So, uh, enough of this mopey introspection: I love Democracy Now! I would love to find a Canadian equivalent; tips are welcome. All two people who wander onto this site daily. Even that seems like too many… Anyway. Interesting discussion of palliative care (not DEATH PANELS. Fucking stupid tea baggers.), its importance, and how it might have fit into American health care reform. I’m hoping they’ll talk about the concessions made to anti-choicers at some point. Pretty fucked up, if you ask me. Also, coverage of an immigration reform rally and a long talk with a journalist in Indonesia. The headlines are always interesting too.
It’s frustrating to me how easy it is to be informed about what goes on south of the 49th parallel, while the only news I can easily access that’s Canada-specific is mainstream. And therefore not all that informative. And, never ever read the comments on the CBC News website, because they will make you want to gouge your own eyeballs out and never speak to anyone ever again. There was a story up there recently about how Canada will change demographically in the next 20 years; I have never seen so much concentrated racism in my life. At one of my jobs we get emails from an organization called Immigration Watch with subject lines like “Turn off the Tap.” I would really like to send them strongly-worded responses, but that might get my boss in trouble. So instead I shall sit here in my anonymous corner of the internet, bitching quietly.
On an unrelated note: I’ve started watching Question Period, and it is hilarious. Politicians are like children, but meaner.
From Guernica:
A life that is in some sense socially dead or already “lost” cannot be grieved when it is actually destroyed. And I think we can see that entire populations are regarded as negligible life by warring powers, and so when they are destroyed, there is no great sense that a heinous act and egregious loss have taken place.
Amazing. Go read it. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted, but this was too good to pass over. I promise I’ll stick around now.
I’m trying to write a resolution to propose to the political party I’m a member of. It’s frustrating. Because the resolution I would write if I could write whatever the fuck I pleased would read something like this:
Whereas we believe the lives of women and other adults, fallible though they may be, are valuable; and
Whereas having children in foster care may be a major stressor to birth parents; and
Whereas no person should be punished for having mental health issues; and
Whereas no person should be punished for their life circumstances, even when these circumstances lead them to have difficulties parenting; and
Whereas the effects of colonialism on First Nations populations in Canada may contribute to the issues that cause a person to be unable to care for her or his children; and
Whereas it is more productive and more humane to help individuals with children in care to improve their lives than it is to belittle them and maintain the conditions that have led to their having children in care;
Therefore be it resolved that this blogger urges the Governments of Everywhere to create the position of Birth Parents’ Advocate, which will be filled by a compassionate person whose aim is to ensure that birth parents are treated like human beings, even if they have fucked up in the past.
I really think we should start to treat swear words like all other words. They have such great impact. Any hints on how to write this in such a way that it will not be dismissed as angry feminist/hippie garbage? Please, please, please help me!
Can’t be bothered too much today; I just feel kind of braindead. As I was saying to my fave man the other day, I’m definitely going to get checked out for iron-deficiency anemia. I’ve never had to be too careful about my intake, I guess, ’cause I’ve never had problems before, but I’ve been feeling both fatigued and highly irritable lately. Also, often a bit shaky when I get home from being somewhere without food for a few hours. I honestly don’t think this can be low blood sugar or hunger, because I always eat well. I like food too much not to. I just don’t check labels too closely for what kind of iron content food has… and I think that, as a general rule, foods high in iron are either too expensive or too hard to prepare for me to eat regularly now that I’m out of the parental units’ home. Might have to start shelling out, or perhaps jsut learn to do good things with lentils!
Now that I’m writing… My major source of outrage for the week is coming from – guess who? – Stephen Harper. As per our local paper on Saturday, and other sources (notably Jessica Yee at Racialicious, because she’s fab and so is their commenting community), he stated on September 25th at the G20 summit that Canadians “have no history of colonialism,” which is a heaping helping of bullshit if ever I saw one. I mean, really… I’m not going to start pulling out definitions of colonialism because other people have already done so. But I’m pretty sure Canada’s history is textbook. And I’m also pretty sure that Harper knows this, and knows that regardless of what context he was working in when he said it, it’s an erasure of that history for which European COLONIES were responsible. Should still be responsible. It is hugely problematic to make statements like this. And he knows that, too, because he’s an asshole but he’s not stupid. It just fits his particular political ideology very well.
Harper is now denying the new Assembly of First Nations National Chief a meeting, which ices this racist little cake very nicely. I can’t even be bothered to keep my metaphors straight today… If you want to read something by somebody more coherent than I am, go check out the Green Party’s query as to why Canada hasn’t signed the UN declaration of Indigenous People’s Rights.
…about the NDP, because they explicitly state, in part of their healthcare platform, that women’s right to safe therapeutic abortions is something they would work to maintain and reaffirm (see point five on that page). I already knew that this would likely be a given, but to see it written out in plain language for anyone who cares to read their website to see is very happy-making for me. Jack Layton can seem pretty silly sometimes, and they do the same mudslinging act that all the other parties do; but if they can be up-front about this, I can be on board with them.
Phew. Conscience settled. Goodnight.
