Red JennyRed JennyCanadian feminist anti-capitalist activist offers commentary on news, humour, art and politics from a progressive viewpoint. Articles
Carfree Times issue #50 is up
2008-05-21 22:08:00 This month has some good stuff on offer. Aside from beautiful photographs of carfree places, you'll find interesting articles about carfree living like:Expensive Gas Drives Down Suburban Housing ValuesBuy a McMansion? Bad idea. But they are cheap. And probably getting cheaper. Housing prices are probably nowhere near their bottom. (There's a scary thought.) But some neighborhoods are holding value. And it's no surprise which neighborhoods. It's the ones that aren't 40 miles from work....Near the city center, people are still buying and new listings attract plenty of interest. In the city proper, prices are actually up 3.5% over the past year. Good access to public transport is especially important to buyers.Simply put, the longer the commute, the steeper the drop in prices. In addition to the 10 or so articles, there's an interesting interview towards the bottom - "Cars Are Driving Us Nuts: We drive ever longer distances in order to satisfy the same needs".Check it out.Home More About: Times , Issue
Howard Zinn on Anarchism
2008-05-19 17:18:00 Abridged from an interview with Ziga Vodovnik: Ziga Vodovnik: From the 1980s onwards we are witnessing the process of economic globalization getting stronger day after day. Many on the Left are now caught between a "dilemma" - either to work to reinforce the sovereignty of nation-states as a defensive barrier against the control of foreign and global capital; or to strive towards a non-national alternative to the present form of globalization and that is equally global. What's your opinion about this?Howard Zinn : I am an anarchist, and according to anarchist principles nation states become obstacles to a true humanistic globalization. In a certain sense the movement towards globalization where capitalists are trying to leap over nation state barriers, creates a kind of opportunity for movement to ignore national barriers, and to bring people together globally, across national lines in opposition to globalization of capital, to create globalization of people, opposed to traditional ... More About: Anarchism
Too Many People?
2008-05-16 23:10:00 You know, I get really irritated when people talk about overpopulation. So does this guy. To me it seems like a way of shifting blame. It is about blaming people who live in the global south for environmental problems that were caused by exactly not them. I think a far more pressing need is to reduce our constant striving for unlimited economic growth and overconsumption. The places where population is growing fastest ? sub-Saharan Africa, rural China and Bangladesh ? have virtually no carbon emissions, and pitiful food consumption rates. The gap is so huge that to be responsible for as many gas emissions as one British person, a Cambodian woman would need to have 262 children. Can we really sit in our nice homes, with a fridge-full of food we will mostly chuck away and an SUV in the drive, and complain that she is the problem? Of course, there's only so many people we can fit on the earth- and, you know, feed. But if this is a problem, is there a solution that isn't abhorrent? ... More About: People
Thursday Thoughts
2008-05-15 16:13:00 From Torontoist: Tory MP Jason Kenney complained that Romeo Dallaire was overly harsh when Dallaire criticized the federal government's handling of the Omar Khadr case. Kenney is a former general who is credited with using meagre resources to save the lives of over 20,000 people during the Rwandan genocide in the face of massive indifference from the west?no, wait, sorry, that was Dallaire. Jason Kenney is a lifetime party hack who didn't finish his bachelor's degree. See, they're almost like twins!From Paul Graham: al Naqba at 60 and the reflections of a recovered Zionist: Looking back I am amazed at how easy it was to adopt completely contradictory political positions, for example, to cheer on American blacks in their struggle for civil rights and to be blissfully unaware of the grinding poverty and racist oppression of aboriginal people in my own community; to see the American invasion of Vietnam as a horrendous crime while cheering on the Israeli army as it triumphed in the ... More About: Thoughts , Thursday
An Open Letter to People Who Smoke While Driving
2008-05-13 02:38:00 Dear smoking drivers,When you are finished smoking your cigarette, please do not throw it out of your window. There may be a cyclist right in the trajectory of its burning ember.Sincerely,Your friendly nonsmoking cyclistp.s. You could also be a real pal and refrain from honking a cyclist out of her lane so that you can illegally pull over into said bike lane where you aren't supposed to be, seeing as how you are in a car and all.Home More About: People , Driving , Open , Letter , Smoke
Love Food Hate Waste
2008-05-09 15:26:00 My new favourite site: Love Food Hate Waste Around a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten ? it's not just peelings, cores and bones.90% of us just don't realise how much good food we throw out, yet in the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year.It's not just an issue of good food going to waste, or that this costs us as consumers a significant amount of money, but that there are serious environmental implications....The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.I really hate wasting food, and I can't compost at the moment, living in an apartment not yet serviced by the city's green bin collection. I try to eat everything I buy. I freeze leftovers if I know I won't be able to finish them before they go bad. I make stock out of veget...
Bigotry: it's not just for adults anymore
2008-05-08 16:59:00 New! "God Hates Fags" T-shirts, now in toddler sizes. You know what they say: if you want 'em to grow up without a shred of care or compassion for fellow human beings - start 'em early. If you want 'em to become hate-filled, rage-filled, closed-minded, we suggest you work on 'em while they're still malleable. Start with these tees, so the message burns itself into their soft, innocent hearts. Ah, the next generation of little Pat Buchanans:These kids are going to need some serious deprogramming later in life.Statistically speaking, some of the kids whose parents dress them in these shirts are going to be gay themselves. Reminds me of the fact that many (some even say most) victims of homophobic violence (bullying, gay-bashing, etc) are not even gay - but are usually those who others mistakenly think are gay. This is just one reason (you know, aside from the morality aspect) that even straight folk should be concerned about homophobia. Gay bashing is about more than just punishi... More About: Bigotry
Howard Zinn makes me swoon - even when he's a cartoon character
2008-05-01 21:33:00 Seriously, he's my hero.Check out the cartoon version of Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empireby Howard Zinn Narrated by Viggo MortensenHome More About: Cartoon , Character
On Rising Food Prices
2008-04-23 18:49:00 Kissinger made a chilling 1970 comment that explains a lot about what's happening now - "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people." Combine it with unchallengeable military power and you control everything, and Kissinger likely said that, too.Global Food Crisis: Hunger Plagues Haiti and the World by Stephen Lendman>Hugo Chavez is calling the food crisis a "Massacre of the Poor". As Raj Patel puts it: "What gets to me is that even in a good year, 850 million people were going hungry, thousands of whom died. Was that not a massacre too?"George Monbiot reminds us that despite the problem is not about production, but distribution: "There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching human stomachs. Of the 2.13bn tonnes likely to be consumed this year, only 1.01bn, according to the UN?s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), will feed people." The rest mainly feeds animals and cars (and landfills).Go, read those articles. I know I have been remiss in m... More About: Prices
Internet Traffic "Shaping"
2008-04-02 15:39:00 Ma Bell, we really got the ill communication...CBC's the National does a segment on traffic shaping (a euphemism if I ever heard one)Take Actionhttp://stopthethrottler.caRead moreVia Campaign for Democratic MediaHome More About: Internet , Traffic
Earth Hour - Because We Hunger to be Part of Something Bigger than Ourselve
2008-03-28 14:29:00 Cynics love to attack popular campaigns, and that is exactly what is happening with Earth Hour ."Won't Earth Hour be a failure if the entire city doesn't go dark?" a friend asked last week of the campaign to have residents and businesses in the Greater Toronto Area and around the world turn out their lights at 8 p.m. this Saturday for an hour to show support for action on climate change."Do you really think turning off your lights for an hour is going to change anything?" my friend added. "Isn't it just a feel-good thing? And why is the Star involved at all in it? Shouldn't a newspaper be a fair and neutral observer?"Such skepticism isn't limited to my cynical friends. A columnist for The Globe and Mail this week labelled Earth Hour "a sham," a "racket," "flimflammery."Any doubt I may have had about the phenomenon that is Earth Hour was erased earlier this month when I walked into an arena in Ajax for my regular Monday night hockey league game. There, in the main entrance, was a... More About: Hunger , Part
The "Good Good War" Is A Bad War
2008-03-28 01:47:00 We, the women of Afghanistan, only became a cause in the west following 11 September 2001, when the Taliban suddenly became the official enemy of America. Yes, they persecuted women, but they were not unique, and we have resented the silence in the west over the atrocious nature of the western-backed warlords, who are no different. They rape and kidnap and terrorise, yet they hold seats in [Hamid] Karzai's government. In some ways, we were more secure under the Taliban. You could cross Afghanistan by road and feel secure. Now, you take your life into your hands.- "Marina" from RAWA, in The "Good Good War" Is A Bad War By John Pilger on ZnetHome More About: The Good
Random Thoughts on Race, Crime, and Human Resilience
2008-03-22 17:09:00 I'm currently working on a project on memory and South African exiles. I was reading Lewis Nkosi's Home and Exile and other Selections when I came across a passage that sat with me. It's in the essay "Apartheid: A Daily Exercise in the Absurd". After describing some of the odd, horrible and certainly absurd things that went on in Apartheid South Africa (like the court wrangling over such questions as at what point does a kiss become passionate enough to convict someone of interracial sex) he wrote:One could go on, of course, recounting the morbid aspects of apartheid, but it all sounds so hopelessly melodramatic that the total effect is to undermine people's credulity. Sometimes, people wonder after reading about these conditions how the Africans are able to survive at all. One Englishman who attended a first night of a Johannesburg opera was surprised to find well-dressed Africans who looked reasonably happy, mingling with the white audience. From that he concluded that the sto... More About: Crime , Random Thoughts , Random , Human , Thoughts
The Stupifying World of Fox News
2008-03-21 16:08:00 So I was reading about the mainstream media's lack of coverage of Winter Soldier. In a way I was surprised, since the winter soldier testimonies were all over my feed reader, from Democracy Now to Common Dreams to The Real News . On the other hand, I guess it isn't so surprising after all.I thought I'd check Google News, and indeed, the only coverage of Winter Soldier was from the independents and a few local papers. There were only 240 results. (As a comparison, just try searching for "American Idol" - nearly 14,000 results.)So I thought, just for kicks, that I'd check to see if there was even a speck of coverage on CNN or FOX. On Fox, the only results from 2008 was a story about Captain America, the ultra-patriotic comic book superhero.Then I started browsing FOXNews.com. Why? Must have been momentarily possessed by a self-destructive devil. The subcategories under U.S. are all about fear and distraction. Crime, Sports, Education, Live Audio, War on Terror, Homeland Security, L... More About: World , Fox News
Half a Decade in Iraq
2008-03-19 18:24:00 A lot can happen in five years. In five years, a toddler will grow old enough for her first day of school. In five years, a schoolboy of eight will become a teenager.In five years, a proud country and its vibrant population has been reduced to a desolate killing field. Ellen Weinstein - Camouflage, 2007 Collage Lies, hundreds of them, that led up to the war in Iraq have been revealed. Five years later, the liars are still busy crafting the Iran propaganda.Tony Auth - Roots, Unpublished Pen, ink, and wash In 5 years, the American military has put down roots. At least 75 permanent bases have been established in Iraq.Koren Shadmi - Tasting Victory, 2007 watercolor, ink and digital In 5 years, countless Iraqis have been killed and wounded. (We've lost count, you see, since each Iraqi life is not precious enough to concern ourselves with an accurate count. Estimates are as high as a million deaths due to the war.) One in five displaced (around 2.7 million Iraqis). A generation traum... More About: Half
Hurrican Katrina and American Diaspora
2008-03-14 00:19:00 Hurricane Katrina caused the biggest mass migration in U.S. history. More than than 1 million people were forced to evacuate. Although many people have been able to return home, many are still displaced. Thousands will not be able to return for years, both because the damage is so catastrophic and because so many were already living in poverty. Many experts are telling churches and other groups to focus on helping people relocate permanently. So where are they?This neat map was based on more than 40,000 postings on Internet "safe lists" by Katrina survivors. ePodunk analyzed messages containing both the person's hometown and the location after fleeing the storm. It only shows American cities, though I know some ended up in Canada, and I'm sure elsewhere also. If you click to the full version of the map you can run your cursor over the points on the map to see city names and to click to information about the community.Home More About: Diaspora , Hurrican Katrina
The tragedy of having more money than you can spend
2008-03-12 03:40:00 People, the suffering has gone on too long. No more should our celebrities have to deal with the horror of having far too much money. They have run out of ways to spend it. Tons of time, energy, initiative, Swarovski crystals and other valuable resources are being used up trying to come up with the latest ridiculous, meaningless bling to ensure that our sad, pitiable celebrities don't have to face overloading their bank accounts. It's heartbreaking, these tumour-like bank accounts, infinitely growing. They have to live all isolated in gated communities and private islands and have really ugly pets, just to try to decrease their out of control bank accounts. I mean, how can you look into their big vacuous puppy dog eyes without wanting to rescue them from the plight of having far more money than they can ever hope to spend. Won't somebody pleeeez think of the celebrities? I weep for themHome More About: Money , Tragedy
Alberta Oils Sands Land
2008-03-07 22:56:00 Did you hear about the hottest new vacation destination? It's Alberta Oil Sands Land , with a travel review by Thomas King:Personally, I was more interested in the Ralph Klein Earth Mover rides, but the lines were always much too long. In the end, I spent most of my time at the Waste Water Park, watching happy families relaxing and enjoying their tax dollars in action.But the best part of the entire vacation was watching the sun set each evening on what was left of the Athabasca River. Mr. Harper would strum his guitar and tell us how his heart swelled when he looked out over the landscape and saw the sheer beauty that human ingenuity and corporate genius could create. Even Mr. Dion got a little teary as we all watched the smoke stacks discharge their billows of pollutants. He said that the soft clouds floating over the high prairies reminded him of the old days when Native people sat around their council fires and told stories about living in harmony with the earth. All the kids wa... More About: Oils
US Plotted To Overthrow Hamas After Election Victory
2008-03-05 15:58:00 In the Guardian UK:The Bush administration, caught out by the rise of Hamas , embarked on a secret project for the armed overthrow of the Islamist government in Gaza, it emerged yesterday.Vanity Fair reports in its April edition that President George Bush and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, signed off on a plan for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to remove the Hamas authorities in Gaza. The plan called for Washington's allies in the region to funnel arms and salaries to Fatah fighters who would lead a rising against Hamas.Democracy turned into a farce. Scores of dead women, men and children. A horrible situation (which was slowly showing some progress) made even worse. Yep, good job, Bush. The Bush administration plan sought to undo the results of elections in the West Bank and Gaza in January 2006 which, to the chagrin of White House and State Department officials, saw Hamas win a majority of seats in the Palestinian legislature. The project was approved by Bush... More About: Victory , Election
A Mormon Guide to Overcoming Masturbation, or How to avoid Self-Love
2008-03-05 03:47:00 Are you concerned about the tussle with your muscle? Fortunately, here's a Mormon guide to Overcoming Masturbation (although to be accurate, it should really be called undercoming). 1. Never touch the intimate parts of your body except during normal washing and using the bathroom.2. Avoid being alone as much as possible. Find good company and stay in this good company, especially when you are feeling particularly weak.3. If you are associated with other persons having this same problem, YOU MUST BREAK OFF THEIR FRIENDSHIP. Never associate with other people having the same weakness. Don't suppose that two of you will quit together, you never will. You must get away from people of that kind. Just to be in their presence will keep your problem foremost in your mind. The problem must be taken OUT OF YOUR MIND for that is where it really exists. Your mind must be on other and more wholesome things.4. After you bathe, don't admire yourself in the mirror. Stay in the shower just long e... More About: Love , Guide
Toronto: Homeless Man Frozen to Death
2008-03-01 14:07:00 Shelter is not an option. It is a matter of life and death, especially on long Canadian winter nights. OCAP: Wednesday night an Aboriginal man who was homeless was found frozen to death in a stairwell around Yonge and Charles St. Another man was found in Chinatown with serious injury from exposure.Just six days ago the City heard 12 deputations from agencies and community members about the current crisis. After the loss of over 300 shelter spaces and basic needs such as food, we have been left in a dangerous situation. Demands were made for only the most basic need -shelter. The City's response was to leave people in danger and to risk injury and death. The death of this man and the injury and suffering of other homeless people is on the hands of the City. On Tuesday will be going to City Hall to face Miller and demand an immediate response to this crisis. This is aserious situation and we ask that you make all efforts to join us. For more info contact OCAP.Meanwhile, here's a new... More About: Toronto , Death , Homeless , Frozen
I Hate to say I Told You So...
2008-02-27 15:36:00 But I told you so. Or to be more accurate, everyone who cares more about people than profit told you so.From a post in 2005 about biofuels: Not only inefficient, but "a humanitarian and environmental disaster", says George Monbiot, presenting a chilling vision, in which "most of the arable surface of the planet will be deployed to produce food for cars, not people." He reminds us that markets respond to profit, not hunger. Those who need food the most are exactly the ones with the least amount of money to buy it, and so the monied person's car will always win out. He reminds us that even today, those who buy meat products have more purchasing power, so grain is fed to animals instead of to starving kids.In 2006, when I blogged about the Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point, the problem was overproduction and low commodity prices driving smaller farmers out."Many Canadian and U.S. farmers are going out of business because crop prices are at their lowest in nearly 100 years," Q... More About: Hate , Told
One person, one body, one count
2008-02-26 01:59:00 Who has fought hardest to prevent violence against women, if not feminists? And it is advocates for women, like the beleaguered Status of Women Canada, who have been working to alert the public to the prevalence of violence against pregnant women.From the SWC publication, Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile:Women are particularly vulnerable when they are pregnant and when they take steps to leave their violent partners. With regard to pregnancy, the Violence Against Women Survey found that 21% of abused women were assaulted during their pregnancy, and in 40% of these cases, this episode was the beginning of the abuse. ...The public also has relatively low awareness levels of prenatal violence with 20% [of a survey taken in New Brunswick] undecided on whether physical abuse of a woman often starts during pregnancy and 44% who disagree that violence often starts at this time.Without the constant hard work of feminists and organizations like the SWC, domestic viol... More About: Body , Count , Person
Torture in 60s South Shows Error of Waterboarding
2008-02-23 15:46:00 Tom Gardner: When I read about the increasing acceptance of waterboarding as a form of torture, I vividly recall how in 1968 members of the Memphis Police Department believed I could tell them information about civil rights insurgents arriving to create havoc. Forty years later I still hide my serrated scars.I was 14 years old and forgot I was a black boy living in racist America and heading for the devil's den of discrimination....Who were these people I supposedly knew who were ready to disrupt the city's infrastructure? My wild eyes could only register pain as the large men kicked, punched and beat me with nightsticks because I was unable to speak coherently between my sobs of sorrow and moans for my mother....Like relentless Stalinists, the policemen gave me a few hard, calculated kicks with steel-toed boots in my back and ribs for making them exhausted from their beating. I promised them the names of protesters, when they were coming, and what they were driving. I could h... More About: South , Torture , Error , Waterboarding
City Planet - Housekeeping the Bookmarks part 1
2008-02-22 17:05:00 I have a whole pile of fantastic links in my bookmarks that have been hanging out and going stale just waiting for some attention. I think it is time to share them. So, here is the first in a new series.This 2006 article, City Planet , is about urbanization, squatting and slums. "Pavement dwellers" living in open-air homes in Byculla, a Mumbai neighborhoodCity infrastructure and housing in the developing world cannot keep up with the rapid pace of urbanization. The result: vast informal settlements and neighbourhoods. The article tells of the bad and the good, the crowded, dirty, and yet incredibly vibrant communities:Let no one romanticize the conditions of slums. New squatter cities usually look like human cesspools and often smell like them. There is usually no infrastructure at all for sanitation, for water, for electricity, or for transportation. Everyone lives in dilapidated shacks jammed together wall to wall, with every room full of people. A typical squatter city, which may ... More About: Part , Housekeeping , Bookmarks
Watch the War Child trailer, the story of Emmanuel Jal, a Child Soldier tur
2008-02-14 02:09:00 Much attention at the 58th Berlin Festival has been on 'War Child ', a documentary by first-time director Christian Karim Chrobog. It relates the stunning story of singer Emmanuel Jal who, in the space of a decade, made a remarkable transition from child soldier in Sudan to international hip-hop musician. Jal, now 28, was seven when his mother was killed. Soldier s raped his sister, and he was hauled off for military training by Sudanese Liberation Army forces in the late 1980s, and given an AK47 taller than himself. Trapped in the midst of a civil war, he survived front-line action before escaping after five "lost" years with 300 other boys. They endured a three-month trek before reaching safety. ...Today, Jal is famous throughout Africa as a rapper, and for his work with the UN, Amnesty International and Oxfam in campaigning against employment of child soldiers and the illegal trade of arms. His first song Gua, which means "power" in Arabic, streaked to the top of the charts in ... More About: Watch , Story , Trailer
Speaking of Starvation, How's that Biofuel Industry?
2008-02-12 04:24:00 From an article by George Monbiot from a few months ago:It doesn't get madder than this. Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid. Forty per cent of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops, cassava. The government has allocated several thousand hectares of farmland to ethanol production in the county of Lavumisa, which happens to be the place worst hit by drought. Monbiot says the biofuel tradeshould be frozen until second-generation fuels - made from wood or straw or waste - become commercially available. Otherwise the superior purchasing power of drivers in the rich world means that they will snatch food from people?s mouths. Run your car on virgin biofuel and other people will starve. He goes on to analyze the relative inefficiency of current generation biofuels (corn ethanol for instance), and reminds us:If there is one blindingly obvious fact about biofuel i... More About: Industry , Speaking
Heaven and Hell: A Parable
2008-02-03 15:27:00 A rabbi was talking with God about Heaven and Hell ."Come," said God. "Walk with me, and I will show you Hell."And together they walked into a room of cold, rough stone. In the center of the room, atop a low fire, sat a huge pot of quietly simmering stew. The stew smelled delicious, and made the rabbi's mouth water. A group of people sat in a circle around the pot, and each of them held a curiously long-handled spoon. The spoons were long enough to reach the pot; but the handles were so ungainly that every time someone dipped the bowl of their spoon into the pot and tried to maneuver the bowl to their mouth, the stew would spill. The rabbi could hear the grumblings of their bellies. They were cold, hungry, and miserable. "And now," God said, "I will show you Heaven."Together they walked into another room, almost identical to the first. A second pot of stew simmered in the center; another ring of people sat around it; each person was outfitted with one of the frustratingly long spoon... More About: Heaven and Hell , Parable
John McCain Channeling Dr. Strangelove
More articles from this author:2008-02-01 03:16:00 A Brave New Films video:Ugh, although the fact that so many Republicans don't like him sits well with me, I must say McCain gives me the heebie-jeebies.After insisting that future wars are just around the corner, McCain launched into a creepy riff in which the suffering of our soldiers seemed to leave him almost breathless with anticipation: "We're going to have a lot of PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] to treat, my friends. We're gonna have a lot of combat wounds that have to do with these terrible explosive IEDs that inflict such severe wounds. And, my friends, it's gonna be tough, we're gonna have a lot to do."It's a speech that could easily have been delivered by Gen. Buck Turgidson, George C. Scott's war-loving character in Dr. Strangelove. "I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10 to 20 million killed - tops!" McCain, like Turgidson, has a disturbing displaced ardor for war. Although he'd be the oldest person ever elected pre... More About: John , John McCain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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