a room of my own

Canada Pension Plan and Retirement Security

2012-01-27T09:06:00.001-08:00

bless this earth

2012-01-26T16:16:00.001-08:00

Ralph Nader and the "State of the Union"

2012-01-26T09:55:00.001-08:00

A vegan’s descent into hell

2012-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Well, not exactly hell, but certainly an unpleasant experience. It all began a couple of nights ago, when I was preparing dinner in this lovely little country home. It was dark and rainy, I was listening to music, and hoped that what sounded like a knock on the door was part of the music. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a face appeared at the window, luckily my brain quickly registered that it’s a female face and hopefully connected to a friendly person and not an axe murderer. I doubt the little kitties, lovely as they are, would be much help defending me against an intruder.

It turned out to be a neighbour woman, inviting me to dinner the following night. I thanked her for her kindness, wondering why she’d invite the houseminder next door to dinner, and explained that I’m vegan. After a short discussion of what I could or couldn’t eat, she said to be there by seven and bring my husband. I realized that she thought I was one of the homeowners, who are new to the neighbourhood but currently away at a conference. She invited me anyways, in good country community fashion.

I felt a bit out of place, but prepared a quinoa salad and carried a flashlight to find my way along the dark country lane. She had a cute little dog, could be another potential client. And I could be the vegan representative, breaking the ice for the vegan people whose house and cats I’m looking after.

Walking through the kitchen I noticed the four large steaks on the counter and my mind automatically began to prepare an exit strategy. I could feign sudden illness, which wouldn’t be a lie since the smell of cooking meat quite literally makes me nauseous. But I’m the vegan representative, it was raining outside and I was there in a warm and friendly environment. I decided to tough it out.

Earlier in the day I had noticed some horses in their field, and the many barn structures so, in the spirit of polite conversation, I asked about the farm. It’s a working farm, with goats and sheep and cows and pigs. I mentioned that I had lived on 40 acres when I was younger, with horses and dogs. Their other guests arrived – a single mom and her teenage daughter who very enthusiastically shared stories of her own horses and competitive dressage, and their farm cats. I thought about how the conversation might turn if my clients, rather than I, were sitting at that table. They’re of the philosophy that cats shouldn’t roam outside, I was listening to stories of a hunter cat dragging home more rabbits and mice than it could possibly consume.

We finished our salads, and the dreaded moment approached. I tried not to breathe as the thick stench of scorched meat circulated through the house. I tried not to look as the slabs of dead cow were distributed among the guests, focusing instead on the lovely rice and lentil meal that had been prepared with me in mind. The young woman mentioned that many of her friends are going veggie but when she asks them why they don’t really have a good reason. They’re just doing it because it feels better, she said. I hoped someone would ask me why, but nobody did. The young woman said she’d finally found one friend who said she didn’t want to be part of the industrialized slaughter, the animals suffer too much, so she’d decided only to eat locally raised meat. The hosts agreed that the pain and suffering is not good. They only eat the animals they raise themselves.

I managed not to throw up, the sight of them carving through the cow they’d raised from a calf entering my peripheral vision, thoughts of its happy little life suddenly and inexplicably taken from him by the very people he’d learned to trust. One day they were feeding him, caring for him, moving him from the delightfully grassy field to the warmth of a clean overnight bed, and the next day they were … what … killing him themselves? Shipping him off to the slaughterhouse? Why?

How is it that we live in a world where quinoa salad with yellow peppers, celery, cucumber, and blueberries, green salad with avocado, spiced lentils with caramelized onions, and chocolate cake isn’t enough?

Dinner conversation was all about horses and farm life and how much we love our pets and what a great life it is. I wanted to ask how can you eat the ones you love? But I didn’t. I sat quietly, thinking about how interesting it was going to be when my clients returned home to meet these friendly, but philosophically opposed, neighbours. It’s difficult to remain quiet in such situations. I wanted to do my vegan duty and speak for the animals, ask the questions they might ask, express the sentiment they might feel, but I didn’t. Sometimes just being present is enough. Conversation about the delicious vegan chocolate cake that the horse rider made, after being told there’d be a vegan guest, was enough.

I was asked about my pet minding services, but nobody asked for details about my other jobs even though I mentioned that this wasn’t only one way I earned money. We talked a bit about some of my clients, I explained that most of them are dogs, we chatted about the difference between cats and dogs, and how interesting it is to travel and live in different neighbourhoods to look after them. I didn’t feel at all like a newspaper publisher, or an alternative media person with a radio program and a blog. It was unusual. I felt welcome, and I was asked for my contact information upon leaving.

I’m writing about it because I love to write, and being in the country seems to inspire writing, and because if anyone reads it, and they’re veggie, they’ll likely nod with understanding. We intentionally avoid holiday dinners where dead animals are served up on a platter, but occasionally we find ourselves in these awkward situations. Thankfully it’s only occasionally.

Sometimes I forget how different I am.

happy birthday, egyptian revolution!

2012-01-25T14:56:00.001-08:00

john pilger on barack obama

2012-01-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

black market greyhound

2012-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

so i'm away from home, right, and i've booked a greyhound ticket for next week so i can get home. but i wasn't able to print the ticket before i left home, just the email confirming the online order and a reference number.

i took all that to the greyhound depot this morning, so i can get the ticket before the bus leaves next week. there's nothing more frustrating than trying to get onto a bus and not being able to, at the last minute. the guy at the counter looks up my reference number on his computer and says he can't print the ticket because the computer says it's already been printed. but i wasn't able to print it, i tell him. well too bad, he says (in a friendly way), you'll have to figure out how to print it.

okay, so what's the difference between me printing a ticket more than once, or him? i mean, i haven't printed the ticket yet but what if i had? he's telling me i can go print it again? and again? but he, the greyhound employee, is not able to print the ticket at all?

i guess it was kinda stupid to choose the "print at home" option when i don't own a printer. but i intentionally don't own a printer, on principle. i figured i could print the ticket to a pdf file, like i do with everything else, then transfer the pdf file to an external stick and take it to a print station at the university and print on tree free paper. why should everyone in the world own a printer? but no. when i hit the "print ticket" key on the greyhound website, i wasn't given any options about where i want to print the document. it didn't ask me which printer, or in what format, or what size, or anything. it just sat there and said nothing. so, instead, i printed the email confirmation to a pdf file, and took that to the university and printed it, assuming i could just show it to the greyhound people and it'd all be taken care of.

how was i to know that any failed attempt to print the ticket results in a "this ticket has already been printed" status in the greyhound computer, and that they'd refuse to do anything except give me an 800 number to call.

so i called the 800 number and explained what happened. the guy told me i shouldn't have chosen that option since i don't have a printer. yeah, no kidding. i was referred to a different 800 number. i called the second time. you have to print the ticket, the guy said with a thick accent. but i can't, i told him, i'm away from home and i don't have a printer. well take your computer to the library and go to the website and call me from there and i'll walk you through it, the guy said. but i don't have a cell phone, i told the guy. then take your computer to a friend's house and print it on their printer, he said. but i don't know anyone around here, i told him, i'm away from home. well then i can't help you, he said.

what?!!

i told him that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard and i want to talk to someone else. he said they'll just tell me the same thing.

of course i realize he's just a tech support guy, somewhere in a distant land, probably having a little laugh at the irony of the situation. here i am, in what's known as the first world, telling someone who's probably in what's known as the third world, that i can't follow his tech advice because i'm the one who doesn't have the technology. i thanked him for his efforts and hung up.

what to do. the people whose house i'm minding have a computer and a printer, perhaps they won't mind if i give it a try from there. i tested the printer to make sure it works, and went onto the greyhound website and found the page and entered all my information again. again the page just stared at me. no error message, nothing. no way to know why it's not printing the ticket except, perhaps, the obvious. i've already tried to print the ticket!!! maybe i'm a greyhound counterfeiter, printing lots of tickets so i can scalp them to the locals. but wait ... the guy said i'd be able to print it if only i could find a computer and a printer that work.

there was a message on the page to make sure the computer has adobe version 8 or greater, maybe that's the problem. nope, my friends have version 9. i try it again. again, no error message, nothing. i try the printer again and yes, it's working. i was able to print the web page. i call the 800 number again.

a woman this time, her accent sounded mexican or south american, suggests maybe i've got the computer set to not allow pop up windows. i'll need to change that, she says. it's not my computer, i say, but after some time i find the place in the web browser where i can temporarily change that setting and allow for pop up windows. i press the button again, and voila ... my ticket starts printing. i thank her and ask her where she is. no reply, she asks me if there's anything else she can help me with. i say i'm just curious, i'd like to know which country she's in. no reply. i guess you're not allowed to tell me, i say. she politely says goodbye and thanks me for calling greyhound.

i still don't get the logic. a greyhound employee standing in front of me can't print my ticket because the system says it's already been printed, but a greyhound employee in some distant land can help me print my ticket. i haven't tried, but i'm guessing i could go to that "reprint ticket" page and print it again. and again.

i guess it's true, corporations are good at job creation. i'm glad all those tech support people have jobs in all those far away lands. but, in retrospect, next time i'll insist on buying my ticket live and in person, from a canadian employee standing in front of me, and save myself the headache associated with trying to figure out corporate logic.

it could happen

2012-01-23T21:12:00.001-08:00

robert redford the environmentalist

2012-01-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

colbert and stewart are exposing the corruption

2012-01-22T18:44:00.001-08:00

ictv interviews ted smith about cannabis

2012-01-22T10:25:00.001-08:00

snow day in victoria

2012-01-21T19:07:00.001-08:00

the us war economy in action

2012-01-21T19:00:00.001-08:00

wasting food oughta be illegal

2012-01-18T16:59:00.001-08:00

snowboarding bird

2012-01-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

o brave new world, that has such [small minded] people in't!

2012-01-18T13:46:00.001-08:00

School officials in Tucson, Arizona, have released a list of seven banned books that can no longer be used in classrooms after the suspension of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program. Officials told teachers to stay away from any books where, quote, "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes." The banned books includeRethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, Shakespeare’s play The Tempest,Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, and Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement

rick mercer on monied insurgents

2012-01-18T13:45:00.001-08:00

cornel west on the revolution

2012-01-17T09:06:00.001-08:00

Palestinian folklore dance “ Dabkah” in Tel Aviv

2012-01-17T08:48:00.001-08:00

mlk speaks about poverty in us-america

2012-01-16T16:27:00.001-08:00

enbridge day 2 public hearing, kitamaat, haisla territory

2012-01-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

ancient forest, or oil pipelines

2012-01-16T11:35:00.001-08:00

"I have a dream" - MLK full speech

2012-01-16T11:26:00.001-08:00

"smart meter" documentary trailer

2012-01-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

The Blue Bridge and The E and N 'conspiracy'

2012-01-15T16:57:00.001-08:00

convoy aid arrives in gaza

2012-01-15T16:55:00.001-08:00

how to make a viral video

2012-01-15T16:19:00.001-08:00

SASKATCHEWAN: TOXIC WASTE DUMP?

2012-01-13T17:56:00.001-08:00

MLA Jagrup Brar visits the Food Bank

2012-01-13T16:57:00.001-08:00

comic relief

2012-01-13T14:44:00.001-08:00

at last, some decent cbc queries re: pipeline funding

2012-01-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

crazy radical environmentalists opposing enbridge pipeline

2012-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

democracy now and guantanamo

2012-01-10T19:09:00.001-08:00

and they say castro's a dictator

2012-01-10T19:07:00.001-08:00

chris hedges and the decline of the american empire

2012-01-10T12:41:00.001-08:00

silly dog video

2012-01-09T17:03:00.001-08:00

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada's Pacific Coast

2012-01-07T21:12:00.001-08:00

OWS against Brookfield Logging on Cortes Island

2012-01-07T21:02:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 5)

2012-01-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

another new david rovics' song

2012-01-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

how to remove a smart meter

2012-01-07T13:52:00.001-08:00

wilderness dance party

2012-01-07T09:59:00.001-08:00

so much for freedom of speech

2012-01-07T09:56:00.001-08:00

Face to Face with the Fukushima Disaster Pt. 2

2012-01-06T16:24:00.001-08:00

Face to Face with the Fukushima Disaster Pt. 2 from ICTV Victoria on Vimeo.

these are the people the us wants to bomb next

2012-01-06T08:40:00.001-08:00

2012-01-05T16:42:00.001-08:00

very determined octopus!

2012-01-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

the power of raw cannabis

2012-01-05T08:20:00.001-08:00

occupy movie

2012-01-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 3)

2012-01-04T09:46:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 3) from Sid Tan on Vimeo.

david rovics - no fracking way

2012-01-04T09:36:00.001-08:00

2012-01-02T15:46:00.001-08:00

Risking it All - Oil on our Coast from Twyla Roscovich on Vimeo.

fukushima debris reaches vancouver island

2011-12-30T08:23:00.001-08:00

Eli and 100+ others evicted from Sacramento tent city three days after Christmas

2011-12-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

click http://www.kcra.com/video/30092237/detail.html for some media coverage of the eviction

isn't civilization grand?!

2011-12-27T15:04:00.001-08:00

year in race 2011

2011-12-27T15:01:00.001-08:00

ry cooder's song for the revolution

2011-12-27T09:30:00.001-08:00

occupy wall street thanks supporters

2011-12-26T16:49:00.001-08:00

billy bragg's version of the internationale

2011-12-26T16:34:00.001-08:00

9/11 truth from a whistleblower

2011-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

global flash mobs

2011-12-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

maybe the emotion numbing meds are the problem

2011-12-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

beautiful finite earth

2011-12-26T09:32:00.001-08:00

santa's stuck in the smoke hole

2011-12-25T17:03:00.001-08:00

rudolph goes to rehab

2011-12-24T18:09:00.001-08:00

sean penn, accused "communist," on chavez

2011-12-23T19:50:00.001-08:00

merry occupy!

2011-12-23T16:37:00.001-08:00

betty k: injunctions be damned!

2011-12-23T15:40:00.001-08:00

kinda cool!

2011-12-23T13:46:00.001-08:00

happy solstice day!

2011-12-21T07:34:00.001-08:00

Commemorate the Mutiny Dec 21st at 9 am at Fort/Quadra

2011-12-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

Tar Sands: dirty oil and the future of a continent

2011-12-17T12:55:00.001-08:00

anne feeney - corporate welfare

2011-12-16T09:03:00.001-08:00

merry greedmas!

2011-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Rick Mercer takes on Kyoto decision

2011-12-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

clearcutting on stolen native land

2011-12-13T16:57:00.001-08:00

AIM declares solidarity with the revolution

2011-12-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

"canada" is out of kyoto, but canadians are NOT!

2011-12-12T16:42:00.001-08:00

a brief history of socialism in bc

2011-12-12T09:26:00.001-08:00

merry merry from the great white north, eh

2011-12-12T09:15:00.001-08:00

preview of new documentary from japan

2011-12-09T08:06:00.001-08:00

#occupy use human mic on toronto subway

2011-12-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

fidel and che retrospective

2011-12-05T17:58:00.001-08:00

why can't we have bike lanes?!

2011-12-05T16:50:00.001-08:00

it seems someone got george to read the truth

2011-12-05T15:37:00.001-08:00

citizen in the "greatest nation ... land of the free" going to jail for recording police violence

2011-12-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

Fort Parker, the First Crow Indian Agency

2011-12-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

My dear friends,

I am in need of your help for a very important program! The Extreme History Project is competing to win film making equipment and support for a documentary project. We REALLY need people to simply click on the link below and play the video. Each play of the video counts towards our winning this much needed equipment for a fabulous organization. Will you please help and forward this out to all your contacts and ask for their support? THANKS everyone, I know I can always count on you!

Shelley Bluejay Pierce

The Extreme History Project has been researching the history of Fort Parker, the First Crow Indian Agency and has been working with PBS Montana to create a documentary detailing the reservation period of the Crow Nation. The Extreme History Project has recieved a grant to film oral history interviews on the Crow reservation as a the foundation of the documentary. These interviews will interweave with the history of Fort Parker and the second agency near Absarokee Montana. This story is an important part of Montana history, but is generally unknown and untold. Its expression has enormous potential for awareness, understanding and healing. America's Indigenous peoples have suffered the historical trauma of this period for seven generations. It is time for this story to be told.

Naomi Klein speaks in Vancouver about poverty, the tar sands and Indigenous resistance to oil pipelines

2011-12-03T12:31:00.001-08:00

Naomi Klein - interview with Occupy Vancouver from Ian MacKenzie on Vimeo.

what the frack?

2011-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

Independent Community Television Presents: Face to Face with Fracking.

We talk to Ben Parfitt of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives about this latest Corporate insult to us and our planet. He explains what fracking is, and what is going on in BC and Canada.
It's the same old story; Big Business is behind it because there is 'money to be made'. The Corporate Media keeps it secret, so public anger is minimal, and the corporate politicians, both Liberal and NDP, support it. And the poisoning of everything continues ... just business as usual. When are we going to stop these lunatics?

scott olsen has recovered his ability to speak after being attacked by police in oakland

2011-12-01T12:28:00.001-08:00

new bike lanes in vancouver!

2011-12-01T09:58:00.001-08:00

revolutionary dance music (check the mohawk flag at 0:37!)

2011-11-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

bill mckibben, founder of 350.org, speaks at ubc nov 2011

2011-11-28T14:23:00.001-08:00

occupy economics - economists speak about the 99%

2011-11-28T13:54:00.001-08:00

ceta - the capitalistas' latest attempt to rescue their failed economy

2011-11-25T08:00:00.001-08:00

canada - where first nations live in the third world

2011-11-25T07:50:00.001-08:00

keith olbermann reviews some protest history in the usa

2011-11-22T09:21:00.001-08:00

avatar grove on shaw tv

2011-11-21T17:03:00.001-08:00

a healing circle from the people's assembly vancouver

2011-11-20T19:40:00.001-08:00

Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis

2011-11-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

From US Uncut:

Lt. John Pike pepper sprays unarmed, seated, nonviolent UC Davis student protesters during a violent #Occupy crackdown. Call/skype/email him and his chief, ask what it feels like to violently oppress young American citizens peacefully expressing their constitutional rights to free assembly.

Work: 530-752-3989
Cell: 530-979-0184
Email: japikeiii@ucdavis.edu
Skype: japike3

Annette M. Spicuzza,
UC Davis Police Chief
(530) 752-3113

For more on this story click here.