addiction Agencies
Community Support Service Organizations (personal assistance and homemaking)

LHINs do not cover:

Public Health
Physicians
Ambulance Services
Labs

Much of this is being done to “control costs” however the two costliest items in our health care basket are pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. These costs rose from 18% to 24% of our hospital budgets in just six years. The other great factor is “wait times”. It is rare to hear anyone other than bureaucrats and those trying to privatize the system talk about wait times.

In response to what the province feels are the procedures with the greatest wait times it has created a list of five items:

§ Cataracts

§ Hip Replacement

§ Knee Replacement

§ Cancer Surgeries

§ Cardiac Procedures

These procedures will be bid on by hospitals and decisions will be made on which hospital came in with the best bid for the most procedures.

A cataract clinic has already been opened in Toronto. All cataract procedures previously done in the four large teaching hospitals are now being sent to this clinic. In all they will perform 6700 surgeries per year. Surgeries are done on an assembly line basis with 20 minutes per patient allotted.

Ontarians might well wonder why their minister of health feels comfortable sending them into an assembly line to have serious procedures performed.

There are currently three rooms open in this clinic; a fourth one has yet to be used. Is this fourth room waiting to be used by patients who can afford to pay to skip ahead?

Ontario is now offering $740 to those performing cataract surgery, Dr Allan Hudson who has been hired by the government to “study” wait times boasts, “I can tell you, you can get way below $600 on this.”

When they get “well below $600, will the patient be required to pick up the extra cost? Will support staff be cut? Will patients only get 15mins of a doctor’s time? The difference will have to come from somewhere.

Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Smitherman are quite content to allow both non and for profit clinics to take on procedures we are accustomed to having in hospital, however there is evidence that private clinics do not produce cost savings.

“The fact is, there is no evidence private clinics are moreefficient or less costly," McNaught says. Recent research (CMAJ2004;170[12]:1817-24) shows that payments for care in privatefor-profit hospitals in the US cost on average 19% more thanin their non-profit counterparts. And, last May, the BMJ reportedthat surgical services contracted out to private clinics inthe UK in order to reduce waiting lists cost taxpayers, on average,40% more.[2]

Private clinics have also been shown to have higher negative outcomes and higher rates of mortality.

It is well documented that private clinics cost more and therefore will be a drain on the public health purse, forcing us to first pay through our taxes and then pay again at the source. What has not been as well documented is that this new level of bureaucracy (LHIN) does not serve as a cost cutting measure either as LHINs will drain our health care resources of $55 million dollars. This is money, which is going straight to administrative costs. That is an expensive buffer between the voter and the government, a buffer, which while promoted to serve the interests of the community, is in fact not governed by the community to any degree. LHINs do not follow political boundries neither is there anyone that the voter can hold accountable. When mistakes are made it is very convenient that the government can blame the LHINs and the populace can do nothing.

Mr. Smitherman has been quoted as saying, in regard to the current system, that, “We don’t even actually know exactly what we’re buying.” If they do not know what they are buying how can they decide they are not getting good value for their dollar?

If they do not know what they are buying then surely their system of accounting and accountability should be first to change.

Health service providers are also held hostage to the LHINs as any decisions they make are subject to a 30-day period of appeal and if the appeal is unsuccessful the decision is then final. 30 days hardly seems like a reasonable amount of time to counter such complex situations.

A quick perusal of the LHIN maps shows that they are not in fact local but cover large areas. The Central East LHIN stretches from Algonquin to Scarborough, the South West, North East and North West LHINs also cover vast distances.

You can see your LHIN area by going to this address http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/lhin/lhinmap_mn.html

In a time when headlines warn us of pandemics, SARS, and other highly communicable diseases, does it make sense that we are to be forced to travel such great distances between numerous communities for health care?

Who will be footing the bill for this travel? And what about those with no car?

Does this system truly achieve integration? Experience in Britain has shown that competition among hospitals and against private clinics has led to a focus on contracts and contract performance rather than a focus on patient needs. Integration has also not occurred in regards to support staff. As each facility strives to cut costs support staff are often the first to suffer cuts and as contracts move around so do the jobs, which are offered at lower and lower rates of pay with benefits disappearing.

In the British system rates of infection have skyrocketed and the quality of hospital food has declined so badly that 10% of seriously ill patients where found to be suffering from malnutrition upon release from hospital.

Though 89% of those surveyed are against privatization the British Health Authorities continue to award contracts to private enterprise to the detriment of the health care system and those who try to access it.

HMO’s such as United Healthcare are even making their way into Britain. How long will it be before foreign interests control our health care system? With the introduction of private clinics NAFTA challenges can hardly be far behind.

Public health offices, ambulance services, labs and physicians must be part of any integrated system. How can this government even consider such changes and yet make no provision for these vitals areas to be considered? If a community hospital is turned into a long-term care facility where will people go for emergency care? What measures have been put in place to prevent spread of disease? Who will be staffing the hospitals if doctors leave to staff freestanding clinics?

Far too many questions have yet to be answered. Far too many people are still unaware of this legislation and it’s implications.

This government did not campaign on and has been given no mandate to, completely restructure the way health care is provided in this province. The rush to push this through and fact that they are backed so enthusiastically by those who wish to see two tier health care should be a warning to us all.

[1] http://www.axiomnews.ca/NewsArchives/2006/May/May1.htm

[2] http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/172/2/167

Who me?

2006-06-11T17:20:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by skdadl so now I must tell 8 random things about myself. Oh dear!

I'm very short only 5 feet tall.
I met Ed Broadbent at a Scottish Highland Games in Oshawa, when I was about 19, and was so shocked I couldn't utter a word.
I had a C-section sans anesthetic ( the epidural needle hadn't been inserted properly)
I love steak and beer.
I've always wanted to have letters after my name.
I love to sing, but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
I love anything creative...gardening, cooking, decorating, and someday want to be able to experiment with painting.
I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

I tag Melissa

LHINs

2006-06-06T10:55:00.000-04:00

April Reign

I've been asked for more information on LHINs so I am in the process of putting together an article on Bill 36, geographic regions covered, and possible outcomes.

At this time I'm searching out legal opinions on the legislation.

Hope to have something put together in about a week. Of course it will depend on how easy it is to find information.

Crisis In Health Care

2006-06-04T11:02:00.000-04:00

I’ve deliberately chosen a provocative title for this article, as it is a tactic so often employed by those who are in fact causing the erosion of our single payer, universal, Medicare system.

The most recent report to come out on the Canadian system of health care delivery was published in the May 30 2006 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

Their study showed the following;

over 85% of Canadians have a family doctor, fewer than 80% of Americans do
5.1% of Canadians are unable to pay for needed medication, the US rate was double
13.2% of Americans had unmet health needs as compared to 10.7% of Canadians

“So it would suggest that a universal coverage system is acting to ameliorate some of the discrepancies that are otherwise found in our society.” [1]

The World Health Organization notes that the US spends 15 cents of every healthcare dollar on administration expenses, a Canadian system by contrast uses only 4 cents out of every dollar for administrative costs. If the US moved to a Canadian system their country would save $280 billion dollars a year.

Support for the current system often comes from unexpected sources, for instance, Fraser Institute economist Herb Emery says that private insurance will not reduce costs to the public system, but will reduce access for the vast majority of Canadians. The Canadian Stock Exchange strongly supports universal health care as it gives us a strong economic advantage over the US and encourages investment in Canada.

“As a former premier, Mr. Romanow understood that many arguing for private alternatives were offering the excuse that “our health care costs are eating everything else up.” But he also understood the facts, which clearly show that whether we are compared to the US or the European hybrid experiences, our Canadian single- payer model—even without the major overhaul Mr. Romanow recommended – still provides the best bang for the buck”[2]

With all this information and even large corporations such as the American auto manufactures supporting our method of health care delivery, why are so many trying to convince us otherwise?

Listening to the critics of Medicare, one soon catches on to some key words and ideas. Choice, consumer, alternatives, these are all buzzwords which try to change our thinking from health care as a right to health care as a commodity.

“This shift is evident in the ‘marketization’ of social discourse and social programs… Universities, hospitals, and clients as consumers. But, while citizens have right and duties conferred by the state-and benefits that accrue from these rights-customers have only choices that are defined by their purchasing power. This change from citizen to customer has the potential of undermining the social fabric of the community. It undermines and encourages public institutions to abandon their social obligations.”[3]

Clearly there is support for us moving towards the user pay system. Think of that 280 billion dollars mentioned earlier. There are fortunes waiting to be made and those waiting are not standing idly by. They are doing everything in their power to lobby our governments and to weaken public confidence in the current system.

In the United States the health industry spent more than $300 million dollars on lobbying in 2003, and have contributed $300 million on campaign contributions since 2000.

On the Charter Health Fund [4] website you will find this claim, “In British Columbia, health care costs now consume 43% of the total provincial budget - up from 30% in 1995. A similar situation exists across the country and the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation estimates that unless action is taken, 100% of provincial revenues will be consumed by health care within 2 to 3 decades.” These numbers appear staggering and one would think that economic collapse is imminent, however, as these figures from Ontario show these types of claims do not provide full information.

“…a closer look reveals that total program and operational spending have declined in real per capita dollars. What this means is that while health spending has stayed relatively constant over the decade studied, the rest of the provincial budget has shrunk. It is tax cuts, not health spending that is “eating up the provincial budget.”

In 1994 health care spending as a percentage of provincial revenue was 40.4%, in 2003 it had shrunk to 37.9% without the tax cuts it would have shrank dramatically to 32.5% [5]

Dr. Brian Day is president of the Charter Health Fund, he is also president elect of the Canadian Medical Association [ a vocal lobby group which represents more than 60,000 medical professionals across Canada.] and is part owner and medical director of Canada’s largest for profit medical centre.

Dr. Day was also instrumental in raising money and otherwise supporting the Chaoulli Supreme Court case. Who better then to head the CMA, which is calling for a two-tier health care system? Claiming the current system is ‘ill’ and that only by allowing doctors to opt out and wealthy patients to pay for their own care is the system going to be healed.

Britain has been working with a two tier system and this is what Michael Meacher [British Labour Party] has to say;

“There are two things wrong with this whole approach. First, it’s the wrong mode; there is no evidence that private-sector health is more efficient, cost effective or better-managed, or even that it provides net additional resources. Rather it is ideologically driven, and bought at a high price in terms of the enormous transaction costs and waste that the market has generated. What is needed instead is a genuine public-service model. That does mean tackling the delays and queues that were allowed to develop: partly by the huge extra resourcing steadily coming onstream; partly by greater internal management transparency to drive up standards; and partly by stronger local democratic involvement and a rigorous system of complaints and redress. But at the same time it means restoring the principals of comprehensiveness, universality and equity – and the professional morale that goes with them-that the market has subverted.”[6]

Britain has also been dealing with PFI’s, known as P3’s in Ontario. P3’s mean public infrastructure like roads, schools and hospitals will no longer be public institutions instead there will be for profit ownership of public infrastructure and services. Corporations finance the building and delivery of services and get paid by the public through taxes and other fees. They build it own it and we pay for it. In Britain P3’s cost 53 million pounds just for consultants, and resulted in 30% fewer hospital beds and 25% reduction in staff budgets.

P3’s mean less accountability. In a P3 hospital in Cumberland shortcuts in construction and design lead to;

Two ceilings collapsing narrowly missing maternity patients
A sewage system which could not cope with number of users, flooded operating theatre with sewage
Clerical and laundry staff unable work in their offices because they are too small
A transparent roof and no air conditioning means temperatures on sunny days can reach over 33C

In Nova Scotia P3 school deals exempt for profit owners and builders from any legal responsibility for poor construction, wiring or plumbing problems. In a Halifax P3 students and staff used bottled water for over 12 months as the for- profit owners accepted no responsibility for dealing with arsenic in the water supply. In another instance in New Brunswick students were not allowed to hang artwork on the walls or play on the grass as this might “damage the company’s asset”.

Community groups are also affected. The cost of renting a double gym in a P3 school is $75 dollars an hour, contrasted with the publicly held school gym which charges $7.50/hour for a single gym used for youth programs and $30/hour for adult groups.

Also in New Brunswick volunteer labour by parents was required when the P3 school decided it was not their responsibility to unload furniture into the school. “While public-private partnerships are often said to promote ‘the best of both worlds’, for taxpayers they have come to mean public risk for private profit.”[7]

P3’s work no better for hospitals than they do for schools. The PEI government upon realizing that the P3 hospital would cost more abandoned the idea. Brampton didn’t fare nearly as well. The William Osler Health Centre cost $174 million dollars more than if it had been built through public means, came in behind schedule and was smaller than originally planned.

Already there have been labour issues with the P3 trying to cut costs through outsourcing and reassigning of duties. While CUPE Local 146 successfully resolved that issue, it stands as evidence as to the nature of how these institutions will be run. P3’s are really just a way to backdoor privatization.

The Ontario Health Coalition [8] has run plebiscites in Hamilton, St. Catherine’s and St. Sault Marie more are planned. In all 80,000 Ontarians have voted and results from each city thus far have been overwhelmingly in favour of keeping their hospitals public.

These were the results; 97.7% in Hamilton, 98% in St. Catherine’s and 96.2% in St. Sault Marie. These figures combined with these quotes from Mr. McGuinty make one wonder why he is in fact moving ahead with these P3’s:

“We believe in public ownership and financing. I will take these hospitals and bring them inside the public sector.” (May 28^th 2003)

“I’m calling on Mr Eves to halt any contract signings when it comes to P3’s. I stand against the Americanization of our hospitals.” (Sept. 26^th 2003).

“It does not matter who delivers health care it matters that everyone can receive it.”[9]

In fact it matters greatly who delivers our health care. Under the terms of the NAFTA agreement anything other than a fully public system requires us to open the way for US based companies to compete for our health care dollars.

We must not allow the profiteers to force us into a system, which would add to our country’s debt and drastically change our way of life. We must remind our federal and provincial governments their responsibilities are to the people of this country and to its welfare.

Continuing the theme of treating patients as consumers the Ontario government is also pushing through Bill 36.[10]

“There are some significant dangers in this legislation. While it specifies how the LHINSs, Ministry and cabinet can exercise their powers to order restructuring and indemnifies them from liability for those decisions, it is short on provisions for democratic control, public input, public notice, and principals to guide this health restructuring. For those of us who support an enhanced and strengthened public non-profit healthcare system, this legislation does nothing to extend the public health system or promote non-profit health care. In fact, the legislation promotes privatization in several ways and facilitates the spread of competitive bidding through the hospital system”[11]

The government freely admits it is changing health care from a universal needs based system to one of corporation and consumer.

From the Ontario LHIN FAQ:

“When the LHIN’s are up and running, it is expected that the ministry would function more like the headquarters of a major corporation.”

Governments are not corporations. Governments have a responsibility to care for and listen to the citizens they represent.

Politicians are public servants. We are the public and we have every right to expect our government to serve our needs, not the needs of those who can spend millions of dollars on lobbyists whose objective it is to make them forget their obligation.

Appointed boards will head LHIN’s; these boards are to be hand picked by the government and answerable only to the government, not the community they serve.

When the LHIN’s are in place decisions will be made as to which hospitals can provide the most surgeries for the lowest price, the first five considerations will be:

Cancer Surgery
Cardiac Procedures
Cataracts
Hip Replacement
Knee Replacement

In the case of the Central East LHIN the population area runs from Algonquin Park to

Scarborough. A senior in Haliburton may be forced to travel, at their own expense, from their home to a hospital in Scarborough for care. Not because it is the earliest opening, but because it is their only choice.

As contracts will be awarded on a competitive bidding basis, services may not stay at any one hospital. This will result in upheavals for all health care providers involved in your treatment. They will have to reapply for work as contracts end, and may have to relocate if their area of expertise moves to another city or town.

A January 2006, Vector Research poll showed that 82% of Ontarians know little or nothing about LHIN’s.

If the public is unaware of LHIN legislation, how are they to know that their health care may soon require more out of pocket expense? “Drugs and medical devices are key areas where new user fees may be introduced as health services are transferred out of hospitals. Patients could potentially pay for entire services out of pocket, which is permitted under the LHINs legislation (section 25.3 of the Act).”[12]

No indication has been given that the government has thought how seniors, who no

longer drive, or any patient who is without a car would travel such long distances for care. No thought seems to have been given to how follow up or emergency aftercare is that same long distance away. No thought seems to have been given to the fact that patients may now be required to have surgery and recover in a community far from home, without friends or family able to visit, and of course no thought or concern seems to have been given as to how patients are to cover these new expenses or to how these changes will affect health care providers. Although these are the initial five considerations, eventually all health care will be subject to these conditions, including maternity care.

At this point there has been talk that women will have ‘booked’ delivery dates. On those dates they will be expected to turn up at hospital to be induced or deliver by C-section. Both these procedures carry much higher risks for both mother and child. Because of the higher risk these types of deliveries require more interventions, so that cost of birth will be considerably higher and births will also be riskier. No doubt that will soon become apparent and more cost will be downloaded onto patients.

The LHIN’s obviously are not local neither are they integrated. Their umbrella does not cover;

Physicians
Ambulance
Laboratories
Independent Health Facilities
Homes for Special Care
Public Health
Provincial Drug Programs

Why have these vital portions of the health care system been left out?

If the government were serious about wanting to amalgamate all areas of health care into one cohesive package it would not be leaving out these essential areas.

The government is in fact dealing solely with illness management and not with preventative structures that would actually help alleviate costs to the healthcare system by keeping us healthy to begin with.

Clean water, good housing, clear air, proper nutrition, prenatal care, access to addiction counselling, good jobs, adequate social assistance payments, all contribute to good health outcomes. Is the government putting in place legislations to deal with these important issues? As long as governments do nothing to ensure good health, health care needs will continue to rise.

As long as nothing is done about smog, asthma rates will continue to rise, as long as nothing is done about pollutants in our environment, cancers will continue to flourish, as long as nothing is done to help alleviate homelessness, diseases of poverty such as TB will continue to rise, as long as voters allow government to focus on health care costs and not the serious issues affecting our health, nothing will be done to deal with the root causes of rising health care needs.

We must fight to ensure that our voices are heard; that governments remember whom it is they serve; that health care does not go backwards to a time when want of money also meant want of service. We cannot allow our governments to disregard democracy.

And yet more Random Blathering

2006-05-31T16:11:00.000-04:00

Still working on the healthcare article. There is just so much information to sift through.

Amazingly enough it turns out that save for those who have a vested interest in forcing us to pay for what we now get for free, our healthcare system is a standard for many.

If the US were to adopt our system it would save their country $280 billion dollars.

Not exactly chump change.

"Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States," the Institute said. Therefore, "By 2010, everyone in the United States should have health insurance...

I should mention the above quote comes from here
Good news on the Canadian medical front. Now that the CMA has been hijacked by the for profit types a new organization has been founded, Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
From their website;

CDM - Vision and Mission
A responsive, sustainable publicly funded healthcare system exists as the highest expression of Canadians caring for one another.

The mission of CDM is to provide a voice for Canadian doctors who believe in and support Canada's publicly funded system for physician and hospital care, and who reject private insurance and direct payment for these medically necessary services.

Finally for those that can don't forget the anti P3 rally this Sat. June 3rd. @ Queens Park. 12:30

Random blathering

2006-05-26T11:10:00.000-04:00

So I started a new board, Bread and Roses

Leftwing and feminist naturally.

If you are looking for a place to discuss politics, news, books, pretty much anything check it out.

I'm also working on a post about the LHIN's. For anyone who hasn't heard of them, and it isn't like the government is putting the word out, it means Local Health Integration Network.

Don't let the "local" fool you. Our LHIN stretchs from Algonquin to Scarborough and takes in 1,459,800 or 11.8% of Ontario's population. Anyway more on that to come.

If you live in Ontario and can get to Queen's Park on Saturday June 3rd there will be a rally against P3 hospitals. I believe it starts at 12:30.

Will add more later.

Fat is a Feminist Issue

2006-05-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

Fat is a Feminist Issue

I have long thought there is a corelation between poverty and obesity.

Seems to me that people know how to eat healthly they just are unable to.

Apparently I was correct in this assumption as a number of studies have been done showing that people are more likely to be obese the lower their level of income.

I think of it like this.

At one time white breads, sugars, cakes the goodies lets call them were only available to the rich and chubbiness was seen as good.

The poor had whole grain breads, berries collected from local fields and forests, porridges, fish from local streams

Then something happened, the way we lived changed, the foods available changed and the medical field realized that the diet the poor were eating was healthier than what the rich were eating.

After a time whole grain foods became the expensive items, root and cruciferous vegetables became more expensive, and the poor were left with the nutritionally challenged foods such as hot dogs, kraft dinner, and other high calorie "filler foods".

there are a number of studies and news articles on this site.
http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_the_us/hunger&obesity.htm

Some of which point to the fact that when young people (most studies focus on girls) are given nutritious school lunches or their families are given food stamps the incidence of obesity decreases.

Quote:

The best evidence now is that the child nutrition programs contribute to reducing obesity in this country, rather than exacerbating the obesity problem. Broadening access to the programs is a part of the solution, not a part of the obesity problem.
http://www.frac.org/html/news/090503obesity_reduction.htm

Recently there was a study on Having it All one of the "benefits" of being a working mom was a lower incidence of obesity. Could this in fact be due to a higher household income?

There is a quote from one of the links that of course I can't find now that says it is too easy to tell the poor to subsist on rice and beans, but why should they be denied the fruits and vegetables and other foodstuffs just as vital to a good diet?

This is also a good quote;

Quote:

"The rich can afford to be thin in America, and the poor can't," says Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the school of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

"If you make a decent income and decide to lose some weight, you can eat grilled chicken, salads and fresh mango, and play a little tennis," says Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington-Seattle. "But a person in a lower-paying job or working two or three jobs is in no position to do that.

"To suggest to the lower middle class or poor that they eat a diet filled with foods like red snapper, radicchio, fresh tomatoes, baby lamb chops, olive oil and merlot wine is blatant economic elitism."

The reason I see this as a feminist issue is that more women tend to be poor, women usually have the responsibility for the children and more senior women tend to be poor.

Not sure how to wrap this up, just that from these studies it appears that what a lot of people need is not more shaming, not cook books, not lectures about health issues, what is needed is an adquate amount of money to buy healthy nutritious foods.

If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride*

2006-05-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

* If wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.
What is everything we want?
Sure we all at some time have fantasies of big houses, or fast cars, shopping sprees, world peace.
Well ok world peace is probably something nearly everyone wants.
If you really break it down what most people want is shelter, food and a way to support themselves.
Lets examine those issues.

Shelter

How many of us take home for granted?

Oh I can't wait to get home. Going somewhere for the holidays? No I'll be staying home. Look at this piece of merchandise I just bought for my home. Wow the weather out there sucks glad I can stay home. Home is where the heart is . There is no place like home.
HOME a word with so many connotations and yet so many have no home.
I t is comforting to some to think of the homeless as those who have mental illnesses, alcoholics, lazy bums and while none of the afforementioned deserve any less concern or respect the reality is many of todays homeless are people and families with jobs.
Unfortunately, so many of todays jobs are so tenuous and so low paying that people can simply not afford to keep up with their rent.
The governments we are dealing with today do not see long term issues, do not see that x+y=z, they have no concept of pay little now or lots later, they simply want to appeal to the average voter's greed. It works too. How many governments have we seen elected again and again on a platform of dismantling the few social programs that had been ensconced into the Canadian culture.
The few affordable housing programs we have are often ghettos that perpetuate the sense of hopelessness the poor commonly feel.
It is easy to point to these ghettos as examples of how "those people" have no appreciation of what they are given.

What are they given?

Neighbourhoods which are the last to recieve funding. Neighbours who feel the same sense of hopelessness about the future you do. An address with a stigma attached. (perfect for job hunting) Children growing up recognizing the same sense of ostracism, of not being good enough, of not having the right ....anything.
What of the children growing up in shelters? Do we expect them to have a sense of community? To understand what it is to part of a whole? Do we even care as long as we don't have to see them?
Imagine instead integrated communities, nuclear families, one parent families, same sex families, singles, couples , seniors and every permutation therein.
T o have a place to call home is something that strikes at the heart of each and every one of us. That we can so callously deny it to the most vulnerable in our society speaks volumes.

Food

The very thing that enables us to continue to exist from day to day. The thing that we most literally cannot live without.
Yet far too many of us rely on the charity of foodbanks for our daily bread.
Many would consider us a just, sober and sane society, yet we allow so many of our citizens to beg for their dinner like stray dogs.
To deny someone food is to starve them. To starve someone willfully is to commit murder. Yet we refuse to give the neediest members of our society enough money to eat on a regular basis.
Too many are chosing between shelter and food. Too many mothers are starving themselves so their children can eat.
How ironic that the diet industry rakes in approx. 60 billion a year (yes that is a b) while so many go without.
Imagine the how many lunch programs, good food boxes, organic community gardens that kind of money could support.
Imagine every child going to school with a full belly, a good lunch and the promise of a good dinner.
We know the importance of good nutrition on learning, future health and even future earning capacity. You would think the accountants would see the value in small output for large savings.
In the end we cannot call ourselves decent, in the end we cannot call ourselves protectors of human rights, in the end we cannot justify allowing anyone in our country to go hungry.

Jobs

It is a common myth that one only needs to want to work and a job will magically appear.
This is a myth perpetuated by those with a stake in vilfying those least able to stand up for themselves politically.
Globalization, mechanization, plant closures, poverty have all played a role in the lack of available jobs.
Capitalism in and of itself plays a role as it demands a certain level of unemployment in order to keep profits high and workers scared.
The job market is becoming more keenly divided between low income service positions and upper level careers.
It requires two of these minimum income jobs to provide even the most basic needs for a family.
Leaving single parent families living in poverty. Welfare rates are even less.
The availability of decent paying jobs continues to decline, welfare programs are gutted, and governments tell us we cannot afford social programs yet they provide businesses with larger and larger tax cuts even as CEO wages rise at alarming rates.
As middle level income jobs disappear, benefits disappear, workers are hired on a part time or contract basis, we rush towards a society with very sharp divisions between rich and poor.
Divisions not only of money but of ability. The ability to attain an education, the ability to posses shelter, the ability to dress properly in order to gain employment, the ability to keep oneself properly nourished.
A society which does not provide education to all cannot call itself enlightened, a society which does not provide food and shelter cannot call itself humane, a society which does not care for it's most vulnerable can no longer call itself society at all.

You've come a long way baby......

2006-05-16T21:42:00.000-04:00

I wonder why they ever thought that was a good slogan?

You've come a long way, but we're still gonna call you baby.

There have been superficial changes over the years, certainly women have greater access to more fields, better access to maternity leave, and have cracked some of the glass ceilings.

However, there is still a pink ghetto. Women are still more likely to have lower paying jobs.

We are more likely to live our senior years in poverty and we are still more likely to die at the hands of our partners.

Rape is still underreported and when it is reported is still often met with the same blame the victim attitude it always was.

I see young girls dressing beyond their years, dumbing themselves down, refusing to insist that their partners wear condoms and I wonder what the hell is going on?

Across the country from 1916 to 1951 women won the right to vote. There are most assuredly women alive today who remember being able to become part of the process.

Unfortunately, that is what we did become....part of the process.

There was a brief surge of anger, of railing against the status quo, of fighting for those that could not fight for themselves.

What happened?

There is a news story about women in Zimbabwe not having access to sanitary products, when advised of this the parliament "fell about laughing" well before we get too smug lets not forget that it was only a few years ago that some members of our parliament fell about laughing over the results of a study on domestic abuse.

Have great strides been made to curb abuse?

Of course laws have been changed, ways of dealing with offenders has changed somewhat, real change remains sadly out of sight.

Things that would enable women to leave abusive situations like decent welfare rates, publicly funded day care centres, affordable housing, access to good legal counsel. Why haven't these things been changed?

Too much of our liberation has been smoke and mirrors.

We have made strides in entering the workforce but the economy responded by making it so that one income was not now enough to provide for a family.

We fought for the right to be accepted as ok just as we were and yet the diet industry is a multi billion dollar a year reminder that we can never be too thin.

We fought for sexual and reproductive freedom.

Yes we are less likely to be called sluts but the word has not disappeared, in fact in much of modern culture women are referred to just as a matter of course as sluts and bitches.

Yes we did have a period of time where we were getting close to being able to have control of our bodies but that tenuous hold is getting thinner by the day.

We did not only fight for ourselves, we fought for our daughters, our sons, our brothers, our fathers.

We hoped that an end to patriarchy would help them break free of their bonds as well.

Patriarchy has proven to be hard to kill. We should have been more prepared, we should have realized that while men would be happy to share the workload they might not be so happy to give up the priviledge.

Now the hard part of the fight begins, now when so many believe it is over.

Yes we won the superficial, but we are far from reaching the goal. We are far from a society where women feel safe, we are far from a society where mothers on welfare have enough to care properly for their children, we are far from a society where an elderly woman doesn't have to worry about becoming homeless for her senior years and we are far from a society where men in general are willing to give up the power that they are afforded through patriarchy.

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T09:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the women in the world.

Especially those who will not been taken out to brunch but instead are watching their children die in war, or from curable diseases, or from non curable diseases.

The mothers for whom this day will not be one of breakfast in bed, for whom breakfast has become a distant memory.

The mothers whose children are finding a comfort in drugs or alchol that they somehow could not find in anything else.

The mothers who will pass another day hoping that they can find the courage to get themselves and their children out of situations of abuse, yet knowing that doing so will end up in another abuse, that of the system.

The mothers whose gifts will not be jewelry, or clothes or spa days, who have to say I can't afford it when their children ask for money to buy them something.

I am so grateful to my mother, who taught me that we are all the same, regardless of time, money, circumstance we are all just humans, with shared fears, frailties, and needs.

Who also taught me that authority unquestioned is a dangerous thing, and that ordinary people working together can achieve great things.

So on this Mother's Day I pay tribute to all the women who against the backdrops of war, oppresion, disease. poverty and fear carry on with the task of mothering.

Three card monte, shell game and politics....

2006-05-11T22:58:00.000-04:00

What do these three things have in common? Tricky manuvers to make you think that something is somewhere it is in fact not.

For too long the Liberal party claimed to be socially left (and many Canadians believed them) yet our healthcare system is eroding, our social safety nets have gaping holes, and our country has been dragged to the right.

Oh it was a slow process and hardly noticeable to some, like the frog in the pot many have not yet noticed that things are reaching a boil.

Our whole political system has become skewed. Ideas, ideals, strategies that should be a given for the left now become things to be discussed in hushed tones.

Let's not make waves, let's not alienate the masses.

Perhaps the masses would welcome someone who would come right out and say enough is enough!!

I"d like to think that most Canadians believe that everyone has the right to shelter, an education, a good meal, sufficient clothing.

The push to the right has been the quietest of war, but make no mistake war it has been.

Power does not need to take to the streets, power does not need to gather conspicously, power works insidously.

Power smites those achieving a foothold on the ladder of success in the same way that God stripped away the footholds of those building the tower of bable.

And just as in the biblical story power confounds the masses by pitting them against one another.

I could be wrong, however, it seems that our consumer culture has driven many of us to the point where we feel that we need to get the next biggest, greatest thing and the only thing standing in the way is TAXES.

Yes if only that welfare mother would get off her ass, if only that depressed guy would just pull up his socks and get on with it, if only the disabled would stop expecting society to help them, surely taxes would be lower I could afford more stuff, I would be happier.

Power is only too happy to promote that feeling, build upon it and enact legislation which proports to put and end to the various "drains on society".

Next time someone mentions tax cuts with glee think about the things your taxes support. Next time someone blames the poor for their own circumstance react to it the way you would if they said something racist.

The only way we will create change is to be proactive. To not be afraid to speak out, to not be afraid to offer alternatives, to not be afraid of being called leftists or socialists.

Let us not become boiled frogs, let us instead jump.

And now a musical interlude

2006-05-09T21:04:00.000-04:00

I've found myself questioning song lyrics much more often lately.

Songs that I never really thought about just enjoyed the tune.

It's a shame really as music has played a large part in my life.

I do recall when I was young being very upset with the lyrics to 'In the Summertime'

If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal
If her daddy's poor, just do what you feel

Now what does a young girl make of that?

I used to like Bob Seeger then I started paying attention to some of his lyrics;

A gypsy wind is blowing warm tonight

The sky is starlit and the time is right

And still you're tellin' me you have to go

Before you leave there's something you should know

Yeah something you should know babe

I've seen you smiling in the summer sun

I've seen your long hair flying when you run

I've rnade my mind up that it's meant to be

Someday lady you'll accomp'ny me

Out where the rivers meet the sounding sea

You're high above me now, you're wild and free ah but

Someday lady you'll accomp'ny me

Stalker song?

You're wild and free, but I'll change all that.

The list is never ending and it could be said much of what I feel is overreaction.

Well sure could be, but then I've heard so many women say similar things, we can't all be wrong.

Talking with idiots

2006-05-08T13:28:00.000-04:00

So I had an interesting conversation with a "friend?" last night.

Supposedly progressive guy starts blathering on about how all these women in town are having baby after baby to live on welfare.

Seems he feels welfare is too good a deal to pass up and this is why conservatives are against it.

Mr. Progessive went on to say that if they really wanted work they would drop their kids off at school and get out on the highway to hitchhike to the next town to find jobs.

When advised that this might perhaps lead to sexual assault or other bad things happening he responded with " well I might go outside and trip on a stone"

Ya jackass I can see how those two things are completely the same.

Come home from that conversation to find one of equal stupidity on a board I like to post on.

Some days it just doesn't pay to interact with others.