Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Hopped up and ready to go.
I am feeling ridiculously hopped up at the moment, which I suspect is the result of the steroids prescribed to me by the dentist to help keep my mouth swelling down. Which is kind of nice – because I feel so eager to get things done, but on the other hand I’m a little distracted by how many things I could be doing all at once. Not to mention the slightly queasy feeling I’ve got going on which is a result of said steroids. I’ve got two more of them to take and then I’m done with them – which I think is for the best really – as I’ve just taken on tons of work in the last two days and I’m pretty sure these pills are also to blame for that!
So what’s on the go right now? I’ve just found out that the union wants me back in Ottawa at the end of the month for a couple of days, in which case I’m going ahead with scheduling a work meeting and a friend has invited me for dinner one night as well – making the whole thing more palatable. Additionally, since I’m trying to engineer some money flowing down to my unit from the almighty headquarters, having a bit of a face to face with the higher-ups is probably a good thing right now. Yesterday, I managed to sell some people on a whole new web strategy for one of our major information products and promised to write up a project plan in the next week for kicking around. Not to mention an agreement I made during a union-management consult yesterday to research a whole new communications in conflict-type course which I think would be really beneficial to pilot in my workplace (see my earlier post – Not Everything is Harassment if you want any explanation on that one). I’ve also got a great idea for a community grant proposal that I want to write up by next Wednesday and have agreed to leaflet 300 houses for an upcoming movie night. Oh, and my bees are coming soon and I’ve got to get their damned hive built pronto!
Problem is that even once these damned steroids have worn off I’m still going to have to do all these things, and without nearly as much energy. It’s a little daunting at the moment – but really, in an era of cut-backs (and I’m pretty sure bad ones are coming) it’s just so much better to be busy and make sure the whole work unit is too! And that busy fuels all the other stuff in my outside-of-work life.
There’s fun stuff coming up as well though – an overnight trip to Lummi Island in March, a ten-day roadtrip to Death Valley for some hiking in April, a 5-day sojourn to spend time with the folks at a rental house on the Oregon Coast in June, and some talk of heading back up to Cathedral Lakes for a camping/hiking trip in July. Oh – and NYC in October, which is aways off but we’re booking our tickets with Aeroplan points so we have to do it now.
I’m a little too spinny at the moment for any kind of a cogent post, but I suspect the mellower me will return within 48 hours. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of things I should be working on!
Communication democracy now!
Emerging in the last week in the two dramatically different contexts of Canada and Egypt – is that citizens globally are addressing communication technologies as a fundamental right, cel phones and the Internet and particular. More broadly, communication technology is seen here as the key facilitator for free speech – for what good is free speech if no one can hear you?
Which has always been the criticism levied at a corporately-owned media with no accountability and no oversight – and the call for a democratically-centered media in the form of public radio/tv, university journalism, and grassroots presses – none of which by definition could have the reach of the corporate players if only because of the lack of access to resources.
But I think that both the CRTC decision to allow for excessive billing by Internet providers, and the decision by Mubarak to cut off Internet and cel phone communications point out the inherent weakness in relying on anything other than our physical selves to create zones of freedom. Which doesn’t mean to go luddite in our organizing of course…. but to be prepared and recognize our Achilles heel for what it is. Which means keep building our lines of real world connection and communication. Our face-to-face meetings, our neighbour potlucks, our marches in the streets that pick stragglers up along the way.
It turns out that nowhere in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms are Canadians promised affordable Internet, nor accessible cel phone networks – and I’m pretty sure no citizen in the world does either. Perhaps now is the time we start agitating for the People’s Communication Charter?
Nothing to see here…..
I had more dental work this morning – involving a small surgery and two permanent crowns (oh and some Diazepam because I wasn’t going into a bone-cutting exercise without something Valium-like). Because of the extra drugs, B. had to bring me home and while he was waiting for me he managed to get himself a teeth-cleaning and check-up. Apparently my dental office is super-eager to book people as soon as they walk in the door.
I’m feeling a bit medicalized these days as I am also pursuing regular chiropractic appointments for a shoulder injury (that happened last year, but is apparently all connected to when I broke my ankle in 2005 because that’s just how these things work). Between the massage, chiro and dentist, I’ve had six appointments in 2011 already!
Suffice to say, all this extra medical attention is making me feel old before my time. On the other hand, being able to attend to things now (yay insurance!) means that actually getting older will be less complicated by things that could have been taken care of when I was young.
And herein lies my confusion at the lack of socialized medicine in the US, and the lack of socialized dentistry in both Canada and the US, not to mention the terrible cuts to BC medical care over the last decade that have removed services like chiro and massage and proper vision care from our free benefit. Because, really, we all know that being able to walk into an office and get treatment without paying means that we will actually take care of health issues as they come up – and that means that we are less costly as old people because we don’t have problems compounded over decades to deal with.
And not only that, it means that as workers we are more productive because we aren’t side-tracked by pain, limited mobility, mental health stumbles and other sufferings that are easily treated when they first manifest (but not so easily treated when left to fester for years). So it really costs less to give people more. Which I suppose is what makes me a socialist isn’t it?
All I can say about any of it is that I have the best medical and dental insurance one can have in Canada above my basic state-sponsored medical – and the kind of treatments I can get should be what everyone receives by sheer dint of being a citizen (or landed at least).
Oh Sunday and global anxiety.
Agh. I missed making a post yesterday because I was way too involved in Sunday activities – snow shoeing on Mt. Seymour, playing music, cleaning the house, making dinner for friends, finishing the Žižek book, drinking a little too much wine, ranting and hot-tubbing (not necessarily in that order). On the other hand, I had a super-awesome day with very little screen time – which is also necessary to my well-being – so, whatever. I wish it was postaday2011exceptforSunday because that would be more realistic in terms of my desires on the weekend.
One of the big focal points in our house at the moment is Egypt (of course) because that’s where all the really interesting action is at the moment, and because I am having a peculiar set of emotional reactions that are difficult to articulate in the time I have to write here today. Basically, my feelings can be summed up as thus:
- Liberation struggles are exciting, but with no ideological direction are very quickly taken up by opportunists (political, religious, criminal). What fills the void here remains to be seen.
- There is certainly analysis out there which points to the CIA being a major player in not only Egypt and Tunisian uprisings but also what happened in the Ukraine and Iran post-elections a couple of years back. My gut instinct tells me that these are all “revolutions out of the box” in which foreign operatives (US mostly I would guess) trigger existing discontent which is grounded in legitimate concerns (poverty, oppression, police brutality, misogyny etc). If this is the case, we have to wonder what the end game is in the Middle East (increasing control over the region’s resources as they dwindle I suppose – but through what mechanisms).
- There is the very real potential that this climate of destabilization could lead to cataclysmic warfare in the Middle East as Israel gets increasingly nervous. Israel has an itchy trigger finger and a huge amount of collective trauma which makes them more apt than others to act on it. A fully engaged Middle East war is not an option ecologically or morally at this point and would quickly burn through what few resources are left for sustaining life on the planet (and don’t get me started on the looming potential for war in the Arctic).
- Part of what is triggering recent uprisings (and a lot of people seem to be missing) is food scarcity and rising prices as a result. This scarcity is the result of massive crop failures due to flooding (and fire) last summer – which of course is climate-change triggered. Even if a people’s revolution is successful, the global food crisis is upon us. This is not simply a matter of redistribution anymore – we are in food store freefall and have been for the past decade. Further carbon-burning in the form of warfare will only worsen the crisis.
- There is little global infrastructure for supporting progressive revolution at this point – Venezuala and Bolivia may be shining beacons, but there isn’t an International in place to broaden that. Not that I’m a fan of monolithic ideological structures, but the fact is – we’re fighting one and we need some solidarity tools in our belt.
So there it is – my concerns that even though we see this great upswelling of people in the streets calling for freedom and dignity – somehow we are still missing the point. Globally, that is. And it’s not hard to understand why – the issues here are enormous, complex and the potential outcomes hard to grasp. There is a fabulous quote in the book I just finished that sums this up, but of course I don’t have it with me at the moment so it’ll have to wait for later. In any case, I’m experiencing a little global anxiety at the moment – something I hope will pass with more time spent in forest and garden.
A Letter to Potential Leadership
(To write your own letter on BC’s Environmental priorities, check out the Wilderness Committee site which gives an option to email all the candidates for leadership at once.)
Dear BC Leadership Candidate:
As a British Columbia, resource management worker and ecologist – I believe that it is time for real environmental leadership in British Columbia. As such, I am writing to request your position on the following environmental priorities in British Columbia so that I can encourage those who are able to support leadership candidates in parties to direct their energies towards the person(s) who will best represent environmental concerns.
Specifically, I am interested to hear your views on:
1) Raw Log export and Old-Growth Logging. BC has all but lost its wood-milling industry over the last three decades — job losses that have put increasing pressure on the extraction of wood rather than the secondary-processing of it. This in turn puts increasing pressure on old-growth areas such as Clayoquot Sound – true gems of the Pacific Northwest which should be left untouched as some of the last examples of intact temperate rainforest in the world. Neither the NDP or the Liberal Party have done much to stop the hemmoraging of jobs and trees from our province – and I am wondering if there is to be any change to that policy under your leadership?
2) The BC Park System: As a regular recreational user of the BC Parks system, I have noted a continual decline in our provincial parks. Sites are not being maintained and there are increasing cut-backs to resource and parks management staff. Not only can this represent a threat to public safety (ie: the shutting of the Manning Park Ranger Station where trail users at one time reported trail problems such as dried up water holes) but also looks pretty bad to the tourist base BC seeks to attract (ie: the Cathedral Lakes Parking Lot that has had a fallen tree right down the middle of it for more than two years – not to mention the destroyed BC Parks signs). I would like to know what commitments you are willing to make to restored BC Parks funding and the expansion of BC’s Parks?
3) Independent Power Projects: Far from being “small” and “green”, IPPs represent a massive threat to the river resources of our province. Not only are our rivers in danger of diversion, but fish populations already being adversely affected by the IPPs that have been allowed to go ahead. In addition, many IPPs require roads to be cut into previously roadless areas, affecting wildlife corridors and causing riparian area damage that will have long-term impacts on the eco-system. The worst part about the IPP strategy is that it is entirely unnecessary, as BC already provides more than enough power for its citizen base — additional energy projects are entirely about generating profit through the sale of cheap power resources to the United States. I would like to know your thoughts on IPPs and their future in BC. I would also like to know your position on further deregulation of BC Hydro, the legacy of which has contributed to the rise of IPPs.
Thanks for your time in responding to these issues, I look forward to hearing from you.
M.
Red Cedar 