God Bless Us, Every One

I want to wish each and every one of my sisters and brothers a happy and peaceful Christmas, one that will put a smile on your face and in your heart, too. I wish for you a coming year in which happiness and health will be with you each and every day, a year when God cradles you close to Her heart every minute, smiling on you and those you love.

Congratulations, Sisters Mine!

The West Bank city of Ramallah had a real eye-opener on December 12 of this year, and I think it's cause for celebration. Given the usual restrictions placed on female pursuit of career choices, the picture you see to the right of a woman directing the traffic represents another victory in the long struggle for equality. Also, given the fact that there was a total absence of world news headlines about the universe screeching to a halt because a woman stepped into a job traditionally reserved for men, it is to be hoped that perhaps a few formerly intransigent males saw the occurrence and decided to reconsider their idea of keeping women "in their place".

FYI, Ms Divorcee

The Grand Velas All Suites and Spa Resort in Mexico has a special vacation package just for those who have recently severed the ties that bind. Head to the website, or your travel agent to book a "Diamond Divorce Special" and one of the services they'll make available to you is a private consultation with a jeweler to take your engagement ring and add a little artistic redesigning that will allow you to sport the bling without being reminded of the dud that have it to you.
The resort can boast of being a recipient of the AAA Five Diamond Award, so you know you'll pay a pretty penny for your sojourn, but you'll be treated royally while you're there. The package includes pampering at the spa, gourmet choices in French, Italian and Mexican cuisine, unlimited wine, and dance lessons among other goodies. It all sounds like a great way to celebrate losing the ball and chain.

Gift Giving That Means More

Although their website says "Please order by midnight on December 17th, for guaranteed delivery by December 24th" the Hospital for Sick Children's shop site is a great place to look for gifts that mean more. The Christmas that falls on December 25th is not the only one. January 7th is a date that means Christmas for many, as well. If you're one who celebrates the latter date, you're in lots of time for festive giving. If not, you might well still find meaningful birthday gifts here, or maybe even a "just because" present. Their "Believe" tag necklace or "Believe" bear would fit in for any occasion.
Teachers wanting a challenge for their class can take a look at the "Create a Customized Webpage" or the "Fundraising Event" idea and party goers looking for a hostess gift with a twist can check out "Hostess or Secret Santa" suggestions. The website informs their visitors that "Sales from our merchandise line fund world-renowned research in children's health, aid in the purchase of vital equipment and ensure that SickKids can recruit and retain the best in medicine."
Conveniently up 24/7, and sectioned into such categories as "for her" and "for him", among others, the site is definitely worth a visit.

Pardoning a Rape Victim

The King of Saudi Arabia has granted a royal pardon to the Qatif girl. It would be laughable that he has done so , if it weren't a part of such an unbelievable backward state of affairs aimed at total injustice for women.
"Qatif Girl" as she has been named for the eastern province in which the crime took place, was found in a state of "khalwa" - being alone in a car with a male not related to her. The 19-year-old, married woman was pulled from the car, as was the male, by a gang of idealistically minded good citizens who then proceeded to gang rape both the woman and the male. After they had finished meting out their revenge for her offending their finer sensibilities, she was arrested. Sentenced to 90 lashes for being in a state of khalwa, the victim actually had the incredible courage to take her story to the media. The Genearl Court of Qatif increased her punishment, increasing the sentence to 200 lashes and jail time for attempting to "aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media". Her attorney, human rights lawyer Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem refused to give up and continued to press matters on his client's behalf. He too talked to the press, a move which cost him his license, for "faulty behaviour".
The sentencing raised cries of outrage around the world, with the Human Rights Watch, and even Saudi's usual good buddy, the White House, voicing the opinion that the whole situation is outrageous. The world's reaction is likely what spurred on the pardon. It is traditional for the monarch to grant pardons just before Eid al-Adha, which begins this Wednesday. Once the victim was pardoned, she was freed from jail and sent home to her family. Given the misogynist society in which she lives, however, it is questionable if there will be any quality of life available to her ever again, even the lesser quality normally granted to the women of this backward country. She has said that since the incident, everyone looks at her as though she were the one at fault, and the pressure has made it impossible for her to continue her studies. It has even caused her to attempt suicide twice.
To me, the fact that her attackers were given sentences ranging from two to nine years in prison means only that the justice system reacted to the rape of the man in the car. It makes no statement of hope for the women of Saudi Arabia. The king's promises of judicial reform made earlier this year have clearly been shown to be nothing more than the mouthing of empty words.
If the impossible could happen, the women of this backward regime would rise up as one. They would refuse ever again to don the yoke of second-class citizenship forced on them by the injustice that ensnares them now. It may well be the only possibility for the country to actually step forward into the 21st century.

Check Out Those Burqas, Corporal Lettre

26-year-old Jennifer Lettre, from Granby, Quebec, had become the first female police officer stationed at an Afghan National Police substation. Mohammad Safai, the ANP chief of police had wanted a woman to be available for the search process at the substation. Given that it would upset religious mores to have a burqa-wearer searched by a man, the Taliban has taken advantage of the supposition that all of those under the burqas are indeed female. The men have been making women into their mules and loading them down with contraband, such as weapons, in order to get them past the checkpoints. Taliban men have also donned the garment more than once, themselves, to elude detention.
When I first heard about Lettre's posting, back in late November of this year, I wondered how she would fare, helping to train the Afghan police, as well as working at the checkpoints. I expected there to be intractable resistance from her male peers at the substation to working with her. I felt sure her days might even be numbered, since the Taliban, I am sure, feel she is some kind of an abomination. The Zhare district near the police substation where she is posted is currently a hotbed of Taliban insurgency. There is every possibility they will set out to eradicate with violence the perceived threat she poses to what they view as the essential and total domination of the distaff side of the population.
Lettre has said that she expected resistance to her work as well, because the Afghan police "didn't want some woman on their checkpoints because of the religion thing", but Safai says his men do what they are told and after her first night there, it would seem he is right. On Lettre's first night, an interpreter was brought in so the men could meet with their new comrade and fire off all their questions. Their concerns must have been met to their satisfaction; because Lettre says they now tell her, "You are like our little sister."
I love the whole situation. With a woman at the checkpoint, there can be no demurring to a search of any and all wearing a burqa. Since the one now doing the search is a Canuck, you know that protocol will be followed to the letter if the search revealed anything anatomical dangling where they should be nothing swinging in the breeze. I find it difficult, however, not to think at least a little of an alternate scenario in which the offending appendage is discovered and the safety catch "slips", leaving a murderous miscreant ready for the slag heap. You know bloody well that no decent man with peaceful intent would be trying to slip through a checkpoint under cover of the burqa.

Thanks, Rick

Rick McGinnis dropped by this morning to berate me over my welcoming him to the Idiot Alert Files. Something about my writing being gibberish was included in his ever-so-condescending response to my inclusion of his worthy self in the files. The only thing was - and it is the item for which I wish to thank the irate gent - he declared segregation to be "an official, if essentiall unconstitutional policy". (emphasis my own, although the statement was already interestingly emphatic)
I have to wonder, Rick, if that was one of them there Freudian-type slip-ups you educated folks prattle on about. Whatever it was, thanks for a great laugh to start my day!

A Basic Standard of Living?

Ottawa's Centre for the Study of Living recently released a study that records some very sad numbers, indeed. According to the study's findings, almost 1 in 2 aboriginal youths fail to complete high school. 70% of non-aboriginal Canadians complete secondary school, while only 52% of aboriginal Canadians do so. The problem hits hardest on Manitoba's reserves, where 70% of the youth fail to earn their high school diplomas, earning them the dubious distinction of having the country's highest reserve drop-out rate.
When you know the high school figures, the post-secondary stats come as no surprise. Although almost 22% of non-aboriginal Canadians held a university degree in 2001, only 8.9% of the aboriginal population could lay claim to the same educational status.
National Chief Phil Fontaine, with the Assembly of First Nations, says, "It doesn't make sense ... to keep people poor, poorly educated, poorly trained and unable to access jobs." Stating that the First Nations are not looking for special treatment, Fontaine adds, "We're asking for what others enjoy ... a basic standard of living with decent schools, decent housing, safe drinking water, and quality health care."
It seems almost ludicrous that Fontaine should feel obliged to make the disclaimer on seeking special treatment. Anyone who knows about the treatment they do receive here in Canada, would get a chuckle out of that, if the situation weren't so damned disgraceful.
In 2001, 3/4 of the drinking water systems on reserves posed health risks. By 2006, an investigation conducted by the CBC found that the safety of the water on 2/3 of the reserves was still in question. At that time, it was found that 62% of the water operators lacked proper certification. In 2005, Johanne Gelinas, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, found that there was a serious lack of accounting, standards and monitoring of how "Ottawa" has spent nearly $2 billion to supposedly fix the problem. You can bet a good portion of that amount has gone to finance someone's vacations and God knows what else, but you can't safely bet that most of it was actually put to its planned use.
The government's latest figures still show a gap between the life expectancies of the aborigianl and the non-aborigianl populations. Men of the First Nations can expect to be shortchanged by 7.4 years, compared to other Canadian males. The women fare a little better, comparatively speaking, but they still will make their final exit an average of 5.2 years sooner than non-aboriginal women will.
Such figures make it clear why Canada has recently dropped from first to eighth in ranking of best countries in the world in which to live. The drop is primarily due to the housing and health conditions among the First Nations. More than 5,000 of the 88,485 houses on reserves are without sewage. Mold contaminates almost half of all reserves households. Applying a Human Development Index created to their living condition, in fact, results in a ranking of Third World conditions, here in one of the most privileged countries in the whole world.
These stats are disturbing. They are morally inexcusable, and yet their sad litany goes ona and on. Why can't the First Nations be allowed to create their own school boards? That might perhaps be a first stop toward ameliorating the deplorable situation, but it will not be enough. There is more, so much more that needs to be done.
When will Canada move to clean up its dirty little secret? When will our aborigianl peopls be given equality? They called this land home before any of the rest of us and yet they have little share in the comforts of home available to most of the rest of us. Where are their "decent schools, decent housing, safe drinking water, and quality health care"?

A New Drive-Thru

So the jury has returned its verdict, finding Pickton guilty on all six murder charges brought against him in this trial. Without any thought of the others still hanging over his head, let's just look at this scenario, right now. The judge will declare the sentence, and it might be life in prison. The only problem is, that "life" is just as likely to mean 10 years served and then eligibility for parole. What a travesty of justice that will be. None of his victims are ever going to have a second chance. Why should he? Dear God, why should he?
Why don't we try something new here and start a drive-through prison facility, a la Hilton et al? In the style of their time served, sometimes being countable in minutes only, why not just let the guy drive by every once in a while and check in with the authorities. You can picture it, can't you? Big burly guard on the inside. leans out the window and demands in his big, tough voice, "You being a good boy, Pickton?" If the answer is affirmative, maybe the guard can make his next question, "Would you like a coffee?"
Justice, indeed.

A Few Unpleasant Numbers

Every once in a while I wax eloquent about giving gifts with meaning, and my suggestions are often for items like livestock to be sent to a third world family through an agency such as "Canadian Food for the Hungry International". Today, I'd like to stay a little closer to home, if I may.
Home for me is Toronto, where these numbers are the sad truth. Over 190,000 kids here live in poverty. Over 6,000 kids a year spend at least one night in a shelter. 1 in 4 Torontonians subsist below the poverty line. These are the numbers, in fact, that inspired the Toronto Daily Star newspaper to bestow the name of "Canada's Poverty Capital" on my hometown. If it's your hometown, too, and you have a loonie or two to spare, you might be interested in making your gift with a difference to Habitat for Humanity, Toronto. Dollars and cents aren't the only way you can give here, however, so if you're short on cash but have some time on your hands, these people still have a way for you to make a difference in people's lives.

You can visit their website or give them a call at 416-755-7353 to get details. Be sure to ask about their upcoming events that include a Polar Bear Dip on January 1. 2008 and a Valentine's Singles Build on February 9, 2008, among other things. There's also an upcoming "Women Build" launch in March. Each year, Habitat builds 150 Women Build homes around the world, and this year, Toronto's joining in with plans to construct 10 homes here with the expertise and volunteered time of women.
These people offer so many ways for you to give and they make them everything from fun to downright profitable. If you're about to tackle a reno project, getting ready to make over your castle, call the good folks at Habitat at 416-755-8023, and they'll come over to your digs for an on-site appraisal. If you what you have fills the bill for them, they'll take it for their ReStore. With one located on Bermondsey Road; one on Caledonia Road; and one on Queen Elizabeth Road, there's bound to be one not too far from you. They will take things you might not even think of giving, like door hinges! If you have what they want, they can even schedule a volunteer salvage team to help you "tear down, rip out or load up your donation." As if that's not enough, they'll even issue tax receipts for fair market value for those door hinges!
Making a difference just doesn't get much easier than this.