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.