Ho Ho Ho, Eh?

   Here's a little goodie I just learned about, in time for Canada's birthday tomorrow.
   Canada claims the North Pole as part of its territory. Yes, the claim is contested by the U.S., Siberia, Norway and Denmark, because of the possibility of there being oil and/or gas beneath the underlying sea bed, but hey, I'm Canadian, so I'm going with there being maple leaves under there! If we daughters and sons of the true north are right, then that makes Santa Claus one of us. That's right, eh! The old gent himself is actually Canadian!
   Now for those of you who dispute the existence of the jolly old elf, here's something you can't dispute. The Pole is on the move!
   Magnetic North, the place where the geomagnetic field points vertically downward, was first defined as such by Sir William Gilbert in 1600; a definition that stands to this day. The first
expedition to reach this pole was led by James Clark Ross, who found it at Cape Adelaide on the Boothia Peninsula on June 1, 1831. When Roald Amundsen reached the Magnetic North in 1903 he found it to be at a slightly different location. IN 1947, Canadian government scientists Paul Serson and Jack Clark found the pole to be located at yet another location, at Allen Lake on Prince of Wales Island. Several measurements made since then by the Canadian government show that Magnetic North is continually moving northwest. Its location in 2003 was 78°18' North, 104° West, near Ellef Ringness Island, one of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, in Canada. During the 20th century it is known to have moved 1100 km. Since 1970, its rate of motion has accelerated from 9 km/year to 40 km/year If maintained, this speed and direction would see it reaching Siberia in about 50 years. Scientists predict, however, that it will veer from its present course and slow down.
   Something else to know is that, on any given day, the Pole may be anywhere up to 80 km away from its official position. The Pole's daily wandering forms an irregular oval around the official position. This diurnal divagation is caused by disturbances in the earth's magnetic field that result from its being constantly bombarded by streams of charged particles emitted by the sun. That is why the yearly location given for the Pole is actually just an average location.
   Enough to make your head spin, eh?

One More Thing About Emma

   The Emma referred to here is Emma Shulman, profiled in a recent issue of Business Week, and the "one more thing" about her is that she's still working 50 hours a week, at the age of 93. Before you think, "good for her" and move on, you should know the reason she's in the magazine's article.
   Shulman is one of the seniors used as examples of the fact that the workforce is aging, and that productive, paid work does not have to end at 65. "Old. Smart. Productive. Rather than being an economic deadweight, the next generation of older Americans is likely to make a much bigger contribution to the economy than many of today's forecasts predict. Sure, most people slow down as they get older. But new research suggests that boomers will have the ability -- and the desire -- to work productively and innovatively well beyond today's normal retirement age." So say Peter Coy and Diane Brady, the article's authors.
   Some interesting stats are presented to back up the authors' statements about the boomers' ability. For instance, those 65- to 69-year-olds with a disability affecting their ability to work fell from nearly 28% in 1995 to less than 22% last year. Longer years with better quality of health mean that more boomers may well be ready to report to work on Monday, along with all their juniors.
   Employers need reasons that translate into dollars and cents to retain these workers. The article addresses the issue that older workers are often viewed as inflexible and uncreative. Research by economists David W. Galenson of the University of Chicago and Bruce A. Weinberg of Ohio State University shows that the innovations of older people are likely to be "experimental," and built on a lifetime of observation. Having someone who takes such an approach on your team can provide just the right counter-balance to the "conceptual" innovations of younger types. The reader is told that painter Paul Cézanne, and architect Frank Lloyd Wright are among those who produced some of their best work later in life.
   Invaluable experience is the basis of an excellent reason to retain the older worker. The level of expertise based on years in a position can be tapped by making the senior into an advisor for the junior. The Energy Department's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia has retained chemical engineer Hugh D. Guthrie, 86, as a full-time technical adviser partly because he has ideas that might not occur to younger engineers. Guthrie phrases his value well when he says: "My experience gives me a perspective on questions, which may not always be right but nearly always will be different. The greatest service I provide is in stimulating the thinking of people involved in a project."
   America alone has approximately 76 million boomers and if they were to retire en masse, there could well be a shortage of people to take their place. The Congressional Budget Office forecasts a decrease in the labour-force growth of almost half over the next 10 years, with a resultant labour shortage. At the moment, the U.S. is doing a better job of taking advantage of its older citizens' potential than most of Europe, where early retirement is routine. Six in ten Americans are still working at ages 55 to 64, compared to four in ten in the European Union.
   If there are such compelling reasons for smart employers to retain the older employee, there needs to be more incentives offered to the seniors to make them want to stay. Public education should play a big part. People need to understand that keeping yourself mentally challenged is key to aging well, and employers need to acknowledge that the older worker has a great deal to offer.
   Incentives could take the form of flexible hours and work location, special projects, and opportunities for mentoring and research. More flexibility in pay and retirement systems that create more options as workers age could also serve the purpose. As the article states, "Perhaps the most controversial idea is to break the typical link between pay and seniority." Getting paid to sit around and do nothing might sound good at first, but with today's longer lifespans, doing that "nothing" for 20 or 30 years might play a role in the development of dementia, and/or fragility . What a horrendous price to pay for a "life of leisure". Of course, someone in their seventies is not the right person for a job with high physical demands, but they may have a great deal to offer if they were given flexible hours and the opportunity to mentor someone younger at that job.
   Legislating longer years in the workforce is not necessarily the answer to the fears of a small workforce struggling to support a mammoth phalanx of retirees. For those like Emma Shulman and Hugh Guthrie, however, there should be the opportunity provided to keep using their alarm clocks and remain in the workforce as long as they are able and motivated to do so.

A Smoke Screen

   Pakistani President Musharraf is pretty damn good at diversionary tactics.
   Declaring that he wants to ensure Mukhtaran Mai finds justice, he has invited women from around the world to come and tell of their abuse and recommend solutions at an international conference supposedly to be held in Pakistan. "The government would ensure that such a conference will be representative of the different types of women victimization occurring all over the world rather then single out any one country."
   Musharraf claims that he is a fervent supporter of women's rights, and that he wants to make a contribution to highlighting injustices against women with his conference. What a magnificent smoke screen that would be. By the time the women had finished detailing injustices from all the other countries they come from, Pakistan could slink away, unobserved and safe to continue on its way. Significant in all of this directing away of attention is Musharraf's failure to set a date for the big get-together.
   Even more significant is his failure to ensure that justice was indeed served in Mai's case. Why haven't the maximum sentences already been served against those men, and every other pariah of their ilk? Why was Mai's passport revoked when she was invited to the States to talk about her ordeal? Musharraf claimed he made the decision to prevent her from going because he believed her attendance at the conference would have "tarnished Pakistan's image" rather than improved the lot of women.
   What a load of bullshit. This man has been throwing around enough manure for Pakistan to be knee-deep in mushrooms. Shining the light of international awareness on a problem is an incredibly important step toward correcting it. Witness the protest from the American government against Mai's being forbidden to travel. Voila! Her passport has been returned.
   Musharraf doesn't want to admit that he and his country did not need Mai to do any tarnishing. The backward, misogynistic system that holds sway there has done it all by itself, by condoning, and even encouraging violence against women. "I have always condemned in the strongest possible terms the actions of powerful groups to seek revenge on those who are weak by humiliating their women," Musharraf said in a statement posted on his Web site (www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk). More bullshit flying around ... Duck!
   The president wants to project Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Muslim nation. If that is truly his desire, then he can get a good start by having the death sentences served against the men who victimized Mai, and doing it right now. His next step could be to provide Mukhtaran with an all-expenses-paid, first-class trip to America. Such actions would go a long way toward providing Pakistan with some tarnish remover.

Another Update

   Mukhtaran Mai is the Pakistani rape-victim turned activist about whom I have posted before. She is in the news again, as she takes her case to the Supreme Court in Islamabad to demand the reinstatement of the death penalty against five of her attackers.
   Mai came form Meerwala to be at the hearing being held under heavy police guard. Diplomats and many human rights activists have come to the court as well, in a show of support for this incredibly brave woman. Mai said she expected the nation's highest court to uphold the original verdict in the case. "I am expecting the Supreme Court to give the same kind of ruling," Mai told reporters outside the courtroom.
   When I was teaching, I always told my students that the really brave person is not the superhero who charges out to do battle with a Hollywood-style grin of anticipation on their lips. The truly brave person is the one who finds themselves suddenly facing circumstances they would never have chosen if given a choice; the one who marches out despite the fear churning their insides and does what needs to be done because it is right. I used to give them examples. Heroes from Catherine Lundy to Gandhi have peopled the list. Now, Mukhtaran Mai would be one of the examples, too.

Another Kind of Justice

   As noted in a previous entry, Edgar Ray Killen has been given the maximum prison time for each of the three charges of manslaughter that he faced. I wished him health so he could face a long time behind bars, but I have a real problem with him still being alive at all. He should have been fried. Alright, alright, so the court thinks otherwise. Put him in jail, if you must, but let's not be profligate with the taxpayers' dollars. The old bastard has been put into a cell alone, instead of with a cellmate, and is being held in an area set aside for those considered to be at greater risk from the other inmates. This all costs extra money.
   Send the old Klan member out there among the others. Let him take his chances on their mercy, just like he sent those three young men out to face the tender mercies of the mob he masterminded to orchestrate their final hours. His actions during the "summer of freedom" obviously indicate that Killen believes in a kind of justice other than that dispensed by the courts, the kind of justice he would encounter out there among the other inmates, in the prison yard.
   Let me share with you a few stats announced by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. First, the increasing number of violent offenders accounted for 63 percent of the total growth among state inmates from 1995 to 2001 in the most recent available data. Second, among the 1.4 million inmates sentenced to more than one year at year-end 2003, an estimated 44 percent were black.
   Now I think that those two stats taken together would seem to point to a happy possibility, a conjecture that does the heart good to imagine. Would it not be proper for Killen to find himself surrounded by a circle of faces the colour of those he persecuted all his life? Would it not be merely payment of a horrendous debt for Killen to face final moments orchestrated for him by some righteously angry black inmates? Why should society pay even one penny extra to safeguard this evil old piece of filth? Send him out to face the wrath he spent a lifetime fomenting, but send him out alone.

Lord of the Stellar Rings

   A ring composed of dust particles in orbit around Fomalhaut, a bright star located just 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Austalis, or the Southern Fish, has just been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image makes the system look like the Great Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The new image is the first time Fomalhaut’s ring has been seen in visible light. For more detail, click here.

Calling All Lingweenies!

   If you like to get mileage out of the latest neologisms, you have got to check out this site.

Sunday Go-To-Meetin'

   You drag out your best duds for that Sunday morning worship, of course, but you want to be sure that your threads are right up to the latest minute, too. You need to check out the lovely summer line being presented by Bogota couturier Miguel Caballero, especially if you and your'n are in the middle of an eight decade-long family feud with the McCoys. You just never know when those boys are gonna' bust in on you, with guns blazing in every direction. That's why you gotta' hook up with this good ol' boy, Miguel.
   We should clear up something first. I know Caballero sounds like one of them thar furrin' names, but the word actually means "cowboy" so Miguel probably is a real good ol' boy. Anyway, seems he is one good entrepreneur, given he saw a need in the market and filled it, by creating and selling body-armour tuxedoes to the drug-lords in Colombia. Only problem is, what with the C.I.A. messin' around in Colombia and all, it's gettin' to be a safer place and the bottom is falling out of the Cowboy's sales, so he's turning his attention to the U.S. of A. hoping for his line to be a big "hit", so to speak, with bodyguards, business execs, and even gang members. He's coming out with bullet-proof tuxes, sports jackets, suede jackets, and raincoats.
   Before you lay your money down, how can be sure you'll be getting value for your greenback? Well, it seems this here Caballero is already pitching his goods in 'Eye-rack', and sales are so brisk, he's looking to expand through the whole Middle East. Now if his duds can stop the kind of bullets whizzin' all round everybody's head off there in that furrin' hell-hole, they're sho-nuff gonna' fill the bill for your Sunday go-to-meetin' suit.

A Little Live 8

   All of the approximately 35,000 free tickets available for Canada's Live 8 show, to be staged in Barrie, Ontario, were grabbed up in just 21 minutes.
   The July 2nd event is one of eight blockbusters that will be held simultaneously around the world. It is the hope of organizers that the concerts will influence the leaders of the wealthy G8 nations to increase aid to Africa when they meet in Scotland next month.
   Live 8 shows are scheduled in Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo and Johannesburg, as well as the Canadian show, which was the last to be announced and will be the smallest. More than 1,000 musicians will be performing at the concerts, which will be broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

A Screw Loose in Sonkajarvi

   The Finns are just plain crazy. These are the people who have shouting choirs, (not an auditory treat!) and cell-phone tossing competitions. One week from today, they will stage another of their ventures into the world of wonky. They will be hosting the 13th World Wife-Carrying Championships in the town of Sonkajarvi, about 500 kilometres north of Helsinki. The town has built a permanent 10,000-seat stadium to accomodate the annual day of races.
   Forty couples from around the world will be heading to Sonkajarvi to take part, including Team Canada, Toronto's Markus Raty and Dorothy Kazula. The couples will race around a 253.5-metre dirt and gravel track that includes two hurdles and a 30-metre water hazard that's about a metre deep.
   "Couples" do not have to be married. As long as the team consists of a man and his wife, girlfriend or a woman "he may have found further afield," they fit within the rules. In wife-carrying, the woman can weigh as little as 49 kilograms, approximately 105 pounds, but anyone lighter than that would have to wear sandbags.First prize is the woman's weight in beer. Organizers put the winning team's "rider" on one end of a teeter-totter and load cases of beer onto the other end until the beer balances the rider.
   This year's biggest news is that Dennis Rodman wants to compete. The ever-obliging Finns are holding a national contest to find Rodman a "wife" for the day.

The Right Thing To Do?

   Associated Press released an Ipsos poll yesterday that shows 53 per cent of Americans now say the war in Iraq was a mistake. Compare that to the two-thirds of Americans who said it was the right thing to do at the beginning of the war
   A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll reports that six in 10 now oppose the war, while only 39 per cent say it was the right thing to do. Compare that number to the 72 per cent who said it was the right thing, in April 2003.

Happy Birthday Sweetcake!

   Today's the special day for my other half - the bing to my bong, the clickety to my clack, the "et" to my "cetera" - the man who completes me! Happy, happy birthday, honey bun!

Snowballs, in the Summer?

   The last nasty heat wave we had broke last week, and the weather has been decent since, warm but tolerable during the day and cool for sleeping at night. Today, however, things are taking another turn for the worst. The thermometer is reading 34 degrees Celsius, but with the humidex added in, we're feeling 41 degrees worth of heat and humidity! The summer can not end soon enough for me. Give me a snowstorm any day!
   This afternoon I was volunteering at the CNIB, as usual on a Friday. I do a little of this and a little of that, as needed. At the moment, I am working one-on-one with a young man just here from Jamaica. We were discussing the differences between the two countries - population, area, life expectancy, climate. The last led the conversation to snow, of course, and I found out that he has not yet made a snowball. Imagine! He arrived in time to be here for the last winter, but no-one thought to help him experience the fun of snow, "first-hand". I launched happily into a description of the wondrous white substance. I told him about washing someone's face with it, and stuffing it down their coat collar during a play fight. I described the feeling of the air rushing at you while you speed downhill on a toboggan, and the children's cries of excitement echoing from the hill. I talked to him about building a snowfort and stocking up your armament of packed-hard missiles. I took him along with me while I made a tour of delight through the frozen precipitation, and knew I had done it all just right when he asked if we could make some snowballs when the winter returns.

Be Glad and Rejoice

Psalms 32:11

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous:
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

   You won't find me starting too many of my posts with a bible quote, but since Killen is an ordained minister, I think the above quote is just right for the latest chapter in this story.
   Yesterday, June 23, Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced Edgar Ray Killen to serve the maximum 60 years for the three counts of manslaughter in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Gordon acknowledged that Killen is 80 and that he is in a wheelchair because of an accident last March that broke both his legs.Then he sentenced Killen to the three consecutive 20-year prison terms, one for each of Killen's victims. The judge admitted in an interview that he had received death threats as the trial date drew near. They did not deter him. "It is my responsibility to make that decision, and I have done it," said Gordon.
   The lawyers for the defense will appeal, of course. At this point, since no death penalty is forthcoming, I would like to wish a long and healthy life, indeed, to Killen so that he may have many years of incarceration to look forward to; many years in which to think back on the actions that brought him to his cell. I am not so naive as to think he will ever regret them, however. Atty. Gen. Jim Hood, who prosecuted the Killen case, says that Killen has never exhibited anything but defiance to the state. I like Hood's comment: "At some point, there's got to be some remorse. You don't go to heaven unless you admit what you've done and ask for forgiveness." If you accept the idea of heaven and hell, this can create an interesting image. The state may not fry Killen, but perhaps the almighty will, and His "electric chair" will surely run the current for all eternity.

An Eye For An Eye

    On the 41st anniversary of the killings, ex-KKK member, 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen, was convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 killings of three civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. The jury began its first full day of deliberation Tuesday and took only 5 1/2 hours to convict the former Ku Klux Klan leader. Killen will be sentenced Thursday and is facing up to 20 years in prison for each of the three manslaughter convictions. He left the courthouse in his wheelchair, with his oxygen tube, poor old man, but somehow still found the anger and the strength to take a swipe at one of the cameras recording his ignominy. People inside the courtroom cried, and others outside cheered at the news of the conviction.
   It's a step forward, but it does not go quite far enough. The sentencing will tell more. Killen is an old style, bible-thumping preacher himself. If anyone would, he understands an eye for an eye. Forget the "poor old man" crap. Remove the oxygen tube, take him out of the wheelchair, and send him to meet his maker from a nice, comfy seat in the electric chair. Little enough to pay for the three lives that he stole.

Father's Day

   Well, yesterday was Father's day, here in North America, at least.I went to the nursing home where my father is. I won't say where he lives, because I can not see it as anything other than simply existing. He has Alzheimer's. Years ago the diagnostic team told us that three or maybe four years after the diagnosis would be his life expectancy, but he is still here more than a decade later, dragging on and on through days of staring blankly ahead from his wheelchair.
   I timed my visit to arrive there just before lunchtime. First I took my Dad downstairs to tour the bottom floor. It's a change in scenery. There are floor plants and big window-doors looking out to the patio and parking lot, all giving me the opportunity to point out lots of comings and goings, even though I don't know how much he can understand. My father is no longer able to articulate so we are unsure of what he does or does not comprehend.
   Yesterday, we timed our little walk just right because we met Remy. Remy is a cat who will be coming on the weekends to visit the residents. He's a very social feline and accepted my father's hand landing rather heavily on his head without complaint.
   After a little sojourn with the cat and his friendly owner, we headed back to the 4th floor and the dining room. I put an adult bib on my father and began to feed him the puree that all his food must be reduced to now. He is incapable of feeding himself and the bib is a necessity, although he dislikes it and spends most of a mealtime trying to get a good grasp on it and pull it away. I don't know if my father ever fed me as an infant, but the scene played out yesterday was a sad little one. I feel that way whenever I feed him. This disease steals absolutely all of a person's dignity.
   After his meal was finished I took him out to sit in front of the window that overlooks the parking lot and street, on the assumption that he enjoys watching whatever he can see. He didn't look out though. Instead, he kept motioning toward me, reaching out toward me. It's always a guess as to what he might want, but I took one of his hands in mine, and it seemed to elicit a positive response. He continued gesturing with his free hand so I gave my other and he held tight to both my hands. Then he fixed me with an unwavering stare.
    A couple of years ago, he had been calling me "Anne" when I visited. That was his mother's name. I have not seen many pictures of my paternal grandmother, but what I have seen does not seem to indicate I parallel her facially. Who can say what he sees though?
   His mother raised him as a Presbyterian, and though he went on to an adult life where he espoused atheism, the old hymns he grew up with seem to reach part of him still. I don't know why I first got the idea, but I began to sing some of them to him, when he began to call "Anne" during my visits. They seem to calm him if he is agitated, and sometimes even draw a smile.
   Yesterday, I started singing as he held my hands. I kept my voice soft and low because we were in the middle of the sitting area, and I usually sing to him only when we are in a corner by ourselves. Foregoing my usual reticence to lift my voice where others can hear, I began with "Shall We Gather", his mother's favourite. He pulled my hands to his chest and kept his eyes on me. I sang "Abide With Me" next and his eyes began to close. I sang "Nearer My God To Thee" and his eyes began to stay closed longer and longer between the times when he would open them wide to look at me again. I sang "Rock of Ages" and his eyes closed again. This time they stayed closed. I sang to the end and then disentangled my hands gently so as not to disturb him. A woman seated to my left, beside her wheelchair-bound husband turned to me then, with tears in her eyes and thanked me for my singing, saying she lad listened very quietly so as not to disturb the moment of peace that she felt. I walked away then, leaving my father sitting there, asleep in his wheelchair. I know he will have no memory of the incident, but I will, for a long time to come.

What A Day!

   My sweetcake and I spent the day down at Harbourfront, at the ninth annual Barbados on the Water festival. The sky was overcast all day, but there was no shortage of bright, cheery atmosphere, nonetheless.
   We got there as Andy Earle and his group were finishing the last few numbers of their show. Those artists were playing some raunchy-mother sounds, and there was just no way to stand still! My honeybun and I did some slow, sweet moving to the music.
   A few more hours passed by happily, while we took a multitude of photos along the harbourfront and in the Toronto Music Garden, a delight designed by cellist Yo Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy. I'll share some of those shots with you soon.
   Instead of the ice cream we had originally thought of, we snacked on some delicious offerings served up by the Afghan Women's Catering Group. The food was such a tastebud-tickle, in fact, we went back there later for our dinner.
   By 5:30 we had made our way back to the CIBC Stage to watch an admission-free performance given by the Israel Lovell Foundation's 25 member Dance Company. What an incredible experience! The only problem I had with the show was the first two numbers being performed to music composed by classical performers. It seemed totally out of sync with the whole thing. Once they ditched the dirges written by some old dead white guys, and brought out the drummers of the ILF, the show took off. The evening air was filled with a joyful pulsating of percussion that swept your soul right along with it. The dancers grabbed the music out of the air and laid it down on the stage with the flux and flow of their movements.
    I was sorry to see the day end.

   On Monday March 21st, I first wrote about Mukhtaran Mai, the Pakistani woman who was gang raped on order of a village council. Today, the brave woman is back in the news.
   Let me update you first , in case you are unaware of the case. It involves the caste system, bringing a rich, land-owning caste, the Mastois (the rapists' caste) against the much poorer and less privileged Gujars.
   According to police reports, this case began in June 2002, when Mukhtaran's brother, about 12 years old at the time, was kidnapped and sodomized by a group of Mastoi men. Because he said he was going to go the police, he was set up for retribution. He was left alone in a room with a Mastoi woman, and the police were indeed called. When the constabulary arrived, however, it was to find him in that room and be told that he had assaulted the Mastoi woman. A complaint was made to the village council, and those worthies decided that Mukhtaran should be raped as punishment for what her brother had done. (italics my own) After she had been dragged off to a shed and "punished", she was forced to walk home naked, in front of a jeering crowd.
   This atrocity made headlines. Denied the comfortable cover of silence, the local officials were forced into action. Twelve men were arrested, and their victim defied social conventions to testify against them. In August 2002, six of them were sentenced to death by hanging.
   This March, however, five of the convictions were overturned and the sixth was reduced to life imprisonment. All six are presently free on bail. You can certainly expect those nasties to learn a lesson from all this, can't you? If they don't play nice, their comfy little lifestyles will be interrupted by at least one afternoon spent lounging in courtroom chairs.
   Things get still more interesting. The Pakistani government had apparently banned Mukhtaran from travelling abroad. When this came to international attention, especially that of the U.S. government, outrage was expressed to such a degree that the Pakistani government backed down. In their own defense, they tried to claim that they had placed the ban on her in the first place to protect her". If anyone believes that, I have some great real estate out in the swamp to show them. They were afraid she would air the whole sordid tale outside of their muzzling confines, and bring unwanted international attention to their misogynistic system of backwardness.
   This woman is an incredibly brave soul, a source of strength for her family and all those who have been victimized, as she has. She has demonstrated her moral fibre repeatedly. Following the first international airing of her story, she received a flood of donations sent from wellwishers and sympathizers, worldwide. Rather than taking the money and leaving her village, to begin a new life for herself elsewhere, she has stayed and used the money to benefit the people of the village. She has opened two schools, started a shelter for abused women, and purchased a van which is used as an ambulance. Enrolled in the schools are the children of her attackers, and you can be sure the children of those who jeered at her in her humiliation are there as well.
   This is an incredible person. Mukhtaran deserves respect and admiration. She also deserves justice. Why should she have to continue fearing for her life, with her attackers walking free. Why haven't these men been dispatched long ago to meet Allah? Why hasn't a message been sent to the medieval thugs and bullies of that country that the century they are living in belongs to everyone, not just to them and the satisfaction of their lusts?
   Before you turn your attention away from Mukhtaran, before you indulge in the complacency of "that doesn't happen here", think again. The world is a much smaller place now. Such people as the abovementioned perpetrators may have mentalities that dwell in the dark ages, but they have bodies that could board a plane and come to your home town. If such types immigrate to your part of the world, you can bet they will bring their illogic with them. Vituperation against you and yours may be the beginning, but the question you need to ask yourself is, where would it end?
   Unfortunately my country, for instance, has already seen some "honour killings". Citizens of our "true north, strong and free" have found out that the "free" part might not extend to everyone. I know that if anyone can be targeted in such a way, then everyone could be. You need to know the same. Add your voice to the expressions of outrage being heaped on the current conditions of injustice that prevail in Pakistan. Write to your local newspaper, blog about it, mail off a letter of protest to your national government, to the United Nations, to the Pakistani government. Scream loud and long about the outrage visited upon this woman and her sisters in faraway Pakistan. Scream on her behalf so that you may never find yourself, one day, screaming in self-defense.

Cards On Ice

   One thing Canadians and Americans have in common is their addiction to credit. From keeping up with the Joneses to simple, immediate gratification, the reasons for using plastic are myriad, and when looked at critically, often unjustifiable, especially if the card's owner is losing sleep wondering how they're going to make the minimum payment. Need is very different from want.
   One of the hurdles to be overcome in cutting back on credit buying is the omnipresence of the cards. For people who have several of the little devils, leaving one or two at home doesn't help. They simply overload the ones still in their wallet. Even leaving all of them in the drawer at home is too easy a situation to reverse. Cutting up the cards is another commonly suggested solution, but it's something many people are just too reluctant to do. So how do you help yourself control impulse spending?
   Stanley J. Kershman, a bankruptcy and insolvency law specialist with more than 25 years' experience, has a novel idea. Literally put your cards on ice, says he. "Fill a plastic container with water, stick your credit cards in it, and put it in the freezer", advises Kershman. It takes hours to thaw the cards and must be done the slow way, because trying to speed the process up by using the microwave will destroy all the data on the cards. By the time you've waited for the cards to exit their cryogenic state, the urge to buy is bound to have dissipated.
   Of course, besides playing stupid games with your freezer, there is another solution, but it doesn't top many lists as a favourite. It is simple, though. It's called self-control.

   It has begun at the Neshoba County Court House in Mississippi. Edgar Ray Killen, an ordained Baptist minister, has come to stand trial once again, in the second act of a drama that started in the 1960's, in the "Summer of Freedom". It was then that 3 civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were murdered, beginning the judicial proceedings that have finally led to the court house steps today, in 2005.
   Killen was driven up to the court in a Grand Marquis, but he didn't get out until his wheelchair had been brought around. Then he dramatically dragged himself into the chair and began the trek inside for a trial that will seek to serve the justice denied decades ago at the "Mississippi Burning Trial".
   This old man in his wheelchair might have managed to look like the frail victim of a dreadful error for a moment, but his real persona of hate was revealed in short order when he exchanged pleasantries with known members of the KKK. Joseph Harper, a Klan Imperial Wizard from Georgia, approached Killen, gave him his business card and told him to call if he needed anything. Harper has already waxed eloquent in defense of Killen on his American White Knights website, citing four ways that Killen's trial supposedly violates the U.S. Constitution. At the court, Killen's stepson pushed his wheelchair while Killen's wife followed, leaning on the arm of another known Klan member. Such show of support from such a worthy organization.
   Killen's attorney, James McIntyre, was a defence attorney in the original 1967 trial. He didn't seem too pleased by his client's consorting with the Klan, and told the media he was repeating what Killen had told him when he said "We don't want the Klan or any other hate group here. They have no business here at all. (They)can crawl back into the hole from whence they came."
   Although McIntyre asserts that the Klan is not relevant to this case, it is more than relevant. The hatred, individual and systemic, that it espouses has been involved in every aspect of the proceedings, since they began. If it wants to help Killen at this point, however, the Klan should consider hiring an acting coach for him. The last thing he did before actually entering the court was to ball his left hand into a fist and shake it at a reporter, ordering him to get out of his way. The acting coach could discuss such moves with Killen and coach him on some alternatives so that the vicious old criminal can get the most out of his ploy for pity shtick.
   At the original trial, Killen faced charges of masterminding the murder of the trio of civil rights activists. An all-white, hung jury (11 - 1) acquitted Killen, and the holdout said that "she couldn't bear to convict a preacher." Interestingly, this preacher and sawmill operator has had other run-ins with the law. There are expectations that Killen's age and incapacity could play heavily in the verdict this time. McIntyre says "I believe the jury will acquit him. The sympathy card..." is expected to be significant in the outcome.
   Today it is a sympathy card. Then it was the white supremacist card. The FBI arrested 18 men in October 1964, but state prosecutors refused to try the case.The federal government stepped in, and the FBI gathered enough evidence to prosecute 18 Klansmen. They were only charged, however, with "violating the victims' civil rights". In 1967, seven men were convicted and given sentences of three to ten years. No one served more than six. No one was tried on the charge of murder. The presiding federal judge, William Cox, declared "They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved."
   In 1999 the state's attorney general reopened the matter after The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., published material that included excerpts from a secret interview given to a state archivist by Sam Bowers, the onetime imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On Jan. 7, 2005, 41 years after the crime, Killen was charged with three counts of murder.
   McIntyre is trying to make it seem as though this trial is a step backward, somehow a mistake. "After 40 years of moving forward, and now going back and opening up an old crime like this, well, the state of Mississippi needs to be going forward, not backwards," he said. It is never too late to vilify the villain. Convicting and executing a murderer is always a good thing to do.
   This trial is sure to generate controversy. It has begun already. While Killen spoke to the Klan Imperial Wizard from Georgia, Ray Graham, a white Philadelphian, spoke to a reporter. "This whole thing reflects badly on (the) community...Things will only get better if they put a (lethal) needle in his (Killen's) arm."
   It remains to be seen whether this trial will truly serve justice, or merely become another travesty like the one just played out in a Santa Maria court house.

Pathetic

   Jackson made himself into a laughingstock first. Now the court of law that tried him has made itself into the same. Every one of the jokes made last night at the expense of both of them was justified, like "If Jackson had been black, he would have been convicted for sure" and "Saddam Hussein wants his trial site moved to Santa Maria, California". Maybe the best one though, was "Jackson did have supporters, you know. Even if he had been convicted, the chimp was willing to wait for him."
   The trial was a parody of justice. Jackson is a parody of a human being.

Comedy Festival

   Last night, my other half and I made our way through the sweltering heat to 27 Front St. East, to see the Urban Womyn's Comedy Festival. It was a variety evening, with several acts being mixed in with a few sessions of emcee-audience interaction. The bill of fare was definitely OK, on the whole, with one or two standouts. One stood out because she just had a real potty-mouth, potty-brain attitude that basically made her a waste of time. Another act, the Raging Asians, stood out because of their mastery of the taiko drums, and the audience was loud in their appreciation of the group.
   Tradition says that you keep the best for last, and that is exactly what was done last night at the Festival. When Karen Williams, the Diva of Comedy walked out, the evening and the stage became hers, and hers alone. Everyone else faded into the background. The woman is hilarious and more accomplished than you could imagine. The time the audience got to spend with her was worth the whole ticket price, and more. I would just get tangled up in an overabundance of superlatives trying to tell you more about her. Follow the link to her name and find out more yourself.

   Pardon my absence, but I have been too freaking hot and miserable to write anything. Toronto has been sweltering in a humid heat wave. I barely tolerate the summer, regarding it only as the price tag that must be paid in order to arrive at another autumn and then the glorious cold of winter.

CosmoBot

   AnthroTronix (Corinna E. Lathan, Ph.D., Founder & CEO) bills itself as "a human factors engineering firm committed to optimizing the interaction between people and technology". It was founded in July 1999. In January 2005, AnthroTronix launched a subsidary - AT KidSystems Inc.from which comes CosmoBot, a telerehabilitation tool controlled by body movements, voice activation and an interactive control station. It's part of a move to allow therapists and educators to provide assistance to children with special needs. Go check it out.

Nuggets

    Recent clinical tests have shown that lying down is the best thing to do when you have a problem to solve. Apparently, sitting or standing triggers the production of norepinephrine (C8H11NO3, both a hormone and neurotransmitter, secreted by the adrenal medulla and the nerve endings of the sympathetic nervous system to cause vasoconstriction and increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and the sugar level of the blood), a stress hormone that reduces your ability to reason.
   The only problem with that approach to problem solving is how to stay awake while you're lying there all comfy-womfy pondering the problem!


   Richard Sabin, curator at the Natural History Museum of London, says that the ancient Egyptian equivalent of today's funeral wreaths and bouquets was one or more mummified animals, such as cats. The curator says this realization first came to light with the "tons of them dug up" from burial sites in the 1800's. Sabin, however, has x-rayed a number of the supposed mummies and found that, while the shapes were most convincing, they were actually just well-prepared fakes containing sand, reeds, and other worthless fillers.
   Now what do you think would make a suitable punishment for someone so dishonest as to take such advantage of grief? Maybe those purveyors of phony funerary offerings are spending eternity reincarnating as the cleaners of cat cages in all the zoos and circuses the world has ever spawned.


   Do you suffer from allergies? My father did. Every August, he would go through a month of hell, cursing goldenrod, the trigger for his annual misery. My husband has seasonal allergies as well. His usually begin in May, when the world begins again to bud and bloom. Many others suffer year-round from their allergies.
   It is interesting to know just how all-pervasive some allergens can really be. The air around us always boasts an abundance of submicroscopic particles less than 1/ 8,000th the width of a human hair. Scientists believe that 40% of them are dead organic material. More than a billion tons of bioaerosols - bits of proteins, cells, dandruff, dead plants and insects, and animal fur - enter the atmosphere every year and wait for us to inhale.
   Knowing this creates an image for me. Can you see it? I picture myself waking up in the morning and making an immediate grab for the bottle of nasal spray kept ever-close on a night table. Holding it out like a handgun, I make my way down the hall, running from doorway to doorway. I shelter for a moment in each one while I hold the bottle at arm's length, steadying my oustretched wrist with the other hand, looking furtively all about me. At the top of the stairs, I begin a mad dash to the kitchen. Once there, I look around in triumph and let loose a maniacal laugh. Mumbling "You missed me again!", I sit myself down for breakfast, the spray kept close beside me.
   Maybe I need to get out a little more often!

Grab Your Reading Glasses!

   I've got another one to share with you, one really worth the read. The book is "The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust", and it is the work of Edith Hahn Beer with Susan Dworkin.
   The book tells the story of Edith's life in Vienna, before the Second World War, and her survival through the war years as a "U-boat", a fugitive from the Gestapo living under a false identity in Nazi Germany, a Jewess who had "willed herself to disappear". The twists in the story are more convoluted than any to be found in the best fiction. When Edith gave birth to her daughter Angela on Easter Sunday morning, April 9, 1944, she did so in a hospital in Brandenburg. She refused all pain medication for fear that it might loosen her tongue and she would condemn herself and others with her utterings while under sedation. Her daughter arrived healthy and sound, and is now believed to be the only Jew born in a Reich hospital.
   The author says it had been her intent "not to burden younger generations with sad memories" but her daughter's need to know finally provided the impetus for her to tell the story, "to let the world know".
   She doesn't spend much time at any point in the story delving into details of cruelty or depravity, a technique wisely used to free the reader from being sidetracked into the wrong avenue of approach to her tale. She focuses instead on her reactions, and the reactions of those around her, to the horrors closing in on them. She spends time elaborating on the fear and depression she endures while coping with the gradual erosion of her own true self as she hides under the guise of a persona she never really was or ever really wanted to be. She and many of the characters who dwelt alongside her constantly present the reader with the question, "What could/would I do in such a situation?"
    I have a suggestion to make to the various boards of education. I think they should consider removing from the curriculum two books in particular; "The Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. Both are made much of, touted as must-read books that enable high school students to explore and gain understanding into the human spirit. Both purport to look at male coming of age; the former under conditions that free the characters from all restraint of civilization, and the latter, specifically at the awakening of sexuality. Both are a waste of time.
   If a teacher is looking for a study of character development and motivation, they need look no further than Hahn Beer's volume. Everything from cowardice to heroism is exhibited by the real people who make their way through the events of this story. Every motivation from self-serving greed to altruism presents itself as the reason for people's actions. What gives this book incredible power is the fact that it is reality. In the "Catcher" you have to wonder how much of Salinger's puerile obsession with matters sexual you're being forced to slog your way through. Likewise, in the "Flies" the question arises as to how much of Golding's own demons we have to join in the exorcism of, before the plot finally makes its weary way to the end.
   Hahn Beer allows us to see firsthand the precarious precipice that naivete clings to; holding tight to the assumption that the ever-present, mysterious "they" will somehow fix what is wrong before it gets out of hand. It makes the reader get up close and personal with the dangers of complacency; allowing them to examine those who clutched self-satisfaction to themselves while refusing to acknowledge the perils swirling all about. Every insight gained in this book can be used to look at the world surrounding today's reader, filled as it is with the disparity between first and third world. A look at either one of the aforementioned 'nothing novels' leads nowhere. A reading of "The Nazi Officer's Wife" will take you down many a twisting pathway of the human psyche.

Ass-Backward in Australia

   Kylie Minogue underwent surgery for breast cancer last month, in Melbourne's Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini Hospital. I wish her a speedy and total recovery. That's not the ass-backward part of this story, anyway, The following is.
   In order to facilitate Minogue's move into her room, several elderly heart patients were moved out of theirs. An unnamed doctor leaked some details to the Herald Sun, telling them that Minogue was given eight of the eighteen rooms in the cardiac ward because it was the most secluded part of the hospital. Why eight rooms? Well, apparently, some of her family members wanted to be there with her. Where were the ordinary folk displaced to? Those details have not been shared. Let's hope they weren't just stuffed in the broom closet down the hall.
   Going through what Minogue faced is unpleasant for anyone, but nor just anyone gets to have the whole thing orchestrated in such a manner. It would seem to me that this story should not be in small print on the paper's back page. It should be in bold print, huge font size, front and center on page one. There should be a whole lot of explanation coming forth from that hospital, and a whole lot of apologizing, too.
    The staff there decided to forego honouring the Hippocratic Oath, and went instead with honouring the coin of the realm,
   How disgusting.

Listen Up, Australia!

   The last couple of decades has seen so much in the way of public education campaigning to make sure everyone knows about the dangers of too much exposure to the sun. The message has been trumpeted around the globe, including in the land-down-under, but somehow, the people there seem to be collectively mighty hard-of-hearing. Australia currently holds the record for the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. A dubious honour, indeed. In fact their rate of melanoma, the most common kind of skin cancer, is apparently soaring. In the last ten years, the rate has risen 12% in men and 15% in women, and is expected to rise another 11% by the time 2011 rolls around.
   I know someone who was a letter carrier here in Canada, for his whole working life. We're talking north of the 49th parallel, where people are encouraged to take Vitamin D (the "sunshine" vitamin) supplements, because there simply aren't enough sunshine-hours through the year to maintain optimum levels of it otherwise. He walked his route while people still went out every day without hats or sunscreens. He is paying the price now, and has been for several years.
   I would assume part of the reasoning behind the sun-worship is that the bronzed look is deemed more appealing, more sexy. Every Aussie who thinks that way should be able to see the scars on this Canadian's face, made by the repeated surgical removals of newly discovered cancers. One is removed, and, in short order, another appears to take its place. There's nothing the least bit good looking about it. Think people! If that happened here in Canada where our sun exposure is limited by long months of winter, what will be the "conversion rate" you'll need to use to figure out how much time you have before your face begins to look like the battered road map that passes for the face of one old, "bronzed" Canadian.

Tie a Knot In It!

   Apparently, King Mswati III, ruler of Swaziland, one of Africa's poorest countries, has taken a pregnant 21-year-old as his 11th wife. He has already lined up two other 17-year-olds as future wives. They have dutifully quit school in order to prepare for the big thrill of joining his harem. Since Swazi tradition decrees that a woman must be pregnant before she can join the royal household, I would assume the biggest part of their preparations will be to get knocked up.
   I mean, pardon my attitude and all that, your royal horniness, but seeing as how you have sat the throne since April 25, 1986 and Swaziland is still so low on the wish list of places to live, what the hell good are you? If impregnating women is the major criteria of your pedigree, then you could be supplanted by any one of millions of other men. Why don't you stuff the royal jewels back in your pants and start doing something worthwhile for your country? Men like you are a waste of time.

Whine, Whine!

   A woman in Ottawa has been told by Canada Post that there will be no mail delivery for her until she has her 30-cm-tall front step reduced. It seems that mail delivery regulations state a letter carrier is not obliged to lift his or her little foot any higher than 20 cm.
   Give me a friggin' break!
   Want to see what we're talking about here?. Place a 30 cm ruler, or a one foot ruler on end, leaning against a piece of furniture in your house. Now see if you can lift your foot to that height.
   IT SIMPLY IS NOT HARD TO DO!
   If some wimp isn't capable of lifting their little footsie that high, they shouldn't bloody well have that job.

Hello Friend!

   You stopped by at 1:03 a.m. and left a comment about the guide dogs, plus a really feel-good comment about my blog in general. I promptly tried to follow up on your invite to "stop by my place and say hello" but the closest I could get was the notice "Blogger Profile Not Available". Stop by again and leave a few more bread crumbs for me to follow!

Bottoms Up!

   The entry below is about one day of the month to set aside for an effortless good deed. This entry is about the whole month of June and another easy opportunity to make a difference in your community. If you're a customer of the LCBO, you can turn your next trip into something pleasant for you and something wonderful for a visually impaired individual. Just watch for the donation boxes that will be at the checkout counters until June 30, and when you make your purchase, drop in some of your change. The box you help to make a little heavier will be raising funds for the Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind (CGDB), a national, non-profit, charitable organization founded in 1984 to assist visually impaired Canadians with their mobility by providing and training them in the use of professionally trained Guide Dogs. What easier way to make yourself feel good and know that you've helped to make the world a better place?

Grab a Cup of Joe!

   Be sure to mark this on your calendar. Wednesday June 8 is this year's annual Tim Hortons Camp Day. What does it mean? The entire proceeds from every coffee sold at participating Tim Hortons stores across Canada and the United States, will be donated to the Tim Horton Children's Foundation. Every coffee you buy at a Tim Hortons on Camp Day will help to send over 10,000 kids between the ages of nine and 12- who could otherwise not afford it - to attend a 10 day summer camp session or seven day winter camp session. All the children who attend the Foundation's camp sessions are selected from within the communities where the stores are located. The store owners work closely with local youth organizations and schools to select the children.
    If you're a coffee drinker, there just couldn't be any easier way for you to do something good for your community than to step up to the counter on June 8, and order your usual double-double!

Y'All Ready for This?

   This one is guaranteed to have your jaw scraping the floor.
   In 2000, Fernando Zola Kuanzambi was released form jail in his native Angola, and promptly arrived in Canada, using a fake passport to gain entrance. Once here, he claimed refugee status in order to assure himself of more time here while his case made its way through the immigration system. He was denied refugee status,a decision he appealed. His final appeal was rejected on December 2002, and he was ordered to be out of the country by January 2003.
   At this point,he should have been placed under lock and key until such time as an armed escort saw him onto a plane bound for Angola. Instead, somehow, he was out on the streets.On January 8, 2003, 15 days after the final rejection, he abducted a 13-year-old Toronto area girl from a bus-stop, forcibly confined her, repeatedly raped her and called her mother to threaten her demise unless he was paid ransom.
   This piece of filth had already done time in his native Angola. Once he was under arrest here for his attack on the girl, police released his photo to the public in case any other victims came forward. Another one did. He now faced 6 counts of armed robbery as well as the 18 charges arising from the attack on the 13-year-old. On September 15, 2004, he pleaded guilty to 14 of the charges against him. Guilty by his own admission.
   Has he been deported, or even better, executed? No. Canada-the-soft is still feeding him three regular meals a day. Currently, he is fighting attempts to have him classed as a dangerous offender, which would mean he could be imprisoned without chance of parole. A decison was postponed in March, after his psychiatrist testified Kuanzambi had learned a lesson form his evil deeds and was "unlikely to reoffend".
   What the hell is wrong with this picture, folks? Why hasn't this animal been shot yet? If he were a dog that had attacked on such a scale, he would be killed immediately. Before you respond with "but he isn't a dog" let me assure you, I am aware of that. He is less than a dog. He should not be called sub-human even, since that seems to suggest some degree of humanity to him. There is none.
   This man is smart enough to play the game with that idiot psychiatrist. He has repeatedly proven himself a liar, who would have no problem mouthing the words that sound like contrition.The problem would be for him to actually mean them. He is garbage; refuse that is dirtying up our country. The garbage needs to be swept away. Don't send him back to Angola. Don't enable him to destroy anyone else's life, as he has done with that girl. She will never be the same. Her innocence and sense of well-being have been brutally stolen away from her.
    It is time for Canada to stop allowing itself to be a laughing-stock, taken advantage of by detritus such as Kuanzambi . It is time to end this beast's life, and thereby make the air in Canada just a little easier to breathe. Garbage always smells. Canada, for god's sake, don't allow this garbage to continue polluting the air.