Snow

I woke up to snow this morning. I can't even remember the last time it snowed. It must have been in December. Here I was excited for spring!! Should have known. It's still trying to snow, but it is more of a slush coming down. I hope it stops soon and the sun starts shining again!

In other news. I still don't know about jury duty. I haven't sent my stuff in because the Nursing department head ladies are currently writing me up a letter or something to send in. I hope they finish it soon or else I will be in trouble. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how they can penalize me?? There are threats on the papers they sent me. I don't really want to mess with the government.

Summoned

I have been summoned for jury duty.  A first. As a full-time student I am supposed to be able to get out of it. Let's hope it works.

Guest Post: Another Perspective

The term “Olympics” is a very nebulous word.  There are many things which the “Olympics” represent such as: athletics, competition, hope, freedom, global unity, medals, celebration, ceremony, and men and women who spend their lives dedicated to becoming better at their sport.  All of these things can be very positive experiences; I know athletic competition has played a huge role in both Ashley’s and my own life.  However there is another logistical category which the word “Olympics” encases such as: committees, economic growth, development, funding, selection, politics, policies, security, volunteers, employees, judges, athletes, coaches, trainers, amenities, and housing.  All of these words represent things which need to be planned out for any events to happen or at least for any events to happen in a progressive manner.  These are just some of the words which the “Olympics” can represent to different people.

The “Olympics” in its entirety (meaning these two categories together along with any other word one may be able to put with it) also has, like any cause, an effect.  The effect of the “Olympics” are like the two previous categories.  An effect the “Olympics” may have for example is the beautification and development of a city which plays as host.  Another effect the “Olympics” may have is a form of economic development on account of jobs created, a high influx of people to a certain attraction, or even future attractions of the event center.  All of these things are wonderful, a city should be beautified, create jobs for its citizens, and even should have different landmarks or attractions for the enjoyment of human kind.

There are also, however, certain negative effects which the “Olympics” bring about in a certain location.  The negatives are things which may not be obvious or may not seem significant at all.  They are something which we all have to make a decision about.  A negative effect from the “Olympics” may be the amount of resources or funding it takes to put on a specific event, where that funding comes from, where it could have gone, the way in which the development of a city is handled, individuals who profit from the events, and individuals who may be marginalized or mistreated by the affect the event has on a city.  All of these things can be called into question, some of these things have happened, some of these things may or may not happen.  A question that I have is, if there is a negative effect from an action I take, even if it is an unintended action, should I have a part in correcting that effect?

I recently read a response from the Olympics committee to a letter written by a social justice group based in Vancouver called Streams of Justice in which the Olympics committee was asked to take part in ensuring that all persons are treated with respect equally by putting policies in place which make how well a city deals with its poor and homeless citizens a part of their considerations in judging where the coming Olympic events are to be held.  The response which the group received was that the Olympics committee has nothing to do with how a city functions only if that city is a suitable place for the Olympics to be held.  The committee politely refused, in keeping with its policy, to do anything about the affect which the “Olympics” has had on cities past and future.

I have always enjoyed the “Olympics” and I probably always will because it is a great idea.  I cannot, however, agree with some of the consequences which come about due to this event.  We have the freedom, ability, and power to ensure the safety and care of all people, lets use it for the good of humankind.

Here is a website of a group (Streams of Justice) which has deep roots in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, they are innovated and fact based.  These are people who live downtown and have devoted themselves to an ideal of solidarity.  I highly suggest looking reading through what they have to say.

Thanks for listening.

E

Transit

I really do. I have been using public transit for the past two years to go to and from school. Then, with our car breaking down, I began to rely on it for everything. I love it.

For starters, it is wonderful to sit and relax for 45 to both start and end my school day. Unlike most individuals, I cannot read on the bus so I am forced to just be still for that time. This is a time I treasure. It is blissful to just forget about any worries for those few minutes.

Having no car also forces you to think about what trips are really necessary. I mostly love this, but it does get frustrating when you really need to get somewhere and you are unable to. I have come to realize how unnecessary most of our outings are... and what a waste of money it is at times. I find that life has had to slow down without a car; trips need to be planned. A part of me misses the spontaneity of having a vehicle, but I have appreciated that it has forced me to stay home more.I like to think that I live life in a little less of a frenzy, but I doubt that Erik would agree.

Have any of you been on a bus lately? I would say that 95% of the individuals who take the bus are texting on their cellphones the entire trip. This includes the young kids riding the bus. How young are kids getting cellphones these days? I have been thinking about how much cellphones have changed our culture/way of life. It is truly remarkable, but a different post for a different day.

Complete!

I have finished one of my knitting projects - my scarf. It is absolutely lovely! I LOVE it. It is the first thing I have ever made for myself and I did not skimp out on the yarn. The yarn I used was hand spun and hand dyed and it is absolutely divine. I love everything about it. The texture is lovely. The colors are splendid. The weight of it is fabulous. and I think it is perfect. Just perfect. I will have to post pictures when I find my camera.

Allow Me to Explain

I know I'm a Debbie Downer. I was on the fence for a long time with regards to the Olympics, but decided a while ago that I needed to make a decision. I think the reason it took so long was because I wanted so badly to have no qualms about the Olympics. I want to be excited. I think it would be so much fun to be in Vancouver and to experience the atmosphere and anticipation. I'm all for getting pumped up for sporting events. I want to celebrate Vancouver - it is a beautiful city! It's a city that we should be proud of and excited to show off to the world. I want to celebrate elite athleticism. I want to support people who work incredibly hard and excel at their sport. I want to celebrate nations from all over the world coming together to compete. It is wonderful to have such an international event in which different cultures are welcome to participate. I want to celebrate people coming together.

And I will. I will celebrate all those things.

There are many things, however, that I will not celebrate. As a friend so eloquently put it, there are three pillars of disaster: environmental, social, and economical.

Environmentally
Parts of the province (especially up near Whistler) have been destroyed as a result of Olympic venue construction. Hundreds of thousands of trees have been cut down. Also, this has been labeled the “greenest games ever”, meanwhile all the major corporate sponsors of the game have horrific environmental records. Coca Cola, for one, is well known for polluting and depleting water systems in India where they do most of their bottling. People in the communities in India are short on clean water because of Coke. The Royal Bank of Canada, for a second example, is the largest financer of the Alberta Tar Sands, the largest environmental disaster in the world. I had never heard of this, but have been informed that the tar sands cover a huge portion of Northern Alberta. What they have done is basically level a bunch of forest in order to extract crude oil. Once extracted, it takes four barrels of water to refine one barrel of this crude oil into what can be used by cars and other stuff. The tar sands have polluted a major river in Northern Alberta that many First Nations communities depend on for their water and food source and as a result, people in these communities have seen a rising level of extremely rare cancers that are killing members of their communities at very young ages. Yes, this isn’t necessarily a direct effect of the Olympics, but these sponsors are walking home with their own pretty pennies to continue on their environmental destruction.

Socially
People living in the community of the downtown Eastside have faced rising repression and harassment from the police. They have dealt with the process known as gentrification (where the poor are forced out of their living spaces so that they can be upgraded into high end condos). This has been done to “clean up” the area. People were forced out of their homes and these buildings remained empty for months leading up to the Olympics – rendering all the tenants homeless. As a result of this gentrification there has been a 300% increase in homelessness in the last 5 years – something that has never been seen in this area before. There is no affordable or low income housing available, despite numerous promises to build them. The Olympic Village, for example, was supposed to become 20% affordable/low income housing, and now there will be none. There have been massive cuts to health and education programs, yet the provincial government can cough up billions of dollars for the Olympics – which the tax payers will end up paying off. There are some more disturbing facts about our provincial government that come into play here; BC has had the highest child poverty rate in Canada for six years in a row. We have the highest cost of living in the country and the lowest minimum wage. There have been bylaw changes made to repress people’s rights to free speech, in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) demands on the host city. There are huge human rights issues that have been disregarded for the sake of a two week party.

Economically
The tax payers will be funding these games for years. Meanwhile, the IOC will make millions and millions of tax-free dollars because they’re not registered in any country. The games are only for the rich. It’s like a big party for all the CEO’s and government officials. The Liberal government, for example, spent almost a million dollars on buying tickets for government officials and representatives. Also, people think that having the games here will increase job opportunities and tourism but the reality is that this is only short-term. The Olympics bring no sustainability to the city, province, or country.  And history has shown that tourism in host cities only increases at the time of the games. Many small businesses cannot sustain themselves because the people coming in for the games are high rollers and they go to the high rolling restaurants and hotels. Meanwhile, the small guys get trampled on because the people in their community that they would normally receive business from are leaving because the Olympics cause such disturbance in their every day life with road closures etc. You may think that two weeks shouldn’t impact them too much, but two weeks is huge when bills are due. Basically the only people who benefit economically are the IOC, corporate sponsors and real estate developers who get involved in building the venues and Olympic infrastructure such as highways and transit improvements.

I am taking a course about Community Development right now. In some of my readings the authors discussed how you need to weigh the risk to the community against the benefit to both the community and society. There are so many benefits to the Olympics. I have listed some of them, but there are obviously more, but are they really worth it? Is entertainment that valuable to us? The fact that Erik works at an emergency shelter has definitely opened my eyes and softened to my heart to the injustices toward low-income and impoverished people. But it goes beyond them. The Olympics impact us all in more ways than we realize.

I am by no means trying to convince anyone to boycott the Olympics. I just want to challenge you to think about the bigger issues. I want you to think about the lasting impact these games will have on our community and on the many communities it has and will affect in the years to come. I do not think we should do away with the Olympics, but I do think drastic changes need to be made to make them a time of celebration for all.

Anti-Olympics

I'm just going to come right out and say it,  I am anti-Olympics.

I think the idea of nations coming together is wonderful, but the way things are done is ridiculous! It's a waste of money and it doesn't benefit anybody. In fact, it hurts more people than it helps. It actually hurts my heart.

After some thought

I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but pictures often grow on me.

For example, here are some pictures from my wedding. When I was perusing my pictures after getting them from the photographer I looked over all of these. None of them really stood out to me as favorites. In fact, I didn't even like some of them. I was looking through my wedding photos with my sister yesterday and discovered that I quite like each of these. It took a while, but after some thought, I have decided that they are quite pleasant.

I don't know why I didn't like this one at first. Maybe because it wasn't what I "envisioned". I think I was probably moping about the fact that it had rained and there was grey sky instead of brilliantly vibrant blue. It has grown on me though.

There's also this one. I thought it looked odd. I still kind of think it does, but I love the grass in the front. I love the color in it as well. I also like that Erik has the tiniest of smirks...

This one was not a favorite at the beginning because we are kissing in it. And my chin looks funny. I am not a big fan of kissing pictures. Seriously, how many of them do you need? This is one of the only pictures that actually shows some of the detailing on my dress. And I just think it's kind of cool. (Side note: a year ago I would have been mortified to post this as we are kissing in it. I am still a little embarrassed by it, but I'll deal)

Please note, we are not actually kissing in this photo. I wasn't a huge fan of this one at the beginning because we are so far away in it. Now I like it. That's really all I have to say.

And I have no idea why I like this one. Maybe it's because it is right before I stepped on a snake, but for some reason I think it's pleasant.