Friday, December 11, 2009

Crush


What would happen if Vancouver and VANOC and the IOC and the province all had the grace and self-confidence that should come with having that much power?

Perhaps they could find the chutzpah to just ignore little things that they don't like.

No.

Instead they must go tromping around, grinding their heels into any little oddity that doesn't quite fit in with the Big Plan.

Our weenie is bigger than yours.

That's all it comes down to.

Case in point, the piece of art shown above which has been hanging outside a local gallery.

The city has demanded it come down.

The city has called it "graffiti."

The decision maker here on what is art and what is graffiti is a nameless, faceless city inspector.

We pay this boob's salary.

How about inspecting farm vehicles with 17 worker-passengers and no seat belts? [SEE BELOW]

Now, this is odd behaviour from the City of Vancouver because Mayor Gregor Robertson has publicly declared that the city's “commitment has always been the protection of people's Charter Rights and Freedoms.”

O.K. Gregor.

Get on your bike.

Go down to your favorite 'hood, the DTES, and put the painting back on the wall.

The mid-town sillies are so busy celebrating the past ( A hint of Woodward's old food floor has returned to the new re-development. Man, you would think this was the only city in the world that had a big old food department downtown.) that they are not noticing the present and the future being sold for a down-hill run.

KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid


Here's the basic idea.

After numerous failed attempts to reduce crime among their youth, native leaders and communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are proposing aboriginal school boards, a controversial idea even among first nations.

Some argue that this will get native kids up and moving and away from street crime.

Others suggest this will be a return to the nightmares of residential schools.

This polarization is not helping.

The truth and part of the solution to an ongoing tragedy in our midst lies, as it often does, somewhere in the middle.

Here and there, a few individual projects have been showing some glimmers of hope.

Winnipeg's Children of the Earth is a high school that seems to be helping aboriginal young people do better work.

Good.

If it's working support it. Fund it.

But do not leap to the conclusion that we now need a network or consortium or government institution of encrusted aboriginal separate schools.

The last thing that will possibly help alleviate what is and should be seen as a national disgrace (Have you visited Manitoba or Saskatchewan lately?) is a new bureacracy of any kind, let alone native education.

Look not for silver bullets and big sweeping changes, but for many modest LOCAL solutions.

Where aboriginal students are succeeding integrated into public schools, great.

Where they are not and someone is prepared to put together an alternative that may do a better job, fine.

But please do not go off madly re-inventing the wheel.

Scabby Parks, Shabby Leader


Writing in yesterday's Province, Ethan Baron has added fuel to my post of yesterday about the Premier's charming lack of regrets.

Something stinks in our provincial parks, and it isn't just the toilets

Liberals spend more on PR than people

Shame


Are some women in the Canadian labour force still treated like slaves?

Yes.

Are they still disposable?

Yes.

Crash that killed three farm workers ruled 'accidental' by coroner's jury