I'm not a YouTube afficionado, but was browsing there today -- avoiding work -- when I spotted this video challenge and thought I'd pass it along.
Watch this and do something nice for someone today...
http://youtube.com/video_response_view_all?v=PVY5IpSDUYE
Be part of the revolution!
Colleen
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The boy has returned
My 15 year-old son arrived home today after being away for 12 days. It's great to see him. We share the same weird sense of humour so when he's away I miss him for that reason as well as for the traditional mom-son reasons.
It was storming here this morning and I thought his flight might be delayed, but an hour before he landed the snow ended and spring arrived. Precipitation has since turned back to snow and the wind has recommenced to howl, but he's home so that's just fine.
I confess that when I saw him at the airport I had to look twice to make sure it was him. He's really growing up. I know, I know, they do that.
He'll be 16 at the end of the month. One of those milestone events that remind me that he won't be here forever and that someday soon I won't have him around to joke with, to talk with and to hug goodnight. (Geez, this is getting sappy fast, isn't it?)
As kids get older one of their most important jobs is to break away from mom and dad and to establish their own identities. My son sometimes struggles with this because, aside from our humour, we also share like goals of wanting to be writers. He as a screenwriter, me as a novelist. Because he needs his writing to be separate from mine, he rarely discusses his work with me. I look forward to the day when he is comfortable with our separateness so he can share this part of himself with me.
Maybe that's something that I can look forward to as I prepare myself for the day that he sets out on his own and creates his own place, his own space.
His arrival today and his pending birthday has reminded me what a great person he is. I hope he knows that in that place deep inside that we all need to be strong to carry us through whatever comes along.
Fortunately, I still have a lot of time left to keep on reminding him.
Colleen
It was storming here this morning and I thought his flight might be delayed, but an hour before he landed the snow ended and spring arrived. Precipitation has since turned back to snow and the wind has recommenced to howl, but he's home so that's just fine.
I confess that when I saw him at the airport I had to look twice to make sure it was him. He's really growing up. I know, I know, they do that.
He'll be 16 at the end of the month. One of those milestone events that remind me that he won't be here forever and that someday soon I won't have him around to joke with, to talk with and to hug goodnight. (Geez, this is getting sappy fast, isn't it?)
As kids get older one of their most important jobs is to break away from mom and dad and to establish their own identities. My son sometimes struggles with this because, aside from our humour, we also share like goals of wanting to be writers. He as a screenwriter, me as a novelist. Because he needs his writing to be separate from mine, he rarely discusses his work with me. I look forward to the day when he is comfortable with our separateness so he can share this part of himself with me.
Maybe that's something that I can look forward to as I prepare myself for the day that he sets out on his own and creates his own place, his own space.
His arrival today and his pending birthday has reminded me what a great person he is. I hope he knows that in that place deep inside that we all need to be strong to carry us through whatever comes along.
Fortunately, I still have a lot of time left to keep on reminding him.
Colleen
Monday, March 19, 2007
Write Passages
I'd like to introduce you to my new blog at writepassages.blogspot.com.
The new site will contain everything to do with writing. This site will continue as it was originally intended -- with musings about how to take over the uh, how to make the world a better place.
I hope this will provide easier navigation.
Cheers!
Colleen
The new site will contain everything to do with writing. This site will continue as it was originally intended -- with musings about how to take over the uh, how to make the world a better place.
I hope this will provide easier navigation.
Cheers!
Colleen
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Residential School Resolution
Introduction
A couple of years ago, the Canadian government agreed to a compensation package for survivors of the residential school system.
A CBC radio news report this morning highlighted a group of Aboriginal individuals who will not be entitled to compensation as part of the resolution program because of faulty government record keeping.
To a jaundiced eye, it could seem that the Canadian government is doing to Aboriginal people what it did to Canada's Merchant Mariners -- waiting for them to die off.
(Veterans of WWII, merchant mariners, many too young or too old to enlist, kept Canada's troops supplied at great risk to themselves. They had to fight for 55 years to be recognized by the federal government and to win the right to compensation. I'm not sure that this has been paid yet.)
The following post contains information that I've copied from the CBC's website and the Canadian government's website, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada.
Here are the facts, as relayed by the CBC, and the problem facing some seniors on collecting what is due them.
Background
"In 1928, a government official predicted Canada would end its "Indian problem" within two generations. Church-run, government-funded residential schools for native children were supposed to prepare them for life in white society. But the aims of assimilation meant devastation for those who were subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Decades later, aboriginal people began to share their stories and demand acknowledgement of — and compensation for — their stolen childhoods." cbc.ca
(http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-692/disasters_tragedies/residential_schools/)
Quick Facts on the Resolution Program
(copied from cbc.ca)
• It has taken more than a year for the compensation package to receive final approval. In December 2006, it was still in the process of being approved.
• According to CBC News, those who qualified for the compensation could expect to receive their money beginning in September 2007.
• Survivors over age 65 could apply to be fast-tracked for an advance payment of $8,000.
• The agreement proposed a dispute resolution process that improved on that which was announced in 2002.
• Some of the money in the package was dedicated to commemorating the experiences of residential school survivors ($10 million) and to a "truth and reconciliation" process ($60 million).
• The Aboriginal Healing Foundation, set up in 1998 for residential school survivors, also received a further $125 million.
• On the day the compensation was announced, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called the residential school policy "the most disgraceful, harmful and racist act in our history."
• The agreement did not include a formal apology from the government to all students. In 1998 the government apologized to those who were sexually and physically abused, but in 2005 some aboriginal groups were pressing for a more general apology for the act of placing aboriginal students in residential schools.
• Plans are underway for the Indian Residential School Museum of Canada. Scheduled to open in June 2008, it will be located in the former Portage Indian School on the Long Plain First Nation outside Portage la Prairie, Man.
• The museum's purpose is to "create a memorial to those who went through the experience... as well as to explain what happened to others – aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike – and how the residential school system has impacted on present-day aboriginal life."
The Point System
Apparently, the way the government is going to award compensation is based on a point system.
Victims subjected to fondling and kissing get 5 to 10 points. Victims of oral sex 26 to 30 points, and victims that were subjected to "severe persistent sexual intercourse" receive 45 to 60 points. The points represent between $5,000 and $200,000. There is nothing offered for loss of language and culture, or breakdown of the family unit.
Fast Track Program
Aboriginal seniors (over 65) who were placed in residential school can apply for a fast-track program whereby they can receive $8,000 today. This would be deducted from any future payment they would receive.
Sounds good. After all, these people are getting older and shouldn't have to wait. Ah, but, because this is a government program, there is a rub. And here it is... seniors have to be able to prove that they were in residential schools. Attendance records were regularly distroyed and the government has admitted that there are gaps in their records.
This means that 1,390 senior citizens claims have been declined according to the government website at: http://www.irsr-rqpi.gc.ca/english/advance_payment_program.html
Enough already
Fourteen hundred claimants are hardly going to bankrupt government coffers. If this fast-track measure was put in place as a good-will gesture, as the government claims, then get on with it and give the people their money.
I have no idea what help people can expect to receive with $8,000. It doesn't sound like much to me.
The government has a very long history of nickle-and-diming First Nations peoples. Here's one example. In the 1750s here in Nova Scotia, the provincial government offered a 300 pound bounty for Mi'kmaq scalps. Three years later, after the population had been decimated, 100 pounds per year was offered to help the survivors live. 300 versus 100. (I may be a little off on the numbers, but the concept is accurate. I'll get proper backup for these numbers and update this post later today.) Apparently, a scalp is worth more than a life.
If non-Aboriginals would show support for these seniors, as we did for our aging mariners, maybe the government would be forced to agree that their destruction of records shouldn't further harm 1,400 individuals who have suffered enough.
What you can do
Show your support. Write a letter to:
The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister responsible for Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
90 Sparks Street
Room 341
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H4
Regards,
Colleen
A couple of years ago, the Canadian government agreed to a compensation package for survivors of the residential school system.
A CBC radio news report this morning highlighted a group of Aboriginal individuals who will not be entitled to compensation as part of the resolution program because of faulty government record keeping.
To a jaundiced eye, it could seem that the Canadian government is doing to Aboriginal people what it did to Canada's Merchant Mariners -- waiting for them to die off.
(Veterans of WWII, merchant mariners, many too young or too old to enlist, kept Canada's troops supplied at great risk to themselves. They had to fight for 55 years to be recognized by the federal government and to win the right to compensation. I'm not sure that this has been paid yet.)
The following post contains information that I've copied from the CBC's website and the Canadian government's website, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada.
Here are the facts, as relayed by the CBC, and the problem facing some seniors on collecting what is due them.
Background
"In 1928, a government official predicted Canada would end its "Indian problem" within two generations. Church-run, government-funded residential schools for native children were supposed to prepare them for life in white society. But the aims of assimilation meant devastation for those who were subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Decades later, aboriginal people began to share their stories and demand acknowledgement of — and compensation for — their stolen childhoods." cbc.ca
(http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-692/disasters_tragedies/residential_schools/)
Quick Facts on the Resolution Program
(copied from cbc.ca)
• It has taken more than a year for the compensation package to receive final approval. In December 2006, it was still in the process of being approved.
• According to CBC News, those who qualified for the compensation could expect to receive their money beginning in September 2007.
• Survivors over age 65 could apply to be fast-tracked for an advance payment of $8,000.
• The agreement proposed a dispute resolution process that improved on that which was announced in 2002.
• Some of the money in the package was dedicated to commemorating the experiences of residential school survivors ($10 million) and to a "truth and reconciliation" process ($60 million).
• The Aboriginal Healing Foundation, set up in 1998 for residential school survivors, also received a further $125 million.
• On the day the compensation was announced, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called the residential school policy "the most disgraceful, harmful and racist act in our history."
• The agreement did not include a formal apology from the government to all students. In 1998 the government apologized to those who were sexually and physically abused, but in 2005 some aboriginal groups were pressing for a more general apology for the act of placing aboriginal students in residential schools.
• Plans are underway for the Indian Residential School Museum of Canada. Scheduled to open in June 2008, it will be located in the former Portage Indian School on the Long Plain First Nation outside Portage la Prairie, Man.
• The museum's purpose is to "create a memorial to those who went through the experience... as well as to explain what happened to others – aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike – and how the residential school system has impacted on present-day aboriginal life."
The Point System
Apparently, the way the government is going to award compensation is based on a point system.
Victims subjected to fondling and kissing get 5 to 10 points. Victims of oral sex 26 to 30 points, and victims that were subjected to "severe persistent sexual intercourse" receive 45 to 60 points. The points represent between $5,000 and $200,000. There is nothing offered for loss of language and culture, or breakdown of the family unit.
Fast Track Program
Aboriginal seniors (over 65) who were placed in residential school can apply for a fast-track program whereby they can receive $8,000 today. This would be deducted from any future payment they would receive.
Sounds good. After all, these people are getting older and shouldn't have to wait. Ah, but, because this is a government program, there is a rub. And here it is... seniors have to be able to prove that they were in residential schools. Attendance records were regularly distroyed and the government has admitted that there are gaps in their records.
This means that 1,390 senior citizens claims have been declined according to the government website at: http://www.irsr-rqpi.gc.ca/english/advance_payment_program.html
Enough already
Fourteen hundred claimants are hardly going to bankrupt government coffers. If this fast-track measure was put in place as a good-will gesture, as the government claims, then get on with it and give the people their money.
I have no idea what help people can expect to receive with $8,000. It doesn't sound like much to me.
The government has a very long history of nickle-and-diming First Nations peoples. Here's one example. In the 1750s here in Nova Scotia, the provincial government offered a 300 pound bounty for Mi'kmaq scalps. Three years later, after the population had been decimated, 100 pounds per year was offered to help the survivors live. 300 versus 100. (I may be a little off on the numbers, but the concept is accurate. I'll get proper backup for these numbers and update this post later today.) Apparently, a scalp is worth more than a life.
If non-Aboriginals would show support for these seniors, as we did for our aging mariners, maybe the government would be forced to agree that their destruction of records shouldn't further harm 1,400 individuals who have suffered enough.
What you can do
Show your support. Write a letter to:
The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister responsible for Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
90 Sparks Street
Room 341
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H4
Regards,
Colleen
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Swiss Army: The latest oxymoron
I read the funniest op-ed piece in the NY Times this morning and had to share it with you.
Apparently the Swiss have an army despite having been a neutral country for about a billion years. Not only do they have an army, but they still have mandatory military service for their young adults.
It seems that many Swiss don't think they need a military, but the government is loathe to dispense with one. Instead, it has come up with a host of reasons that disqualify someone from service thereby shrinking the army from 600,000 to about 240,000.
Why don't they just get rid of mandatory service? you ask.
Hmmmm. Good question. Ya got me.
Anyway, funding for the army is such that they are poorly equipped and carry no ammunition. Military maneuvers consist of marches. Really long hikes. Like over and around the Alps.
Now here comes the funny part.
On March 1, the Swiss army was out on one of these walks when, in the dead of night, they accidentally crossed the border to Liechtenstein and had to scurry back home before anyone found out. (Not wanting this excursion to be considered an invasion.)
"It was all so dark out there," one recruit is quoted as saying.
(giggle.)
Poor kids. Couldn't someone have given them a map? Maybe a compass? Pointed out the North Star, maybe?
As someone who can relate to getting lost on strange roads at night, I am pleased to be able to have a new verb to describe my problem. From now on whenever this happens -- as it regularly does -- I'm going to say that I Swiss-Armied as in:
"It was so dark out there, I Swiss-Armied. Wow! It's good to be back home."
Here's the link to the article. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/opinion/10stamm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Colleen
Apparently the Swiss have an army despite having been a neutral country for about a billion years. Not only do they have an army, but they still have mandatory military service for their young adults.
It seems that many Swiss don't think they need a military, but the government is loathe to dispense with one. Instead, it has come up with a host of reasons that disqualify someone from service thereby shrinking the army from 600,000 to about 240,000.
Why don't they just get rid of mandatory service? you ask.
Hmmmm. Good question. Ya got me.
Anyway, funding for the army is such that they are poorly equipped and carry no ammunition. Military maneuvers consist of marches. Really long hikes. Like over and around the Alps.
Now here comes the funny part.
On March 1, the Swiss army was out on one of these walks when, in the dead of night, they accidentally crossed the border to Liechtenstein and had to scurry back home before anyone found out. (Not wanting this excursion to be considered an invasion.)
"It was all so dark out there," one recruit is quoted as saying.
(giggle.)
Poor kids. Couldn't someone have given them a map? Maybe a compass? Pointed out the North Star, maybe?
As someone who can relate to getting lost on strange roads at night, I am pleased to be able to have a new verb to describe my problem. From now on whenever this happens -- as it regularly does -- I'm going to say that I Swiss-Armied as in:
"It was so dark out there, I Swiss-Armied. Wow! It's good to be back home."
Here's the link to the article. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/opinion/10stamm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Colleen
Isn't this what we asked for?
Here's a real quick post...
First, my sister gets out of hospital today! Yeah!
Second, I've had a breakthrough on the book and now know what's wrong with it. Very exciting. Thanks VS!
Third, just heard an interview on CBC with Liberal leader and leader of the official opposition, Stéphane Dion. In the intro, the reporter quoted a political strategist as saying that Mr. Dion hasn't been getting the press that most leaders would because he is focusing on talking about his platform and isn't being negative about the party in power.
Wait a second. Could this be right? Could it be that we have a leader of a political party who has ideas to put forward rather than taking the easy route of attacking others, someone who refuses to participate in mud-slinging or conducting a negative campaign? Could it be that and we're criticizing him for that?
I confess that I've been so turned off politics that I've been ignoring it lately, but I'm going to check this guy out a little more closely. If he is the kind of guy we've been asking for, he's someone I can get behind.
His website is at stephanedion.ca, if you're interested.
Colleen
First, my sister gets out of hospital today! Yeah!
Second, I've had a breakthrough on the book and now know what's wrong with it. Very exciting. Thanks VS!
Third, just heard an interview on CBC with Liberal leader and leader of the official opposition, Stéphane Dion. In the intro, the reporter quoted a political strategist as saying that Mr. Dion hasn't been getting the press that most leaders would because he is focusing on talking about his platform and isn't being negative about the party in power.
Wait a second. Could this be right? Could it be that we have a leader of a political party who has ideas to put forward rather than taking the easy route of attacking others, someone who refuses to participate in mud-slinging or conducting a negative campaign? Could it be that and we're criticizing him for that?
I confess that I've been so turned off politics that I've been ignoring it lately, but I'm going to check this guy out a little more closely. If he is the kind of guy we've been asking for, he's someone I can get behind.
His website is at stephanedion.ca, if you're interested.
Colleen
Monday, March 5, 2007
Feeling pensive
Today's post will be a short one. I have a couple of things on my mind causing me to feel rather pensive.
One is the fight to maintain my positivity about my writing. When I begin a book, I love it. Love the characters. Can't wait to get to it each day. Somewhere about the middle of the book, my enthusiasm begins to falter. Not my enthusiasm for the story or the characters, but in my belief that I can write the story the way I want it written. That's where I'm at today.
The second, and more important, issue on my mind is my older sister's health. She had a mild heart attack over the weekend and had quadruple bypass surgery yesterday. I spoke with her just before she went in and her spirits were good. There was very little heart muscle damage and her prognosis is excellent. Since surgery, I am told by my niece, sister is doing well and if she modifies her daily habits she will do just fine over the long term also.
Days before the event, she had moved to Ottawa and is now being taken care of at the venerable Heart Institute. Definitely the place where you want to be in such a situation. She says her angels were watching out for her. (Our brother died many years ago and, she believes, he takes care of her. I imagine that her mom, who has also passed away, does the same.)
But angels and timing aside, one cannot ignore the writing on the page. Mortality. The first big peak into that void. Like taxes, it is said, a sure bet for all of us. (Although one might hope that since we Canadians pay so much of one we might get a bit of a deal on the other.) And when one regards the mortality of a sibling, one cannot help but feel the spectre of one's own creeping about in the background trying to hide its face and doing a damn poor job of it.
My brother also has some heart wonkiness and I worry that it's getting worse. Not that he tells me much.
Of course, they inherit heart problems from their mother who is a different woman from my mother, but mine also has heart problems. Imagine that. Dad picked two women with generous breasts and faulty tickers. (I'll try to sort that out another day.)
So, that is my state of mind today. How very morose of me.
I think I better get on that treadmill. I've postponed it long enough today. No point in tempting the fates.
Ah, and the sun's out. Gorgeous day.
Perhaps, it's not such a bad one after all.
Colleen
One is the fight to maintain my positivity about my writing. When I begin a book, I love it. Love the characters. Can't wait to get to it each day. Somewhere about the middle of the book, my enthusiasm begins to falter. Not my enthusiasm for the story or the characters, but in my belief that I can write the story the way I want it written. That's where I'm at today.
The second, and more important, issue on my mind is my older sister's health. She had a mild heart attack over the weekend and had quadruple bypass surgery yesterday. I spoke with her just before she went in and her spirits were good. There was very little heart muscle damage and her prognosis is excellent. Since surgery, I am told by my niece, sister is doing well and if she modifies her daily habits she will do just fine over the long term also.
Days before the event, she had moved to Ottawa and is now being taken care of at the venerable Heart Institute. Definitely the place where you want to be in such a situation. She says her angels were watching out for her. (Our brother died many years ago and, she believes, he takes care of her. I imagine that her mom, who has also passed away, does the same.)
But angels and timing aside, one cannot ignore the writing on the page. Mortality. The first big peak into that void. Like taxes, it is said, a sure bet for all of us. (Although one might hope that since we Canadians pay so much of one we might get a bit of a deal on the other.) And when one regards the mortality of a sibling, one cannot help but feel the spectre of one's own creeping about in the background trying to hide its face and doing a damn poor job of it.
My brother also has some heart wonkiness and I worry that it's getting worse. Not that he tells me much.
Of course, they inherit heart problems from their mother who is a different woman from my mother, but mine also has heart problems. Imagine that. Dad picked two women with generous breasts and faulty tickers. (I'll try to sort that out another day.)
So, that is my state of mind today. How very morose of me.
I think I better get on that treadmill. I've postponed it long enough today. No point in tempting the fates.
Ah, and the sun's out. Gorgeous day.
Perhaps, it's not such a bad one after all.
Colleen
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