Contents
- The boot-licking vipras
- Relapsed In A Shoddy Place
- Downtown Ambassador Patrol
- From Colleen Carroll
- I just want to thank everyone
- Premier's pledge to aid the province's poor rings false
- A Saturday Morning
- THE CROWDED LONELINESS
- Dear Friends:
- Our priority is housing
- This happened at Central City Lodge
- News from the Library
- City gives tax exemptions to billionaires
- SOLIDARITY NOTES LABOUR CHOIR
- Dear Friends,
- Dr. James Chi Ming Pau
- Colleen’s Corner
- Dalannah Gail Bowen - Poetry
- THEY ALL WERE KINGS
- My Grandfather
- True love
- ARTS FOR ALL INSTITUTE
- “HAND UP, NOT OUT”
- LOVE and FREEDOM
- Dear readers [and permanent revolutionaries]
"The boot-licking vipras [intellectuals and religionists] of the capitalists trick the hungry shudras [workers, poor, illiterate] into believing that poverty is a result of their previous misdeeds, and they will have to be prepared to wait until their next life before receiving the inexorable decree of fate. This makes a group of people passive fatalists and paves the way for the ruthless exploitation of the capitalists." -P.R.Sarkar
Relapsed In A Shoddy Place
Relapsed In A Shoddy Place
Mine life’s on a dangerous path,
I relapsed in a shoddy place
The rancourous aftermath: bloody ‘n at death’s door..
That’s ‘cause I'm a chronically abused child –displaced.
Retrogression attracted my lower state of mind,
Where remaining a victim seemed all right
Yeah I still curse & accuse –I'm one of a kind
Looking for trouble – can’t hold back.
Indian Residential Schools? drunk tanks? what a life
So I relapsed ‘n now refuse to turn the page
Where betwixt the lines reads ‘there’s no turning back’
Is this the picture I painted –in a shoddy place?
Still I'm alive an’ well – born strong
Couldn’t help but I realized what went wrong
Mine spirituality drowned of poisons –in a shoddy place
Lying in a dead state –couldn’t sing my song.
Mine songs in a dark place –the lights are in between
Buried ‘n extinct, no mercy nor a dot of rescue
My challenges are at stake –don’t know which way to go
Still my dreadful soul is relapsed in a shoddy place
in a shoddy place
shoddy place
All my relations,
William Arnold Combes
Downtown Ambassador Patrol records show
thousands of removals from public space
On October 13 Pivot and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) made their final arguments in a human rights complaint against The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association’s (DVBIA) Downtown Ambassadors Program.
The complaint, initiated in 2008 on behalf of people who appear to be street homeless and/or addicted to drugs, alleges systemic discrimination against homeless people by the Downtown Ambassadors. Pivot and VANDU argued that homeless people are protected by the Human Rights Code because of the disproportionate overrepresentation of people of Aboriginal ancestry and/or persons with mental and physical disabilities, including addictions, amongst the homeless population.
“The DVBIA argues that Ambassadors are a source of support for the homeless, directing them to shelters and other resources” says Doug King, staff lawyer
with Pivot Legal Society, “yet evidence disclosed during the hearing, including the Ambassadors’ own electronic patrol records, shows the Ambassadors removed “sleepers”, “street people”, “drug users” and “panhandlers” from public space including sidewalks, alleys, lanes and parks thousands of times between September 2005 and March 2010.”
In the course of the hearing, the DVBIA’s private security consultant Dave Jones and two Ambassadors videotaped interviews with people he believed to be homeless. The video they produced was submitted to the tribunal as evidence.
The video itself demonstrates the DVBIA’s lack of understanding when it comes to the rights and realities of marginalized people, according to Ann Livingston of VANDU. A synopsis of the video produced by Pivot which highlights some of the concerns it raises, as well as the full 30 minute Ambassador video with the identity of those whose did not agree to be interviewed removed, are available at PivotLegalTV on YouTube.
The tribunal is expected to deliver its ruling in this case sometime in 2011. Pivot and VANDU were represented by Megan Vis-Dunbar and Jason Gratl.
From Colleen Carroll
From Colleen Carroll
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to attend my art show on November 4th to 30th. On Nov. 4th is the Opening Reception, 6pm to 8pm. It is at Radha Yoga & Eatery, 728 Main Street. (On the East side of the street, UP STAIRS). This is located between Keefer and Georgia Street.
I also have a few paintings in the Oppenhiemer Art Show located at Gallery Gachet, 88 east Cordova St. the Opening Reception is Nov. 5th at 6PM to 9PM
Both events showcase art of the Downtown Eastside! I just want to thank everyone
I just want to thank everyone in the DTES for all the cards, hugs, food, love, ceremonies, and kind thoughts about the passing of my partner Sandy Cameron. His celebration of life will be on Nov.14 from 1 to 3 at the
Carnegie Theatre where he wanted it. I think what he would want is that we keep taking care of ourselves and each other and keep working to end poverty and get more affordable housing built.
Jean
Premier's pledge to aid the province's poor rings false
Diane Brennan, Special to The Daily News
Published: Friday, October 15, 2010
Who best defines political hypocrisy in B.C.?
I nominate Gordon Campbell. When he addressed the Union of B.C. Municipalities last month, he said that voting down the HST would hurt the poor. This is a bit hard to swallow given it comes from the man responsible for the deepest cuts to poverty services in B.C. in decades.
It is galling to hear Campbell extol the virtues of helping the poor because his government's cuts have disproportionately hurt them. The Campbell government's policies have plunged B.C. to the bottom when it comes to poverty rates. We now have the highest rate of poverty in Canada and Canada has one of the highest relative child poverty rates among rich nations. We have the lowest minimum wage in Canada. Having a job in B.C. doesn't mean that you will find your way out of poverty. In fact, it may just keep you there.
So when Campbell lectures about not hurting the poor, I have to wonder, does he have no shame?
Campbell is responsible for so many affronts to the poor it is hard to keep track. There have been cuts to legal services, women's centres, child care services, school meal programs, food banks, income assistance shelter allowances and disability supports including mental health funding. Non-profit service providers who still have funding have contracts that either discourage or prohibit them from doing advocacy work on behalf of their clients. There is a chill in the system and they don't speak up. Campbell is the guy who, in 2002, made cuts that changed the face of justice in B.C.. He cut legal aid funding forcing the closure of about 60 legal aid offices in the province. More cuts came last year when the funding shortfall forced the closure of all but two legal aid offices. That means there remain only two legal aid offices in all of B.C.
This is what access to justice looks like to the poor who live under Campbell's regime.
Campbell urging municipalities to be kind to the poor is the height of hypocrisy. Homelessness skyrocketed while he stood idle and left cities and towns struggling to provide shelter and services to homeless people. Finally city councils, overwhelmed by the pressure of citizens, service providers and businesses, started to push back.
There wasn't a city or region in the province that didn't demand that the province produce money for solutions. So look for a few dollars to be spent on social housing, but of course after a decade of neglect it won't begin to meet the real need. After the current housing money is spent, I predict that social spending will dry up once more. Being kind to the poor looks like another one of Campbell's flights of fancy that won't amount to much.
I see there were 300 people at the Nanaimo Thanksgiving dinner at St. Paul's Church. Seeing those numbers you have to ask if Campbell was sincere when he made his pitch about being kind to the poor. With his track record the only way I can see him getting excited about the plight of the poor, is if he perceived some political self interest. With the HST fiasco threatening to end his career, it seems even a veteran poor basher like Campbell can muster up a few crocodile tears.
A Saturday Morning
Drizzle falls
A mist spreads over
The garbage bin resembles
A bride with a train of gems
A window box spills emeralds
Glistening at times
Shrubs wrapped by a misty white
As if first snow chances to rest
Solid colours are softened
By white in the slight sprinkle
What treasure
I discover on this moist morning!
Grace Kwan
THE CROWDED LONELINESS“THE CROWDED LONELINESS
IN MY MIND IS SO LOUD AND NOISEY,
I CANNOT FIND A QUIET PLACE
TO HIDE FROM MYSELF.”
Henry George
LOSTBOY@LIVE.CA
Dear Friends:
Dear Friends:
Savannah and I felt great sadness and tears on hearing of the loss of our community’s dear friend and champion Sandy Cameron.
Sandy was such a kind and loving man and he had a huge impact on the work of Savannah and I.
We first had the honour of meeting Sandy in 2002, as Vancouver Moving Theatre embarked upon creating (in partnership with Carnegie Community Centre) In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play. Sandy’s insights on recurring patterns of alienation, sanctuary, resistance and radical possibility provided the foundation on which we constructed The Downtown Eastside Community Play - an original play created for and by the Downtown Eastside. It is this same foundation which has served as a foundation for the DTES Heart of the City Festival.
As Bob Sarti says: “Sandy has also given voice to those who have been silenced through history, from Canada’s Aboriginal people, to labour martyrs and dispossessed Japanese-Canadians to the lost and homeless in our midst.” And as poet and Downtown Eastsider Bud Osborn says, “Sandy Cameron is not only my favourite poet, but the best poet I know. Nobody else speaks both personally and collectively of our common histories, oppressions and resistances, nor do many poets speak so directly and clearly with such a beautiful cadence. Cameron’s poems reveal our caring, wisdom and courage, and they also reveal our carelessness, ruthlessness and crimes against one another. But his voice is ultimately that of grace.”
Sandy encouraged our writers to voice and record their own histories; witnesses our performances, cheers on the artists; and publishes poetry to feed our spirit. Together with his life partner Jean Swanson, Sandy is one of those who make a difference, preserving the history that anchors the Downtown Eastside and keeps us connected to each other – and our location.
Sandy’s dedication to our community is an inspiration. And his profound and insightful writing will serve as a guide for decades to come.
In your own immortal words Sandy - ‘Memory is the Mother of Community’. You, dear friend, will be remembered in our hearts forever.
Terry Hunter
Executive Director, Vancouver Moving Theatre
Artistic Producer, Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
Savannah T.E. Walling
Artistic Director, Vancouver Moving Theatre
Associate Artistic Director, Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
DTES residents make surprise appearance at Mayor Robertson's Terminal City Club City budget consultation
"Our priority is housing."
Slogan from the October 22 action for housing.
A group of DTES residents and housing activists rallied at the 100-year-old clubhouse of Vancouver’s big-business real estate to demand housing be built above the new Hastings Street Library.
Surprise action organizer Tami Starlight, elected Steering Committee member of the DTES Neighbourhood Council said, "It's incredible that city council can pretend that building social housing or not is a technical issue. This is the same council that brags about having the lowest property tax rate in all the G8 countries, and the mayor is holding a budget consultation with big business at the Terminal City Club? Of course we're here to raise the issue of social housing. The solution is simple: raise taxes on business and the rich. We want the city to buy or designate 10 sites for social housing in our neighbourhood before the next election. They can start with putting social housing above our new library."
About city council's claim that the promised 14 sites of housing will solve the so-called "street homelessness" problem in Vancouver, Dave Diewert of Streams of Justice said, "There were only 280 actual new social housing units built in BC in the last 5 years, when you look through the smoke and mirrors of announcements and there is not much there. The DTES is the place and the priority to purchase land for housing. When mayor Robertson says that he will solve the problem of 'street homelessness,' we know he means 'visible' homelessness. We need enough social housing to end all homelessness."
Nathan Compton, a member of VANACT!, speaking about the surprise action and hinting at more to come, said, "We should have no faith in the future when the city can't guard and protect existing units.Council gave a token 6 units at the American hotel, approving the eviction of the tenants and the profiteering flip of the building. Council has no plan for after 2013 even though they know it takes 4,5,or 6 years to bring more housing on line. We're making our own plans for more actions to fight for housing."
Finally, Dave Murray, CCAP volunteer and DNC member wrapped up the intent of the surprise action by unveiling the full list of ten sites DNC is demanding the city buy for housing before the next election.
Murray said, "I have been homeless, lived in hotels, I've slept in a few doorways and parks and some laneways in Strathcona. This is really a no brainer. We want you to buy 5 properties a year for social housing and you don't even have to buy the library site. This would be 1 down and 9 more to go." The other DTES sites Dave Murray unveiled for the city to buy or designate as 100% social housing were:
1) Library on Hastings City owned
2) Buddhist Temple Prov owned empty bldng
3) Pigeon Park Savings Prov owned empty lot
4) 58 W. Hastings Empty lot
5) 549 and 553 E Cordova Empty lots
6) Pantageous Theatre Empty buildings
7) 148 E Cordova Empty lot
8) Stadium Hotel on Cambie SRO for sale
9) 334 Carrall Empty building
10) 780 Main Empty lot
Dave Murray, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council, (778) 320-5823 Nathan Crompton, VanAct! (778) 628-6252 Tami Starlight, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council [DNC] (604) 790-9943
Readers,
This happened at Central City Lodge. My boyfriend is Daniel King and he lived here. He’s very sick and had just gotten out of St Paul’s hospital. He has HIV but no matter, I love him anyway.
This resident, Louie, owes me $60 but wouldn’t pay me so that’s a write-off. On a recent day Louie threw his soup at Daniel (likely for being called a cheat) and Danny naturally threw it back at him. The next morning Louie didn’t come down for breakfast so the manager, Dale, went to his room. Next thing Danny is evicted for being violent.
Put yourself in his place, now homeless and no place to go. Danny was outside all night with his suitcase & wouldn’t go to First Church Shelter because of the bedbugs. He came to my room next morning and told me and I was shocked. We went down to Hastings and luckily there was a room vacant at the Regent Hotel.
There weren’t 2 sides considered and no compassion. What an atrocity.
Marlene Wuttunee News from the Library
News from the Library
Hi everyone. I’ve been away for the last week and a half and am hoping I can get this article in just under deadline (fingers crossed).
Some items from our display case:
Some of you may already be familiar with The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (613.96). If you’ve ever wanted to know how to leap from a motorcycle to a car, how to wrestle an alligator, or how to land a plane, this is the book for you. Just don’t try any of these things inside the library.
He was the greatest of all time. The heavyweight champion of the world. The inventor of rap. Muhammad Ali is one of the defining figures of the 20th century. A giant whose influence extended far beyond the world of boxing. Walter Dean Myers’ The Greatest (921 ALI) is a slim, but complete retelling of Ali’s extraordinary life.
From a figurative giant to a literal one. If you grew up in the ‘70s, then you can no doubt easily conjure up the image of Julius Erving - ‘Dr. J’ - flying through the air, his afro blown back and a red, white and blue ABA ball gripped tightly in his outstretched hand – just moments away from being slammed into the basket. Dr. J will always be remembered as one of the most colourful and iconic basketball players. He is the classic ‘70s baller. Vincent Mallozzi’s Doc (921 ERV) tells the good doctor’s story.
Finally, an exhaustive treasure from the library’s Aboriginal collection. Native American Medicinal Plants (615.3203 M69n) is a very thorough dictionary of over 3000 plants used by Aboriginal people through out North America for medicinal purposes.
All of these books are in the library display case, and will be available to borrow on Monday, November 8.
On a final note – please come out to the launch of the library’s enhanced Downtown Eastside collection. This event is part of the Heart of the City Festival, and will be taking place at the Carnegie branch on Thursday November 4th, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Come check out the collection, and hear some great local poets, including George McWhirter – Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate.
Randy, your librarian City gives tax exemptions to billionaires
City gives tax exemptions to billionaires and threatens to cut social housing above the new DTES library due to lack of funds
"We have the advantage of an extremely competitive tax regime here. Within a few years we'll be the lowest corporate tax rate combined in the G8."
Mayor Gregor Robertson, 2009
Of 41 major international cities, Vancouver ranks number one for having the lowest combined tax rate for businesses.
Competitive Alternatives 2010 Special Report: Focus on Tax
The Keefer is a "four-unit boutique hotel where rooms cost $700 a night. .. The entire project would not have been possible were it not for financial incentives offered by the City of Vancouver: A l0-year property tax exemption."
"Lush Life," Canadian Architect (Vol. 55 No.9, September 2010).
The Keefer is located at 133 Keefer Street (between Main and Columbia). The owner is millionaire Cam Watt, who made his fortune selling bottled water as the owner of Canadian Springs.
"The new Gastown Terminus condo homes on offfer: have to be seen to be believed. Act quickly [on] property tax exemptions for new home purchasers."
"FINAL OPPORTUNITY at the Downtown Vancouver Terminus Gastown Condos for Sale," Vancouver Pre-Construction Real Estate Condos, April 2009
"Engineered hardwood floors & Stainless appliances. Woodward's owners are exempt from property tax for 3 years!!! GST is paid!!!"
Lindsay Stefanko, Rennie & Associates Realt, April 30, 2010
"Last week, two major retail anchors opened for business [in Woodward's]. One, the latest addition to Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison's stable, is [Nesters]. The second is a London Drugs supermarket. .. Both stores were enticed by subsidies; they won't pay municipal taxes at Woodward's for the next 10 years and their rental rates are rock bottom."
"Vancouver Downtown Eastside slowly crawls toward gentrification," National Post, December 17,2009
"We don't have the money in the drawers ... we have nowhere near what we need for housing ... We have real limitations and uncertainty in the economy and city books in terms of what we can do ... we can't make a commitment."
Mayor Gregor Robertson, on justifying city council's threatened exclusion of social housing from the new Strathcona Library, October 7, 2010. After being shown I ,500 signatures on a petition calling for housing on the city-owned library site, City Council passed a motion saying they would "investigate" the need for housing on the library. At a meeting on October 7, 2010, City Council voted to prioritize a "stand-alone" library, deprioritizing housing, citing financial limitations.
SOLIDARITY NOTES LABOUR CHOIR
SINGING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE:
SOLIDARITY NOTES LABOUR CHOIR
CELEBRATES ITS 10th ANNIVERSARY
They've been called, "without a doubt, the finest union choir in North America.”
Vancouver’s Solidarity Notes Labour Choir have been making music and working for a better world for a de-cade now, inspired by conductor Earle Peach. They
will be presenting their 10th Anniversary Concert on Friday, November 5th, at 7:30 PM, at the Unitarian Church, 949 West 49th Avenue in Vancouver.
The Solidarity Notes are a group of 60 people from many walks of life who have come together out of their shared love of song and the belief that music is an essential ingredient for positive social change. As is their tradition, the Choir will be donating the proceeds of this concert to others working for social justice who are in need of support.
This special concert will benefit Guatemala’s Camp-esino Committee of the Highlands, known by its Spanish acronym as the CCDA. The CCDA is a social movement which organizes cooperatives who produce Café Justicia - organic, fair trade ‘plus’ coffee that is widely available in Vancouver labelled Café ético. Because the CCDA also promotes Mayan culture, fights for plantation workers’ rights and struggles for land reform in Guatemala, they are often targeted by political opponents. They have recently suffered a series of coordinated, vicious and debilitating attacks
which include death threats, shootings, large-scale robberies and extensive vandalism.
The Solidarity Notes 10th Anniversary Concert will feature performances of Mayan dance, the music of Marimba La Kanjobalita, and an appearance by the
Big Sing (a group of five East End choirs who came together during theOlympics), in addition to a full repertoire of fabulous songs sung by the Choir itself.
There will also be a silent auction, delicious Guatemalan food and refreshments, and baked goods for sale. Tickets are $20 and are available from People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive; however, no one will be turned away at the door for lack of funds. Seating is limited!
As one inspired audience member said of the Solidarity Notes, “Music wins hearts and attention where words sometimes fail.”
On November 5th, please join us for an unforgettable and uplifting evening of music and solidarity.
Dear Friends,
As some of you know, I've been singing with the Solidarity Notes Labour Choir for the past several years... Below is our press release giving the details for our 10th Anniversary Concert, coming up on Friday, November 5th.
This event is expected to sell out, and tickets are actually selling fast. I have a limited number of tickets, so if you would like to be part of this wonderful event, please contact me ASAP to let me know how many tickets you would like to reserve while there are still some available! Hope to see you there!
Sarah 604.607.5204 Dr. James Chi Ming Pau
Dr. James Chi Ming Pau was nominated for an award for his 35 years of volunteer work in Chinatown, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and the surrounding area.
I am proud of James Pau, not only for being able to volunteer with him in the HIV\IDU DTES Consumers Board, World A.I.D.S. Day, and other projects too many to count, but most of all because he is my dear friend.
James Chi Ming Pau is a great man not only in the Chinese Community, but everywhere he has helped people cope with their illness, and again I say he is my best friend and will always be.
Kirk Hosie
Colleen’s Corner
Colleen’s Corner
Volunteer Committee Meeting
Wednesday, November 10th at Ipm in Classroom II
Volunteer of the Month is chosen by those at the meeting (not by staff) ALL VOLUNTEERS WELCOMEI Your voice is needed and appreciated.
Volunteer Banquet Style Dinner - Carnegie Theatre Wednesday, November 17th at 4:30 Sharp!
Your contribution and hard work is appreciated by the many people who benefit by your services. Let us serve you! Skill testing questions for mystery prizes.
Please pick up your ticket from the Volunteer Program Office
Volunteers of the Month
* Muriel Williams, Learning Centre
* Ray Lee, Kitchen Worker Bee
Celebration of Life for Sandy Cameron
Sunday, November 14 from 1- 3pm Carnegie Theatre
Sandy died peacefully 10 October with Jean Swanson, his partner of 25 years and his niece beside him. He was a logger, miner, prospector, teacher, writer, mentor, poet, humanitarian, athlete, grandpa and surrogate grandpa, storyteller, gentle soul and strong antipoverty housing and human rights activist. People say about Sandy:
"Such a totally beautiful person, always ready to tell your kids there was another path." "He taught me that it is possible to fight for what you believe in while taking care of those around you."
Dalannah Gail Bowen - Poetry
Dalannah Gail Bowen - Poetry
Taking a step outside her blues/jazz musical career, Dalannah Gail Bowen offers an inside look at her addiction, homelessness and recovery. The Returning Journey is a collection of poems that was first presented by the Firehall Theatre as a one-woman staged play.
Sharing her story of a troubled childhood, her music, homelessness, addiction and recovery from a different source, Dalannah Gail Bowen takes you through the pain, despair and heartache to the understanding and joy of overcoming a “limiting past.”
Respected poet Bud Osborn provides the forward including the following:
“In this collection are deeply moving poems about those things which both threaten to prevent us from fulfilling our possibilities as human beings, and those which bring new life to fruition.”“Through Dalannah’s journey, she makes poems for us that bring joy and compassion into our lives. So hold these poems close to your heart. These are poems that can save lives.”
THEY ALL WERE KINGS
Now now now ladies and gents, a certain day is coming & will go with none of them knowing what it meant. November the Eleventh is the day in question now we can all try to never relive but to give, to those who accepted death knowing full well their life would be short-lived yet well spent? a shallow shell of humanity whom we’re taught this & that plus a mountain of future calamity – get this right before even more horrific teachings are forgot, like a kangaroo court jumping over conclusions a brand new sport scraping them solutions your lapse of remorse will take its ugly course AGAIN.
Past atrocities get tied up in knots, when just one forgets what has been done it will prove Agatha Christie right “and then there were none” – like pornographic comic strips and books or executions on pay-per-view their expectations of the future wiped out on the spot by self-made resentment which was caught on the newest gadgets that repel like a sink full of maggots like St Minus’ crawlspace residing in what once was beauty but now just lays there and rots; now look what this world has made us become not very pretty this extremely vacant kingdom Poppy Season is and will forever have the most heartfelt tearful day, now being born on the eleventh will never ever let my mind wander away.
So manhy other events have taken place you condemn your own God for what we’ve done to this place.. commemorative stamps on sale or burnt into your skin if you wish go ahead & pretend you had a choice once again I find myself in a lonely place, what does it take for you to worry not fear that has been made clear, house-warming parties last all year did you know keepers now make finders disappear, like the limousine lanes & all the rest driving me insane tell me when to forget the past these involuntary visionary dreams are not what they seem, now how many nites have I turned off the lites when it hits me I could solve all these problems with a jug of kerosene; the beauty of war becomes the needle through the eye of the beholder or so it seems;; this vacant kingdom will always be a ghosthunter’s dream.
By ROBERT McGILLIVRAY
“To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be.”
Miguel de Unamuno My Grandfather
My Grandfather
For Christopher Paul, a Saanich Elder
I like my grandfather.
He is never in a hurry.
He takes time to be himself.
He gives me time to be myself.
His clock is the tide.
My grandfather is quiet.
He listens when there is nothing to hear.
He looks when there is nothing to see.
We sit together in silence,
sharing each other's company.
My grandfather does not fight me with words.
He does not ask many questions.
He does not demand many answers.
He speaks softly,
but I never forget what he says.
When my grandfather talks to me,
all of him is there.
There is not some part of him
which is somewhere else.
My grandfather respects my life.
He lets me make my own mistakes.
He waits for me
as a mountain waits for the deer
to graze upon its meadows
in the early morning.
My grandfather is patient.
He is not afraid.
That which he has done
has been well done,
and therefore done forever
With wisdom as an aged tree,
he waits in quiet dignity
in silence and serenity
for an old friend.
Sandy Cameron
True loveTrue love
With time separation grows easier
But with separation time moves slower
With either time or separation my love does not waver
The memory of you is forever branded in my heart.
The memory of feeling my heart expanding when we meet
The essence of your scent tickling my nose
The strength of your body holding mine
The timbres of your voice purring though my brain, imprinted on my heart.
With time separation grows easier
But with separation time moves slower
With either time or separation my love does not waver
The memory of you is forever branded in my heart.
By Emma Whitney
ARTS FOR ALL INSTITUTE
Community Arts Council of Vancouver
ARTS FOR ALL INSTITUTE
Lena Felde has a presentation about social change and community art; David Lee has ideas for increasing en-gagement with members, potential mbrs & supporters
Tues. Nov. 9-Sun. Nov. 14
Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell
Info: coordinator Sharon Bayly at 604-628-5672.
Afternoon workshops
Art-making workshops with the community that explore garden designs, music, edible art, food and indigenous plants.
Mon. Nov. 8 7-9pm
Talk with Ruth Howard of Jumblies Theatre -FREE
What Feels Important Right Now (in Community Arts)
Mary Bennett, , CACV mary@cacv.ca 604-617-0142 “HAND UP, NOT OUT”
“HAND UP, NOT OUT”
For the past while, I have been involved with the Carnegie Community Action Project, and it’s been an honour. I acknowledge the Coast Salish people, and thank them for allowing me to live and work in their territory.
Homelessness is an issue that needs direct action, not only from all levels of government, but also from the faith-based organizations. By this I mean the Catholic church, Salvation Army and any others that profess to aid the needy. Homeless people foster these organizations and their need to be of service.. their ticket to heaven, perhaps.
I suggest that these organizations pressure their members and the politicians to take action and start to build the social housing that is so desperately needed. I suggest that these organizations should be at the forefront of accomplishing this. They own property and enough assets to build housing on their own.
I have read that the Salvation Army is second only to the Catholic Church in wealth and property in Canada. They may want to explain the reason for this. I've heard that you can't take it with you.
You may wonder why I’ve decided to say something about this. I had to help someone find shelter, and the only place that was available was the Catholic Charities Hostel. The sign says "Catholic Charities ", but yet a referral is needed by the Ministry [Welfare] to get a bed. The reason is that the ministry reimburses the Charities for doing this. So please tell me, where is the Catholic charity?
We hear the Salvation Army touting that they provide 1/3 of all shelter beds in Canada. but they fail to mention that the provincial or city government reimburses them as well. So I wonder when these organizations will step up and help rather than foster this issue.
As a people, we have to aid the homeless. I don't just mean the handouts of candy and socks, but our conviction to find homes for them; To build them if they don't exist. To bring to bear our energy to those who will listen and act. Far too much time is spent listening and debating; governments and others still shirk their responsibility. Someone, anyone needs to take action. I suggest the faith-based organizations need to put both hands out and push our leaders to act and solve this issue. I grow weary of reading how much money these organizations pledge to other countries to aid their less fortunate, then watch as they pass out candy, socks and stuff that, in all likelihood, was donated in the first place.
Having a home gives a person a chance to live, and be a productive member of their community. Having a home gives one hope. So please, as I do, ask the Creator to help those in need, and those in power to act to get people off the streets.
All my relations.
Robert Bonner
LOVE and FREEDOM
I was born to share, to give to love.
As a child I wandered through other people's lives.
As an adolescent other cultures adopted me,
Sharing with me the beauty of their ways.
My first initiation into the realm of the universal soul.
In my youth I gave my love to one whose spirit was dead.
And he tried to crush mine because of fears of his own.
He plundered my mind, my body, my love.
And tore at my soul, my being, my everything.
What was left was a shell with no life of its own.
The healing was long, and painful, and fruitless at first.
But the strength of one's spirit can always be heard.
Now I walk through fields of beauty and sight.
Sharing kindness and happiness and spiritual love.
I travel the world in beauty of mind, learning philosophies
of higher ideals.
I know that something is worth more than freedom of mind
But caution please be, so as not to forget.
That we are one of many, and all part of the flow.
A universal consciousness of mind, body and soul.
Judy Laverick
Dear readers [and permanent revolutionaries]Dear readers [and permanent revolutionaries]
I have fairly little space to persuade you of three things 1. that the DTES is on the path to being gentrified out of existence;
2. the neighbourhood is worth saving in much the form it is now, and
3. stronger action is needed to save it.
One: The DTES right now, in October 2010, will be gentrified to death unless something changes pretty soon, and changes a lot.
Gentrification is the term used to describe the change in an area when richer people and businesses move in, and existing residents and businesses are forced to move away to cheaper areas because they can no longer afford the rents, taxes or prices in the stores.
Over 20 years, between 1970 and 1990, Kitsilano changed from the heart of the Canadian west coast hippie culture to a swank area for yuppies and the fairly affluent. Commercial Drive is now about 70 percent gentrified, and within 10 years, 20 to be sure, it will have barely any of the counterculture appeal it had in the 1980s and '90s. It is on life-support.
Next up is the DTES. My estimate is that gentrification now stands at about 30 percent in our neighbourhood. The spread of Gastown eastward, beyond Carrall and as far as Columbia, and the Woodward's Building on Hastings, has pretty much conquered the west side of the DTES. To the south is Chinatown and Strathcona, which are markedly different from the heart of the DTES, and north is the industrial zone, railway and waterfront. Smart restaurants and higher-end condos are colonising the area - check out Alexander Street immediately west and east of the bridge over to Crab Park.
Gentrification is now coming in from the east. The most obvious example is the Les Amis du Fromage cheese shop and Au Petit Chavignol restaurant on Hastings between Hawks and Campbell. This chic bistro offers a small cheese platter for $29, and personal dining options at $30, $40 and $50 per person. The restaurant is doing well, as the west side gourmands apparently think it is "adventurous" to slum it in this "unsavory" neighbourhood, according to diner reviews. We can be 100 percent certain that the relatively cheap rents will attract similar higher end restaurants and other establishments in the near future.
One thing about capitalism eh, good old "free enterprise" never misses a trick and can smell a deal like stinky cheese in a hospital ward.
Any appeal to entrepreneurs that they are pricing existing residents and operations out of the neighbourhood is dismissed - getting in while land values and/or rents are low and watching them rise is the name of the game. Business is not sensitive to the fact that it can locate anywhere else in metro Vancouver, and this 0.1 percent of the land mass is reserved for the most marginalized. You don't negotiate with a sociopathic entity - it wants it all.
There are spot gentrifications inside the heart of the community as well - Waves coffee shop at Main and Cordova for example, a new art cinema on Main across from the police building, a bridal store next to the Brandiz Hotel on Hastings. You might think the DTES is a better place for having a few smart stores, and I would agree. The problem is that one thing leads to another, and before long we will be at a tipping point where many of the existing stores that cater to the core population of the DTES will have to move.
Let's be clear - gentrification is forced removal by market forces.
The end result is the same as if the government sent in trucks to the DTES with instructions for all the drug addicted, mentally ill, people on disability and welfare and no-income to be loaded into the trucks and taken elsewhere.
Perish any misty-eyed idea of the rich and poor living side by side.
Sometimes you can have a minority of low-income mixed in with a clear majority of middle class or more affluent. But any idea that the kind of people who bought condos in Woodwards or who eat at Au Petit Chavignol will tolerate living amidst the extraordinary core population of the DTES is wishful thinking.
There is already trouble brewing in Strathcona, until now a fairly friendly neighbourhood. The Strathcona Residents Association (SRA) claims that Strathcona includes the area as far north as the waterfront, and west to Gore Avenue. This is a far cry from the traditional understanding that Strathcona is south of Hastings.
The SRA's 2010 Community Vision wants to "regain a healthy balance" and says "the concentration of Special Needs Facilities in Strathcona for drug addicted and mentally ill people and for people attempting to recover from addictions has already reached the saturation point."
It says: "The Union Gospel Mission expansion project approved in December 2007 will bring to more than 300 the number of abstinence-based addiction recovery beds within two blocks of Strathcona Elementary School. Imbalances such as this institution creates put the Strathcona community and its health at risk. There are compelling needs for these services in Vancouver, but every day we see evidence that the City’s long-standing practice of concentrating social services in
Strathcona has failed."
This brings me to my second argument - the DTES is worth saving in much the form it is now. What are the signs that the concentration of social services has failed? I would argue, and so would thousands of others, that it is precisely that concentration that has created a neighbourhood that is a rare treasure, a sort of open drug colony and urban Aboriginal reserve where the marginalized are in a majority, and as such they can live largely free of intolerance and judgement.
The clustering means they can access many services with ease, and that the webs of connectivity that have grown from the interaction among service providers and users has given rise to an urban social ecosystem of special richness and complexity. It needs critical mass to survive - what it most definitely does not need is dilution and dispersal. The neighbourhood is more than the sum of its parts and superb, pioneering work in addiction treatment, prevention and rehab is done here.
The Strathcona residents propose a number of steps to achieve their vision. The first is to build more market housing than social or affordable housing - which is directly opposed to the Assets to Action vision of the DTES itself, a community plan endorsed by thousands of residents, nearly all major organizational stakeholders and heavyweight professionals like former city planning director Ray Spaxman.
"All new housing developments on arterial streets will contain a larger proportion of market than non-market housing," says the SRA.
"More market housing will help support retail business and bring a healthy social presence to our streets. No one should be afraid to walk Strathcona’s streets. An increase in market housing will reduce the proportion of disadvantaged people in the total population without displacing them or the services available for them. More market housing will also reduce negative impact such as dying business, unsafe streets, and the cycle of addiction and poverty perpetuated by the concentration of social services."
The market housing increase will not displace the disadvantaged or the services available to them? Wanna bet? Further, the claim that it is unsafe to walk the streets is overblown. There is crime against outsiders, but it is rarely serious and no worse than many other neighbourhoods.
Another goal is to "Revitalize East Hastings, our shopping street" and also "incentives will be required for existing business to remain."
What incentives? You cannot have it both ways - you either have an area with low rents so that stores which sell cheap goods, and not that many of them, can survive, or you don't. The government is going to subsidize the little convenience stores and dollar-a-slice pizza joints?
One of the most offensive and threatening steps the SRA calls for is to "Maintain the total volume of social services at the current level only." It says we need to "recognize that the proportion of people in Strathcona who are addicted or mentally ill is already too high for a healthy and balanced community. Redress the balance by enacting a moratorium on the building of new social service facilities. This moratorium can be selective, but must be restrictive enough to ensure that the proportion of the total population with addiction and mental illness issues decreases to a much more healthy level." Again, I say that Strathcona residents dents have many other options for shopping, that Hastings is not "their" shopping street, and that the DTES is a special place in which the existing numbers of addicted and/or mentally ill is just right.
The notion that these new homeowners are going to live happily side by side with addicts, mentally ill and survival sex workers is not convincing. Where else does such a mix exist? Only other poor, working poor and lower middle class people can live so closely side by side.
The result of the SRA plan will be the slicing and dicing of the DTES and its redistribution elsewhere, with a vestige of low-income remaining, and a few tiny pockets of isolated and barely tolerated addicted/ men-
tally ill.
Three: Decades of inspired work by social service professionals and activists have made the DTES what it is today, and have spared it the noose of gentrification thus far. But now, with hostile governments in both Victoria and Ottawa, and a succession of feckless councils at 12th and Cambie, the writing is on the wall. The DTES can go the way of Kits and the Drive, or it can mount Vancouver's only successful anti-gentrification defense.
Without taking anything away from the successes to date, I say all the research, the marches, the rallies, the appeals to reason and fairness, to empathy, have fallen mostly on deaf ears. The DTES and its supporters have not been able to wring any truly meaningful concessions and commitments out of government, and it is only government that can save it.
So, it is time to go to the mattresses. I say we go Gandhi, resort to a whole array of acts of civil resistance. There are scores available.
One might be a partial rent boycott, or rent capping - paying only the $375 welfare shelter allowance, regardless of what the rents actually are. Landlords will move to evict, but eviction of hundreds and even thousands of vulnerable tenants will bring chaos and serious political embarrassment.
Other options include a sit-in at the Woodward's building, the biggest gentrification offender, refusal to pay bus fares, or taxes, and other acts of non-cooperation with a system that consciously oppresses those who need its protection most.
If not now then when? If not us, then who? If not civil
resistance, then what?
By DAVID BEATTIE
