Olympic Torch exchange on Victoria's Blue Bridge

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the olympics are lousy houseguests

my olympic morning began like so many other fridays: a little organic tea in my cup, organic porridge in my tummy, check the email and facebook while listening to cfuv on the radio, and then head downtown for the morning coffee meeting with street newz friends. this friday, though, i packed my full media kit, was costumed in hallowe'en attire, and prepared for a full day of embedded media action.

having paid absolutely no attention to hitler's actual torch run, focussed instead on the torch protest (how did those germans allow those atrocities to happen?!?), i was not surprised to see zoe blunt walking to centennial square where the real events of the day were to take place. i was surprised to learn that there were protesters already on the bridge, and that the torch was scheduled to pass there shortly. i dropped my backpack with my friends at the solstice cafe, and proceeded to the bridge where i easily recognized the council of canadians representatives with their brightly coloured signage. there's audio from that interaction here, and video here. (check back later .... i'm off to the farmer's market ....)

click here for photos on facebook from the day ...
and here for the same photos accessible elsewhere (in backwards order)

on the bridge i learned that the torch arrived an hour and a half late into victoria and, as we waited for its official departure from the bc legislature and then wondered why it took so long to arrive at the bridge i learned that there are actually many torches and they're lit every 300 metres. can you imagine? this is the greenest games ever, they say, and there are people positioned every 300 metres around the world, each with a piece of newly made petroleum based plastic that they'll carry for maybe 10 minutes and then discard. and there i was, watching helicopters that had been in our skies since early morning, shuddering as war planes flew in formation overhead and, as the torch finally arrived, nearly asphyxiated as the slow moving coca cola and other olympic vehicles led the way through the streets where traffic idled. eventually rob reid, former mayoral candidate and, i've heard, one of the major complainants about the downtown bottle exchange (no friend to the homeless despite his token gifts of shoes which bring him publicity and acclaim), lit the torch of a man who works at the ministry of mining (or something like that, and apparently the man was an olympic athete previously) and one of many thousands, millions perhaps, of great torch passings was complete.



the event raised more questions than allegiance in my heart and mind. why are so many willing to celebrate hitler's torch? lest we forget - they don't even know?!? why, if there are so many corporate sponsors - union busting and water polluting coca cola, outrageous profits all take and no give royal bank, agent orange dow chemical, tar sands petro canada, uber-mining earth destroyers cominco - why are taxpayers still on the hook for nearly 30 million dollars? if the corporate sponsors are set to reap enormous benefits from the games, why aren't they the ones footing the bill? if taxpayers are on the hook for nearly 30 million dollars, why weren't we asked via referendum whether we support that sort of extravagant spending of our tax dollars? and, the big elephant on the bridge question, what's so green about this parade?

i learned another very important lesson, after an afternoon of music and speechifying and innovatively entertaining poverty olympic games, after marching through victoria's downtown with a loud and informed and awake and concerned crowd of anti-olympic protestors. we'd shared centennial square with a handful of trained legal observers (thanks to pivot legal society and the bc civil liberties association from vancouver) and, at one count, at least 45 police officers - including the two fellows on the roof of a nearby building. the officers had watched this colourful and vibrant and diverse band of concerned citizens peacefully gathered all afternoon in the square, i guessed they were having a lot more fun than the cops assigned to the actual torch run. we had won, i believe, a smattering of trust from these officers we'd shared the afternoon with.

when the time arrived for the march we discovered the ultimate in animal cruelty - 8 large horses forced into servitude, adorned with goggles and forced to walk through city streets with traffic and noise for the next several hours. 8 large horses working for the corporate agenda, whether they liked it or not. they followed us as we wound our way through the streets, refusing parade permits, insisting on our right to peacefully gather, chanting "whose streets? our streets," "we want homes!" and "1,2,3,4 .... fuck the olympics!" among others. we weaved through lanes of traffic and, as night fell, some of the organizers began to insist (rather militarily i thought) that we "keep tight," pull up the rear, don't let the cops get into the crowd. but they had been in the crowd, walking along with us, perhaps secretly enjoying themselves and appreciating a moment of open defiance, and i didn't understand why, suddenly, we were being yelled at to keep tight and don't let the cops in.

as we neared the legislature, i began to understand. here we were greeted with a whole new set of police. police who'd spent the day, perhaps, with the torch, forming stereotypes of "those unruly protestors," devising strategies for dealing with us lest we should disrupt the precious bread and circuses ceremony that the uninformed masses were to enjoy that night. these new police officers, rcmp among them, began to push their way into our crowd, attempting to harass and intimidate what were, by this time, tired and no doubt hungry young people just trying to share their concern that government and corporate priorities are not being set to favour any sort of a viable future for them. i heard one rcmp officer say, words to the effect, "we're just going to stand right beside you right here" and three or four of them invaded the personal space of some masked kids who held hands and moved closer into the crowd of people who will support them if the cops turn ugly.

i said to my friend carl, who was busy chatting with the woman carrying the tail of the massive big salmon, carl walking alongside as a sea louse, "these are new cops," untrained. he knew immediately what i meant. it's precisely what they did at tiananman square, he said. they got rid of all the beijing police, who lived and worked in the community, who knew some of the people, who had family nearby, and replaced them with fresh, out of town officers who would be less empathetic and more willing to clamp down on the students in the square. i could sense the fear emerge in our group, the same fear, no doubt previously formed in gatherings of this sort, that had led to the militant "tighten up" orders. these were from vancouver where they've encountered countless acts of violence at the hands of the notorious vancouver police department, and they were doing their best to stay together as a group so that nobody could be singled out and perhaps beaten or disappeared. (there are many questions remaining about how willie pickton got away with what he got away with all those years, and where are all those missing indigenous women, and what are those vancouver cops really up to?)

i stayed with the crowd, honoured and proud to be in the company of so many diverse and interesting and truly concerned and caring people. we'd achieved, as peace coalition susan suggested, secondary event status - the sidewalks of cook st. village and downtown had crowded with onlookers. and the occasional "get a job" naysayer. we lost some tired paraders along the way, and we gained newly arriving others. we were young and old, queer and straight, students, activists, business people, professors, union workers, carpenters, representing the cooperative movement, the peace movement, the environmental movement, the anti-poverty movement. we were peaceful, but we had an important message to share and we channelled our angry energy creatively.

at the very end, with my friends the salmon and sea louse, always with an escape route in sight. if these cops became violent, i wanted to remove my embedded self from the protest quickly and become the media. we wound our way through a strangely fenced off area in the middle of the street, and were then released onto the lawn of the legislature. there were thousands of people on the lawn, kids singing "we just want to be free" from the mainstage which was broadcast onto massive big screens (heaven only knows what this little party cost), and i could only feel sympathy for this obviously uninformed, or uncaring, crowd. i stood on the sidewalk with another friend, watching the giant salmon and the poverty torch wind its way onto the lawn. bread and circuses, we surmised .... give them bread and circuses and they'll never suspect, or even wonder, what's really going on.

it's not that i'm opposed to athletes and athletics. but my mother taught me to be a good house guest - clean up after myself and don't leave a mess, be grateful to my hosts and respectful of their needs for privacy and space, leave a little thank you gift in appreciation of their generosity. if the olympics weren't such lousy houseguests, barging their way in, demanding the streets be cleaned and quieted, leaving behind a public debt that's only countered by slashing social programs, perhaps they'd get invited back and wouldn't have to shop for new locations every go round.

bread and circuses. and the facade's only just begun.



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Democracy at the UN

Hi Folks,
Here's this year's result on the UN's vote against the US blockade of Cuba. I don't know when the UN will do something concrete to make the US abide by these kinds of votes.
The struggle continues,
Victoria Goods for Cuba Campaign

=========================

Overwhelming Support for Cuba at UN
United Nations, Oct. 28 (Prensa Latina)

The United States has remained in almost complete isolation for the 18th consecutive year in a new rejection issued by the General Assembly against the US blockade on Cuba.

The top UN forum approved Wednesday by 187 votes in favor, three against and 2 abstentions (Micronesia and Marshall Islands) a resolution titled "Need to put an End to the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade imposed by United States of America against Cuba." In that way Cuba's support increased by two votes, in comparison with 2008, while United States remained alone in the NO column with the same partners, Israel and Palau.




The text adopted by the plenary called the US to refrain from enacting and imposing laws and measures of that type in compliance with the UN Charter and the International Rights which reaffirm freedom of trade and shipping.

Once again it urged the US which is still applying laws and rules of this type to take the necessary measures, to abolish and leave them without effect as soon as possible and according to its legal regulation.

It also includes a new analysis of the issue in the provisional program of its 65 period of sessions to be held next year.

In its first report the document reaffirmed, among other things, principles of sovereign equality of States, no interference and intervention in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and international navigation.

It recalled Ibero American Summit declarations relating to the need to eliminate the unilateral imposition of economic and commercial measures against another State that hinders free movement of international trade.

And it also expressed concern for promulgating and applying laws and rules like the so-called Helms-Burton Act whose extraterritorial effects affect the sovereignty of other States, legitimate interests of entities and peoples and freedom of commerce and navigation.

In this respect it mentioned the 17 resolutions approved by the General Assembly every year since 1992 until 2008 and declarations and agreements from different inter governmental forums, entities and governments rejecting, enacting and applying this type of measures.

The resolution also warns that it continues applying new rules aimed at strengthening and increasing the siege and expressed concern for the negative effects of those rules on the Cuban population and those Cubans leaving abroad. Read more!

what have the unions ever done for us ?!!

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we can't believe that a company called "island timberlands" is destroying cathedral grove ....

ingmar lee (his site is currently hacked) has planted over a million seedlings in british columbia, and he knows the island's forests (and clearcuts) intimately. karen wonders has recently moved to vancouver island from germany, where she hosted ingmar as he travelled through europe with a multi-media presentation about what's happening to the last remaining ancient temperate rainforest (and all the creatures it houses) on vancouver island. the western canada wilderness committee, and its many members, have been trying to convince the bc government, for many many years, that we ought to protect ancient forests, stop shipping raw logs out of the province, and think about the implications of current logging practices on the forests and communities ..... especially in light of the global climate crisis.

we want them to stop killing cathedral grove.

* there are photos (in reverse order ... not sure why mac uploads that way) here.
* also, photos on facebook (in the order they were taken)
* i'll be broadcasting some of it, and some from the 350 day on the weekend, on the winds of change radio programme thursday october 29th. you can listen live, 11-noon pst, at cfuv.uvic.ca. or check relativenewz.ca for the podcast after the fact.
* and a video on facebook, and also here (more videos to follow, when there's time)




photosynthesis: the process whereby green things (with chlorophyll) eat sunshine and carbon dioxide, create sugar for themselves, and emit oxygen - which many humans find useful. forests are more than trees, clearcutting and heli-logging destroys entire ecosystems. Read more!

Will Olympic Torch Carriers and Athletes know or care about this?

1. Cathedral Grove, one of the last remaining stands of ancient temperate rainforest on the planet and a favourite destination for tourists from around the world, is being destroyed ....

and

2. Compliance Coal Corporation wants to build a new underground mine ...





1. LOGGING IN CATHEDRAL GROVE

For a google map to see location of logging, the park or the helicopter log dumping sites, please let me know and I will send more information via the overhead maps and photos. All photos are by Scott Tanner with permission to use freely.
Thank you,

Annette Tanner, 250 752-6585, cell 240-7470

Wilderness Committee, Mid-Island
Box 442, Qualicum Beach, BC, V9K lS9,
ph. 250 752-6585, fax: 250 752-7085 email: wcwcqb@shaw.ca
cathedralgrovecanyon.com
Press Release
Monday, October 26, 2009- for immediate release -
„Community Rally Heading to Island Timberlands‚s Nanoose Office Tuesday Morning, as the Off-shore Company‚s Week-long Logging of Cathedral Grove Continued over the Weekend

Qualicum Beach, British Columbia ˆ The Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC ) will be joined by many local community groups as its Ancient Forest Rally heads to Island Timberland‚s Nanoose Bay office this Tuesday to confront the Provincial Grovernment‚s lack of an Oldgrowth Strategy, that is allowing Island Timberlands to log one of the last remaining areas of the famous ancient forest in Cathedral Grove.

„We heard the horror of the helicopters all through the grove and in the park, all week and into the weekend, and saw how the helicopters removed one of Cathedral Grove‚s last few remaining patches of oldgrowth forest growing out of the steep, rocky terrain above the world-famous park,‰ explains Annette Tanner WCWC‚s Mid Island spokesperson.

„Repeated requests for the BC Liberal government to undertake a comprehensive provincial old-growth strategy to inventory and protect what remains, especially in a high priority, high profile and high tourist visibility area, such as the internationally famous Cathedral Grove, have gone unanswered over the past six years while Island Timberlands continues to log and flag the last remaining oldgrowth trees in the Grove,‰ Tanner continues.

„This special oldgrowth forest will be gone forever unless the provincial and federal governments take steps to support the local communities and regional governments by indicating that they care about conserving this remarkable heritage as a legacy not only for future British Columbians, but for Canadians and for the countless visitors that come here from all around the world.‰

The Ancient Forest Rally to protect Cathedral Grove starts at 11:00 am tomorrow, Tuesday, with the many speakers to include Ken Wu, executive director of Victoria‚s WCWC branch, as well as many other concerned community groups. The intersection and traffic lights at the highway in front of Island Timberlands is located one kilometre past the Esso Station on the top of the hill when travelling towards Parksville.

- 30 ˆ
- -for more information, contact Annette Tanner 250 752-6585
- - cell 240-7470 ˆ
- - photos: Scott Tanner -

2. NEW COAL MINE PROPOSAL

Compliance Coal Corporation plans to have a new coal mine up and running in the Comox Valley within 18 months. They think the public is in favour of the mine, but Comox Valley Water Watch Coalition has a lot of unanswered questions about this mine.


In brief, the mine would be an underground mine starting above Fanny Bay and reaching to Baynes Sound, producing about 2 million tonnes a year of coal with 700,000 tonnes of waste. We must know how much water the mine will use, where they will get the water, what they will be doing with the polluted water from washing the coal, and what the mine's impact on water, wells, and aquifers will be.

The mine is having their first public open house this

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28th at the
Fanny Bay Community Hall from
4 PM to 9 PM.

They will be asking what they need to cover in their environmental assessment. If you put your questions on the record, they will have to answer them.


Coal's responsibility for Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming are not part of the environmental assessment, but that doesn't mean those questions should not be raised. BC has a carbon tax on heating fuel for your house, but we sell lots of coal to add to global warming.

Please attend this open house and show the company that we are concerned!

Delores Broten,

For Comox Valley Water Watch Coalition


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oh, canada

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Ray Nagin: Who’s In Charge? - Havana Times.org

Ray Nagin: Who’s In Charge? - Havana Times.org

HAVANA TIMES, Oct 21 - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been in Cuba this week to get a look at the island’s civil defense system. Both Cuba and the US Gulf port city are vulnerable to seasonal hurricanes.

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