Just wanted to share one of Karen's end-of-summer pictures on my favourite lake -- Redstone.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Karen's Photoability
Just wanted to share one of Karen's end-of-summer pictures on my favourite lake -- Redstone.
Friday, November 25, 2005
LOST and FOUND
Found a great website that publishes found stuff...mostly notes and photographs. People write down and take pictures of the most amazing things. This website fits right in with my previous post of people divulging secrets anonymously. See my post of October 11, 2005.
And how'd this all start?
One snowy winter night in Chicago a few years back, Davy went out to his car and found a note on his windshield -- a note meant for someone else, a guy named Mario.
To visit this website click on the title of this post.
And how'd this all start?
One snowy winter night in Chicago a few years back, Davy went out to his car and found a note on his windshield -- a note meant for someone else, a guy named Mario.
To visit this website click on the title of this post.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Who Can Argue With This?
Top 4 arms sellers in U.S. $ (1990)
United States $4.5 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
China $3.1 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
France $1.2 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
UK $1.1 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Canada $152 million
Source: SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). 2002. Correspondence on weapons transfer data. March. Stockholm
***************************
Top 4 arms sellers in US $ (1992-1999) to developing nations
United States $90 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
United Kingdom $42 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
France $22 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Russia $19 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Source: Richard F. Grimmett, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1992-1999" (Washington: Congressional Research Service, August 18, 2000), p. 51
United States $4.5 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
China $3.1 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
France $1.2 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
UK $1.1 billion
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Canada $152 million
Source: SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). 2002. Correspondence on weapons transfer data. March. Stockholm
***************************
Top 4 arms sellers in US $ (1992-1999) to developing nations
United States $90 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
United Kingdom $42 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
France $22 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Russia $19 million
(permanent member of the UN Security Council)
Source: Richard F. Grimmett, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1992-1999" (Washington: Congressional Research Service, August 18, 2000), p. 51
New Work, New Adventure!
As of December 2nd, I will no longer be working for the Griffin Centre.
This is sad for me because I really did love the crisis work with all its many facets. In the end, being able to concretely help people who were sometimes in dire and immediate need of help was a great way to keep my enthusiasm and focus strong. I really did love working with the people around me as well.
Unfortunately, for some mysterious combination of reasons: my clinical thinking skills were not quite adequate (roll eyes here), the budget for the coming year could not for some mysterious reason guarantee that my contract would get renewed. Mysteriously, I had been renewed the previous year, but this year Griffin was up against the two year deadline.
This deadline, by Griffin's own policy and procedures, means that if you renew a person's contract for two years then you must hire them for the third. This is where I was.
Nevermind. Change is progress even if it is backwards. Although it must be said that Durham Mental Health Services is no fly-by-night operation and I hope to learn a great deal working there as a case manager in the mental health sector.
Hmm, strange that they, a mental health agency, do not have any over-inflated notions of what clinical thinking really means in day-to-day work with their population.
MORE ON THIS NOTION OF THE "CLINICAL" IN FUTURE POSTS.
This is sad for me because I really did love the crisis work with all its many facets. In the end, being able to concretely help people who were sometimes in dire and immediate need of help was a great way to keep my enthusiasm and focus strong. I really did love working with the people around me as well.
Unfortunately, for some mysterious combination of reasons: my clinical thinking skills were not quite adequate (roll eyes here), the budget for the coming year could not for some mysterious reason guarantee that my contract would get renewed. Mysteriously, I had been renewed the previous year, but this year Griffin was up against the two year deadline.
This deadline, by Griffin's own policy and procedures, means that if you renew a person's contract for two years then you must hire them for the third. This is where I was.
Nevermind. Change is progress even if it is backwards. Although it must be said that Durham Mental Health Services is no fly-by-night operation and I hope to learn a great deal working there as a case manager in the mental health sector.
Hmm, strange that they, a mental health agency, do not have any over-inflated notions of what clinical thinking really means in day-to-day work with their population.
MORE ON THIS NOTION OF THE "CLINICAL" IN FUTURE POSTS.
Lisa Wants to Know
My artist-friend in Montreal wants to know what my ultimate goal is with my "Trade-Up."
To be honest, the journey is the destination. I just want to see how far I can take this thing. So, e-mail me, offer me your brother's soccer ball or your mom's Phillips blender...I'm easy -- honest!
To be honest, the journey is the destination. I just want to see how far I can take this thing. So, e-mail me, offer me your brother's soccer ball or your mom's Phillips blender...I'm easy -- honest!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Trade-Up!
So there's this guy from Montreal -- Kyle MacDonald -- who started a website called "one red paper clip."
Yep! That paper clip. And he is determined to trade his way up from the paper clip to a house. So far he has gotten a wooden fish pen for the paper clip. In exchange for the wooden fish pen he got a hand made door knob. The door knob was then traded for a Coleman stove and now he has a red generator.
I first heard about this guy on CBC radio on November 10, 2005.
So, I figure, hey, if Kyle can do this....so can I.
I am willing to trade a fridge magnet in the shape of a hunk of cheese. I think its a promotional item produced by the Milk Board or whatever they call themselves...probably dairy something. The magnet is exactly the size of a single serving of cheese (50 g). This is not just a good trade, but potentially, the only magnet on your fridge which will help you become way healthier than you currently are....really!
I await your first trade...post your comments with an e-mail address and I will get back to you.
p.s. this offer is only open to people who are in Toronto or within a one hour driving radius of Toronto.
You can visit Kyle's website by clicking on the title of this post.
Yep! That paper clip. And he is determined to trade his way up from the paper clip to a house. So far he has gotten a wooden fish pen for the paper clip. In exchange for the wooden fish pen he got a hand made door knob. The door knob was then traded for a Coleman stove and now he has a red generator.I first heard about this guy on CBC radio on November 10, 2005.
So, I figure, hey, if Kyle can do this....so can I.
I am willing to trade a fridge magnet in the shape of a hunk of cheese. I think its a promotional item produced by the Milk Board or whatever they call themselves...probably dairy something. The magnet is exactly the size of a single serving of cheese (50 g). This is not just a good trade, but potentially, the only magnet on your fridge which will help you become way healthier than you currently are....really!
I await your first trade...post your comments with an e-mail address and I will get back to you.
p.s. this offer is only open to people who are in Toronto or within a one hour driving radius of Toronto.
You can visit Kyle's website by clicking on the title of this post.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Mea Culpa...
Complicit -- adj., Associated with or participating in a questionable act or a crime.
***
Daily, I meet parents who have cared for their son or daughter for 20, 30 and 40 years. They have not abandoned their kids. As parents no one can expect any less from them. Would you walk away from your handicapped child? Neither do these parents. But there must be a limit to how many years of sacrifice, labour, residence and money one can realistically expect two people to provide to a child who is no longer a child.
There should be a limit past which society says, "You have done well -- beyond well, beyond all possible expectations. We as a society value not just people's lives, but the quality of people's lives. We value your lives as parents and the lives of your children."
Instead, we provide parents with token aids. Support payments and supplements. And then, when all else fails -- a crisis network which throws money on any given brushfire. This staunches the flow for a time. In reality, it is hush money. It is all hush money. Here you go...a few dollars to hold you for a month or two...and the problem goes away. The system is off the hook.
And the reason I do not strap a sandwich board on and ring a bell at the corner of Yonge and Bloor, is that I benefit from the system as well. Yep. I have mortgage payments to make, don't you know? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my hush money. 40K keeps my mouth shut despite the overwhelming evidence of the injustice perpetrated in the name of a government which insists it is deeply concerned with 'people in need of services.'
This, I have decided, makes me complicit. I am the system.
* * *
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
-- Bishop Desmond Tutu
***
Daily, I meet parents who have cared for their son or daughter for 20, 30 and 40 years. They have not abandoned their kids. As parents no one can expect any less from them. Would you walk away from your handicapped child? Neither do these parents. But there must be a limit to how many years of sacrifice, labour, residence and money one can realistically expect two people to provide to a child who is no longer a child.
There should be a limit past which society says, "You have done well -- beyond well, beyond all possible expectations. We as a society value not just people's lives, but the quality of people's lives. We value your lives as parents and the lives of your children."
Instead, we provide parents with token aids. Support payments and supplements. And then, when all else fails -- a crisis network which throws money on any given brushfire. This staunches the flow for a time. In reality, it is hush money. It is all hush money. Here you go...a few dollars to hold you for a month or two...and the problem goes away. The system is off the hook.
And the reason I do not strap a sandwich board on and ring a bell at the corner of Yonge and Bloor, is that I benefit from the system as well. Yep. I have mortgage payments to make, don't you know? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my hush money. 40K keeps my mouth shut despite the overwhelming evidence of the injustice perpetrated in the name of a government which insists it is deeply concerned with 'people in need of services.'
This, I have decided, makes me complicit. I am the system.
* * *
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
-- Bishop Desmond Tutu
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Good Bye and Good Night Rosa Parks
"I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day," Parks wrote. "I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the tired I was, was tired of giving in."
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