T'is The Season...

After three heavenly months away from the stark reality of poverty, the frustrations of working in the industry known as charity and from the political impotance that tends to overwhelm the agency--and system-- I am sometimes begrudgingly  a part of (though I am very much aware of the fact that it is this very system that has allowed me the privilege to "escape" for my leave), I am in better spirits this year to face the do-gooders, their band aid generosity and the lack of agency my "agency" seems to express by thwarting its full political potential out of fear of alienating "donors" during this giving season.

My good humour will not last long as donations pile up, citizens hopped up on Jesus or the desire to treat poverty as a fleeting "learning experience" for their children (at best) or as a feel good corporate wank (at worst), bring armies of folks to the DTES where their christmas kindness is expected and yes, appreciated, but where socks, deodorant, candy, and even money surprisingly don't seem to make a dent in systemic poverty (why else need they come back each year and myself each day?)

My post-vacation bliss will perhaps last a bit longer than I expected as it seems some (I should mention way less established agencies) are cluing in and promoting--gasp!---political change! 

The Renfrew-Collingwood Neighbourhood House has the balls to name to problem by promoting the BC poverty reduction coalition's brazen initiative to educate children about the root causes of social injustice and to urge them--through a more mindful canned food drive--to ask the public to demand the government step up and do its job!

We can all agree that the community does come together to try to address poverty with what limited means we have as mere citizens at our disposal, but nothing is going to change fundamentally if the political climate remains the same. Charity is effective in an emergency situation, but the widening divide between rich and poor in this country is systemic: now woven, just like food banks and shelters which are maxed out, into the very fabric of our lives.

so why are we doing this again?

Not just for kids, check out the "keep your coins and make change" innitiative:  http://bcpovertyreduction.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013_prc-food-bank_lesson-plan-complete.pdf

Now if only other agencies could promote this message...

Oh Canada (what next?)

Despite the sadness of the spectacle the political arena has presented in the last while here in Canada (i.e cracked out buffoons running the show, espionage scandals, fiscal snafu's, not to mention the continual funnelling of our ecological wealth at bargain basement prices), I am shocked and disgusted by the news this week of mass cuts and layoffs in our rapidly dwindling public sector, specifically the termination over the next two years of thousands of postal workers, ostensibly due to the "obsolescence" of paper mail and the alleged decrease in revenues. (Though of course the crown corporation's executives get to stick around and collect three figure incomes). 

College instructors who teach technical English to recent immigrants were also delivered a fatal blow this week because the Federal government deems that private and non-profit agencies will do a better (aka less expensive, but at what cost?) job at helping newcomers assimilate to our proud multicultural (equal opportunity?) society. Our immigration policies have always been a bit dubious, but come on! Are we really going to be taking this many steps back? 

It seems that every where you turn Unions are being busted with little support from the public as it seems most people fail to see the bigger picture: that unions protect the rights of workers and strive to maintain a quality of life that every body--not just specific workers-- should have access to. People fail to recognize that with every busted union (hello Ikea and it's 7 month lock out of employees), a minimal  quality of life (key word is QUALITY) is threatened for every one in society, not just the workers of a particular corporation, establishment, or government sector. 

The rhetoric of the "lazy" union worker is easy to buy into when most people do not have access in this day in age to the protections that unionised workers still (though decreasingly) have access to. And while its true that there are issues inherent to unions (I know, I am part of one, yes there are a few who atrophy from a lack of competition and rest on their seniority while passionate workaholics need to do their time and often lose their spark by the time they reach the ranks that afford security), these are always far less problematic and costly to taxpayers than the crimes committed by politicians and others of the white collar persuasion. 

Hey who needs mail when we have the Internet (look around at the ageing population)? Who needs unions when basic human rights are also outmoded? I guess I'm just a left wing nut case to still harbour the crazy ideal that the government should be working for the people. My bad. I imagine that it actually will make more sense for immigrants to take less specialized courses seeing as though their likelihood of getting meaningful work will be even less (we all know what "chances" a nurse from the Philippines has of actually practising in this country) as every one else's opportunities are increasingly limited and we will all be scrambling for the privilege to do shit service work at tiny wages with no protection or rights. 

There is nothing to fight for in a world where we are all dispensable. 

Cerbere, Forgotten City

One of the most memorable places I visited in France was the town of Cerbere, which is kind of like a French Detroit in so far as it was once a booming destination, the epi centre of a vibrant economy, that is now a forgotten town whose population has gradually dwindled and whose once lavish relics stand      vacant and decrepit, though some still quite majestic in a haunting sort of way.

Before the European union erased borders, the mechanization of the railway system, and the development of vast automobile and air plane travel, Cerbere was a place of trade and leisure as it is the last French town before Spain, which is only 4 kilometers away. The train is what built Cerbere. Because the Spanish rail system was different than the french, imported and exported goods had to be moved through manually, which created many jobs for people on both sides of the border. Since it took a while for people to get through the paperwork to cross into Spain, Cerbere became a tourism Mecca as developers saw the opportunity to make the waits appealing. Most notably the ship-shaped Art Deco palace (now a faded beauty), le Belevere Du Rayon Vert Hotel, became a destination in its own right with its high class rooms, roof top tennis court, impressive theatre, and luxurious banquet halls overlooking the Mediterranean sea that appealed to the 1930s glitterati. Josephine Baker even performed there. But now the place is empty despite the owner's painstaking efforts to foster a revival,  save for a few legend seeking tourists (like me) who come for a guided tour or to rent a "revamped" apartment there for a weekend. 

Cerbere feels kind of like a ghost town. The mechanized voice of the National Train Corporation (SNCF) still reverberates through the entire town every hour announcing the incoming trains, but now this is just a pit stop for most travellers. Though if you hang out long enough you can witness some beautiful snippets of Cerbere's present life, for example I listened to a group of old timers sitting on a bench in small renovated concrete covered park and was struck by the beauty of their sing song accent, an interesting mix of Spanish and french, which made more of an impact on me than anything else I saw on this incredible field trip to "la ville au bout du monde."*

*city at the end of the earth, as it's sometimes also called. 

Blindly Lead Me

The other day my boss called me into his office and I just knew it was going to be one of those conversations where I would have steam coming out of my ears.Apparently the "health and safety committee" (one of many committees) of our organization determined that serving expired food to our clients is a health hazard. Really? That never crossed my mind day in day out when I personally hand out two-day old ham sandwiches, five day old yogurt, stale bread and dubious looking hamburger to those we are meant to "help."  So the powers that be have noticed a problem and have given the orders that all food that is past due shall be thrown out.

OK so it seems we are on the same page, at least on the surface, though the inconsistencies of the charity food system are hardly a new discovery. One of the biggest issues or "hazards" from my perspective is that the organization refuses to turn down anything out of fear of offending donors. This means that a larger percentage of what we get is crap, which we spend money (and resources) on sorting and disposing of in the name of PR. This goes for food too, though often we are forced to salvage and serve what we can--without expired food we would not have a meal program; an obscene catch 22 that we are forced to be complicit with, allowing individuals and corporations the opportunity to feel good by dumping garbage (literally sometimes) or non-perishables (same thing) with ignorance and good intention (though you know what they say about those.)

I once got in trouble for saying that I rather have the clients starve to death than to serve them pastries first thing in the morning. Is this not the same attitude on a broader level, served without indignation?

Those at the top have of this inevitably hierarchized system have more power than I do, yet the buck is passed off silently.  Alas the organization is not really getting with the times, they are only repackaging the inadequacy of the system as a shortcoming front line workers need to fix. By framing this issue as a "health and safety" concern limited to the workers of the organization, management is grossly simplifying a complex, systemic issue thereby precluding any meaningful solution to the food situation.

 The conversation really should go beyond whether food is expired or not in an immediate sense. What we should really be speaking about at an organizational level is food insecurity: the degree to which a sizable proportion of the population of this supposedly affluent nation do not have the means with which to access adequate food through acceptable--aka non-soup kitchen--channels. These are the people we are meant to assist. Food insecurity (malnourishment, not simplistically defined hunger) is part of the same issue as housing insecurity, which is the niche the organization I work for ostensibly concerns itself with most. These issues should not be considered separately, they are part and parcel and linked to the economy--the same economy that allows for the overproduction of goods which leads to waste (that gets tossed into the charitable landfill.) As long as the organization refuses to systematically acknowledge and verbalize the short comings of the system we work within we will continue to buy into and perpetuate the worst aspects of charity. Without meaningfully reflecting and dialoguing about our position in the charitable "economy" we will keep simplifying social justice issues as logistical concerns and never move beyond the band aid.

The layers and layers of management aren't coming up with a solution, such as a food policy, an interim donor education program,  a budget for an adequate food program (we all know that it is the more controversial, and infinitely sexier aspects of the "harm reduction" continuum that foster cash flow these days--yet we refuse to talk about this.) As a result it is up to the lowliest cogs in the machine to "innovate" with their few resources and cultural capital.So who looks at the bigger picture?

Community Kitchen: Feast of Falafel

This week, I did my first Community Kitchen in over a month. A hiatus was nice as it gave other staff a chance to run the program and to expose the participants to different styles and flavours--in other words, it gave these gents (and the occasional lady) a break from cilantro and kale. On my end it was nice to replenish a bit.  Community kitchens can be a bit taxing, and there are few things worse than an exhausted and therefore uninspired facilitator ( my long stint taking university courses delivered by lack luster profs taught me at least that).



Our humble spread offsetting the institutional space a bit...

Some time away really helped me realize how much I love this program. In honour of the CK and all the people who have been regulars for almost two years we made an awesome falafel feast! This spread was such a hit that nobody asked for ice cream (one of my coworkers got them used to the good--and not so healthy--stuff in my absence.) And nobody asked "wheres the meat?" or even the cheese! Yes this meal is basically vegan (save for some homemade tzaziki,which can be replaced with tahini, hot sauce, baba ghanouj, hummus or anything at all) and nobody noticed! This version of the falafel is baked so it is also healthier in that respect. We ate ours in a whole wheat pita, but the falafel patties could easily be wrapped in collard or lettuce leaves, or served on top of a salad....I chose the bread option mainly because I didn't want to push it too much with my loyal crew.

Falafel: Makes 12 (cut recipe in half if serving a smaller group, or freeze patties)

2 cans or 1 cup of dry garbanzo beans (with 1/2 cup of water reserved)
1/2 cup of flour of your choice (i used chickpea)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
5 cloves of garlic
a few mint leaves (optional)
1/2 of a cup parsley
1 teaspoon of cumin
dash of cayenne
salt and pepper

Directions:

Turn over on to 350 degrees. Throw everything in a food processor or pound everything in a bowl with the back of a wooden spoon (if moisture is needed add a bit of water or reserved chickpea water.) Roll into ping pong-sized balls. Place balls on a baking sheet greased with coconut oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes (rotate mid-way) and put on broil for the last 5 minutes to achieve crispiness.

Tzaziki-ish:

2 cup Greek yogurt
1 small cucumber-shredded
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 clove of garlic-minced
1/4 cup of dill-minced
1 small shallot sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Throw everything in a bowl and take out your aggressions with your spoon by making circular gestures until everything is combined.

Sandwich assembly:

In wrap of your choice place shredded lettuce or greens of your choice, diced cucumbers, tomatoes and minced parsley. Top with two falafel balls and sauce. Bon appetit!

We also made a killer tabbouleh (I'll be sure to post the recipe soon), and some simple yet very tasty roasted vegetables...

Going Nuts Over DIY Almond Milk (gross pun, awesome recipe)

Most of us know the evils of dairy: the inhumane treatment of cows, the loads of toxic substances they are given to raise their [re] productive value, the fact that milk products actually strip our bones of calcium, and that cow dairy is not    easy to digest (morally and physically.) Many, myself included, avoid dairy (though I could never say a decisive adios to cheese) or opt for dairy free milks. But dairy alternatives aren't all that desirable either. Unfermented soy is increasingly known to be a problematic substance causing hormonal imbalances and certain cancers. And I would much rather eat raw organic cheese from a humanely (relatively speaking) raised cow (or a goat, preferably) than ingest the uber-processed, vegan alternative.

Rarely criticized is commercial almond milk, which has never sat well with me despite it often being recommended as the "healthiest" alternative to dairy.  Take one quick glance at the ingredient list and you can see why! Cane sugar (table sugar's cousin in disguise)? Carrageenan (allegedly a cancer causing compound derived from seaweeds)? Synthetic vitamins? Most commercial brands are pumped with these and a whole whack load of other additives that don't sound like anything I want to put in my body. Also, not all nuts are created equal. I doubt that the companies that put out these products go the extra route of sourcing the best almonds and soaking these to avoid rancidity and toxicity. I also doubt the actual quantity of almonds used. There are no exact ratios printed on the typical cartons we find in the shop, though the low fiber content on most labels is a good indication. 

Thankfully it is super easy to make pure, delicious, healthy almond milk at home. Intrigued for a while by DIY nut milk, it is my most recent trip to Café Bliss in Victoria BC (which I reviewed a few posts ago) that finally compelled me to hit "blend," because I am addicted to their Matcha Latte and live too far to have it everyday. I know that what elevates their drinks to godly levels of awesomeness is that they make their own nut milks. Well now I do too, and so can you!

Almond Milk Recipe (or any nut recipe if you want to mix it up!): 

1 cup of raw organic almonds soaked overnight

3 cups of water

1 spoon full of raw honey or a few dates (optional) for sweetness

1/2 spoon of coconut oil (optional) for added richness

Directions: 

Drain soaked almonds and rinse well. Place soaked almonds and water in a blender or food processor and blend on high. Once mixture is creamy and milky pass through a cheese cloth, fine mesh strainer, or a nut milk bag. Once strained keep the milk as is in a jar (that's how I like it, au naturel) or blend once more with sweetener of your choice and/or coconut oil.

Yields: 

This will yield about four cups of product that will stay fresh for about 4 days. It is not the cheapest addiction as quality almonds are a bit expensive, but will work out to about 10-15 dollars a month for someone like me who uses almond milk only in my morning, water-based matchas. For a cheaper option consider making milk out of oat groats, which is also delicious, healthy, just as easy (same recipe!) and insanely cheap!

PS. Nut bags are in my opinion an awesome investment as they are made of organic and natural fibres, are virtually indestructible, will also generate more product for you, and can be used to make sprouts. The one I use is made locally in Vancouver out of organic hemp and can be ordered online or, if you are lucky to live in Van, at Homesteaders Emporium, a great shop for everything DIY and food related.

Check out this great nut sack (sorry, bad joke) here: 

http://www.grassrootgreens.ca/nut-milk---sprouting-bags.php

PPS. Don't throw out the almond meal! It is super nutritious and can be frozen and used for pancakes, cookies, cakes, as a topping, or (once dehydrated or roasted) as an ingredient in granola and a whack load of other recipes you can come up with...

Community Kitchen: Detox-Slaw and Black Bean Cocoa Chile

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I run a community kitchen at my work each week. The food we make is so awesome (and healthy!) that I've decided it's too much

of a shame not to share the recipes here, so I will try to consistently do so from now on.

Since I spent the weekend in Victoria eating decadent foods at some of the many terrific eateries there (that I will write about very soon), I felt, perhaps more so than usual, like making healthy and detoxifying foods for this week's CK.

So we threw together an awesome organic "slaw" consisting of a bevy of ingredients that detoxify the body and facilitate digestion. No mayo here! A simple, tasty combination of shredded beets, carrots, julienned apple and fennel, tossed with a dressing of alkalizing apple-cider vinegar, fresh squeezed OJ, and olive oil. Of course it doesn't hurt to throw in some immune boosting (and tasty) spices like  cayenne, ginger, cinnamon and turmeric, along with a ton of fresh garlic. Abundant fresh parsley tied it all together and added even more colour and antioxidant punch to the mix!

I wanted something tasty and grounding as well. Enter my dad's black bean chili. This is the one vegetarian dish in his repertoire so he makes it for me each time I visit, which might explain why my visits are becoming more frequent as of late ;) This dish consists of a combination of refreshing cilantro, crunchy red peppers and sweet black beans and is deceivingly simple as it harbours complex flavours that will rock your taste buds like nobody's business. On top of the cayenne, chili powder and a generous amount of of garlic,  I added cocoa to mine for extra depth of flavour (feel free to switch with raw cacao at the end for a nutritional boost), as well as smoked paprika for a bit of kick--though the traditional cumin alone is more than decent.

Black beans are magic as they naturally regulate blood sugar levels, making them appropriate for my diabetic participants ( and for a mega sweet-tooth like yours truly!) We served the chili on a bed of red rice, a nutty flavoured, whole grain that is as delicious as it is grounding. We topped the whole affair with shredded organic sharp cheddar, green onion and a dollop of natural Balkan yogurt.

This simple but explosive meal had even the most stubbornly carnivorous CK participant reaching for thirds.

Proportions for 8 people:

Detox Slaw: Ready in 15 minutes including prep (with a food processor)

In a large Bowl Combine:

3 large Beets- shredded

3 medium carrots-shredded

1 medium fennel bulb-julienned

2 apples of your choice-julienned

1 bunch of parsley -chopped

3 cloves of garlic-minced

Salt and pepper to taste

1 chunk of ginger root minced

Handful of unsulfured raisins (optional)

Handful of hemp or pumpkin seeds (optional)

In a separate Bowl whisk:

3 large oranges-juiced

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

1/4 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of Cayenne

1 teaspoon of turmeric

Toss everything together and voila!

Black Bean Cocoa Chile: ready in half and hour including prep/longer if you have time!

1 large sweet onion-diced

4 standard-sized cans of black beans-drained and rinsed (or use dry)

4 medium red peppers-diced

2 jars of organic strained tomatoes

5-6 cloves of garlic-minced

1/2 bunch of cilantro-finely chopped with some stems

1 lime-juiced

1 tablespoon of cocoa-levelled

Cayenne-to your taste

Chile Pepper-to your taste

1 jalapeno- sliced (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 dash of coconut oil (or olive)

Directions:

In a pot, brown your onions in the coconut oil. Once these become translucent, add your peppers until they are softened. Add the strained tomatoes and all the spices except for the cocoa. Let simmer for 10 minutes or more to develop flavours, then add beans and 2/3rds of the cilantro as well as the garlic and jalapeno. Let simmer for a while remaining mindful of not letting the beans soften too much (dry will remain toothsome for much longer). Turn element off and stir in cocoa, the  rest of the cilantro, along with the lime juice. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve!

A Load of S--T!

If you read my prior two posts you  will see that I have been on an anti-meal replacement roll this last week. While I am getting a little tired of the topic today (though I plan on pursuing this cause vehemently even if I am foaming at the mouth),  this photo, provided to me by the awesome outreach worker who schlepped the shit around twice, is too absurd not to share...It also debunks one of the top justifications for maintaining this "industry standard:" Cost Effectiveness.

This is what 1200 dollars worth of Ensure looks like--thankfully this flat was on its way back to the Superstore warehouse and will not be given out to street-entrenched, HIV positive clients. The entire non-profit/medical industry in the DTES (and probably beyond) relies on this product as a "cheap" and convenient solution to the nutritional vulnerability of the populations we are meant to assist.

Clearly this is not an inexpensive product. It is expensive in terms of the physical repercussions of ingesting a synthetic and chemical cocktail, but also in terms of $$ amounts!

1200$ can buy a second hand fridge and enough ingredients to make and serve whole, nutritional smoothies several mornings a week, or to purchase less involved options such as bananas, hard boiled eggs, even natural energy bars (i.e Larabar).

Convenience a euphemism for lazy? In some cases yes, but  at best the industry is uninformed. My manager spoke to a whole class of future social service providers who were shocked that Ensure is not a healthy choice.

And if people would like to counter my stance, I urge them to do research on the first ingredients listed on the label and to demonstrate to me how these could benefit people in precarious health (or any one at all.)

Water, Corn Syrup, Maltodextrin Corn, Sodium And Calcium Caseinates, Sugar Sucrose, Canola Oil, Corn Oil, High-Oleic Safflower Oil, Soy Protein Isolate, Soy Lecithin, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Carrageenan, FD&C Red No. 3, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1.

Rest Ensured! (An update)

Kitchen beats the Lab!

A small victory! After a semi-arduous process that involved a screaming match with my manager, him mulling over my scathing (semi-psychotic) critiques, and the help of Peter, the practicum student who just happened to be a health nut summoned to research the facts (perhaps more convincing than my impassioned, militant, back alley uproar), the 1200 dollars of chemical sludge known as Ensure is on its way back to the Superstore!

I am elated not just because of the tangible benefit to our clients, but because on a broader level this success demonstrates that fighting for your values and for what you believe is the ethical choice can sometimes pay off.

The battle continues though. Ensure is after all the industry staple (along with Glucerma by the same company made special for diabetics). I found out from Peter that our organization has a whole warehouse full of that crap!

But the conversation has started. I plan to bludgeon management with as much info as I can possibly package in a readable format and my own boss is on board! While I know that  "the revolution cannot be funded," (Great book, check it out, especially if you are working in the social services field: http://www.incite-national.org/index.php?s=89), meaningful change can (albeit painstakingly at times) happen from within the NONPROFITINDUSTRIAL compound.

I now have 1200 dollars to spend on a new (non-patronizing, victim blaming, tasty, and natural, I'm thinking) nutritional program for people with HIV.

The wheels in my mind are a spinnin' spinnin' spinning!

My number 1 principle: don't serve anything you wouldn't eat

The Danger of Unprocessed Food

Today, my commitment to unprocessed, natural foods almost caused me serious harm. How? I nearly got hit by a car on my bicycle commute home from work! Why? Because I was so pissed off I wasn't paying attention. 

Moments before the end of my shift my manager pulled me and by coworker Jess aside to tell us that he had received an extra 1200 bucks from another site's HIV program. This got me momentarily excited as all the possibilities for the meal program flashed by in my imagination. I had visions of daily green smoothies, a weekly supply of eggs, a reserve of various whole grains to replace the bread and margarine we are trying to phase out, or at the very least caseloads of organic butter to replace that deadly margarine! 

But this excitement was very short lived. My manager decided to sink that money into caseloads of Ensure meal replacements since he only had an afternoon to figure it out before the long weekend (and the end of the fiscal year when all "surplus" money has to be spent so as not to piss off our funders). 

I am absolutely appalled and heartbroken. Ensure is one of the worst things we could serve our clients, particularly those with HIV whom this extra cash is meant to assist. These "meal replacement" drinks are ubiquitous in the DTES as they are routinely given out by agencies, doctors, and welfare workers here to those most sick and malnourished. Ensure interestingly has high resale value on the street, most likely because when one is sick and/or high it is hard to stomach much of anything at all and perhaps since Ensure is handed out by "experts," it is actually thought of as beneficial to dwindling health. Everyone needs a bit of ideology to feel better, even more so when your head is in the gutter. But in my opinion, these drinks are worse than a band aid solution, they actually make existing issues worse. 

1. Ensure is filled with chemicals, toxic substances and just a few synthetic nutrients, all of which push already weakened bodies to work even harder to try to assimilate the harmful substances that make up the drink's ingredient list. The combination of sugar, corn syrup, soy oil, corn oil, soy lecithin (these are just the first of over 40 unpronounceable) hardly constitutes a therapeutic substance. We may as well hand out  a few vitamins along with a bottle of coke!

2. As long as professionals hand out this crap nothing will get meaningfully better. Ensure is perhaps cheaper than a whole food alternative (and I would argue that this isn't necessarily the case) and more convenient (are we really that uncreative and lazy?), but these benefits far out weight the cost, and our justifications (i.e it's better than nothing--not true) only contribute to the false impression that at least something is being done. In the case of my agency it's even more blasphemous since we had some money (unadulterated by the industry discounts or stipulations that most likely also fuel Ensure's strong presence in the DTES) to spend on an alternative and there are people (me and jess!) who would take the time to maximize that 1200 dollars and create something healthful that would actually address our clients' nutritional needs.  

So yeah I am really pissed. 

Aquarelle

Free (ing) social theory!

Monday I realized just how hungry I've been for intellectual stimulation and, even better, that I am not alone! Thanks to the Vancouver Institute For Social Research, a free series of professor-led talks that aims to free critical theory from the confines of the University,  I am now able to flex my brain once a week with about one hundred wool clad, designer framed theory nerds of all ages (who made up the majority of those present) at the Or gallery!

The list of speakers is awesome including two of my own heroes, Steven Taubeneck (who I took existentialism and post-war German lit with and who made an impression on me by forcing the most entitled students-as-consumers tell him what they thought of the state of the world) and Thomas Kemple (who I took two theory courses with, who encouraged me to write unorthodox papers and who got my ass into grad school.) 

This week's speaker, Clint Burnham, presented a genealogy of the "unconscious" from Freud, to Lacan, Benjamin, Jameson, Krauss and Zizek and examined the degree to which the Internet functions as an extension of this tradition. This was in many ways a "graduate class" in so far as the levels of abstraction reached by both the speaker (and the thinkers he presented) require some degree of higher education to comprehend (either formal or informal yet library based), which demonstrates the degree to which this really is a "para-university" and therefore not completely inclusive. But the choice of conceptual device to expand on these thinkers made the talk somewhat more accessible, and quite brilliant. My head kind of hurt by the end of it but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the seminar and felt strangely energized the following day! The evening also restored some of my hope in the world to tell you the truth, due to the number of people who actually voluntarily showed up reminding me, much like the Anti-Olympic and Occupy movements did,  that Vancouver has a place for political discourse.

These talks happen every Monday from 7-9 (though show up early because seats fill up) until April 1st (and hopefully thereafter, as this is the pilot phase of the project). Readings are accessible online and free of charge on this website, which will also tell you a bit more about the varied topics that will be discussed: 

http://visrfreeschool.wordpress.com/

And check out the Or Gallery website to find out more about this and other events: 

www.orgallery.org/VISR

Puppeteering and Careering

Some days working in a big non profit in the DTES exceeds the usual levels of absurdity. Generally these moments of ridiculousness stem from the people above me in what is a highly bureaucratized (though always disorganized) and increasingly corporate environment, rather than from the clients deemed "crazy."

A few weeks ago my coworkers and I were scrambling to start serving the meal (on "special," aka "no soup" Thursday), when a slick, bald man with a a big camera showed up in the kitchen. He asked to talk to me about my experience cooking for the clients (completely ignoring the fact that I am not the one actually running the kitchen and that the woman in charge was standing right there) for a "pitch" "they" were making to Whole Foods with a number of other organizations who had also been invited by the CEOs to compete for funding (yay corporate responsibility). My "experiences" were already on display: plates were crashing; clients were knocking on the door repeatedly asking to know what we were serving or when the coffee would be on; there were about 130 people waiting for food as tensions were rising on the floor, and my coworker was stressing over the fact that we didn't have enough lettuce for the salad! This was obviously a time of chaos, which this PR person (freshly contracted) seemed oblivious too, until we pointed out that perhaps we would be less distracted before opening the following morning.

The next morning our friend showed up exactly ten minutes before we open the doors to the hungry, decaffeinated masses, with an even bigger camera and a tripod. Apparently this was to be a filmed pitch (more compelling, I guess) and we needed to go through a few "dress rehearsals" to make sure we answered the questions effectively (my coworker and I were at this point looking at the time). We were informed that "props are always a good thing," (though he asked our loyal kitchen volunteers to move out of the way) and when I suggested he take pictures of all the rotten donated fruit I was about to sift through in order to painstakingly piece together a breakfast nominally healthier than the donated, stale pastries ubiquitous on the DTES meal circuit, he sort of brushed me off. I added that showing what some of these donations actually look like would really drive the point home the degree to which food funding is needed and the degree to which charity is an inadequate means of feeding our nutritionally vulnerable clients, throwing in that Whole foods does indeed provide some of our better donations. He told me to stress the last part and provided us with the three questions we were to practise answering:

1. what do i like about cooking for --- society

2 what impact on people's lives does the food i provide make

3. what are some challenges

(or something along those lines)

We had about 3 minutes to answer these questions (!)  and were subjected to three takes by the end of which I  lost steam (and interestingly the last one seemed to be the most palatable take despite our dwindling dynamism). By the time we had performed satisfactorily, the clients had already asked for their second pot of coffee. All the while I was wondering why actual meal program recipients aren't asked directly about their experiences consuming these services? Would that not be "cutting edge" in the competitive, fund raising arena?  My coworker asked our friend if this funding, if secured, would actually go to the society's meal programs (currently completely un-funded) and got a shrug. I also explained to the gentlemen my particular interests (and yes, expertise) when it comes to the question of food security in the DTES and told him that I would be willing to help out with "pitches" to stakeholders in the food industry (free of charge!), all the while feeling like a careerwhore for mentioning this. I got a blank faced "interesting, I'll keep that in mind, "  as he looked at the clock and packed his stuff. We asked him to keep us posted on how it went and have heard nothing.

Yes, people are busy.

The Spirit of Commodity Fetichism

"A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties."

Marx, 1867

This mural/statement thing pissed me off months ago and I finally got a picture of it this weekend. It can be found at Main and 10th in Vancouver BC. Perhaps its a comment on the "true" spirit of Main street in light of the rapid rates of gentrification of the area: condo/loft developments, chains popping up everywhere, as well as "trendy" restaurants (with their ubiquitous damn exposed brick and hidden gardens). I would argue though that the "artsy/boho image" encapsulated by the words (or goods) on this wall and often associated with the Main street area is as tied to consumerism as the run of the mill douchebag driving around in an SUV and eating at Milestones. Whether this artsy/boho/hipster image is the one repackaged by marketing executives trying to sell "SOMA" (or "South Main"--what is with Vancouver developers constantly having to rip off other cities), or whether it is a more "authentic"expression of a particular lifestyle (and authenticity is such a problematic notion!) through "art" (and not advertising?), it is troubling to consider the extent to which nobody can really escape the spirit of commodity fetishism: be it obvious (Tim Hortons), subtle (wearing unmarked 300 dollar raw denim jeans as a countercultural jest) or somewhere creatively in between on this continuum of conspicuous consumption. Nearly everything we do is tied to image and mediated by expenditure. Yes, spirit is lifestyle. And thats pretty fucking bleak. Except for the graffiti add in I suppose...