A Story of Coincidence and Chance

Living in a Venn Diagram

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:31:37 GMT

Some time ago, it occurred to me that I live simultaneously in two very different worlds. At the time, I was working at a client site, and I was taking part in a Christmas potluck lunch. Most of the people brought stuff that they'd bought from nearby businesses. Plates of sushi, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the like.

In this environment, it was an accomplishment for people to have taken part. Workplace apathy being what it was, to go out and buy a plate of sushi was a phenomenal exercise in giving a shit.

By contrast, in various communities that I hang out in, potlucks usually involved more responsibility. To arrive at a potluck with a dish was not enough. People of good character would additionally bring signs with them that would describe the ingredients of the dish. If this item might have come in contact with nuts, that'd be noted. If it was vegetarian- or vegan-friendly, that was important. This was the standard of being a good member of the community.

I chatted about this, briefly, with one of my co-workers at the time. He didn't really get it. Signs with your potluck dish? Gatherings that considered day care? What were these crazy hippy places that I was talking about?

Now, one could assert that the difference is that in the one case, I'm hanging out in my chosen community whereas in the other case, the only thing I shared with the people around me was that we all arrived at the same building every day.

Okay, I can see that argument. Except that it seems like most people I meet seem to act as if the workplace norms were society's norms. Relatives, ferrinstance, more often behaved like my cow-orkers than like the sf geeks and newsgroup members. Me, I find myself much more attracted to fannish spaces where people want to participate in helping folks avoid food that could kill them.

I think, sometimes, about the fact that the standard in those fannish spaces are more stringent than the standards in conventional spaces. And I've certainly seen any number of people bristle when they've been challenged on failure to adhere to a fannish standard. Often, it seems like some frustration emerges: they say, "in most spaces, people don't care about X; why am I being challenged on failure to do X when so many people don't even think about it." I understand what they're saying, but to be honest, if I controlled the universe, fannish standards would be so much more broadly adopted.

Here's an interesting set of behaviour standards that I quite like: Teh Portly Dyke's "How to Fuck Up" instructions. I think that this is great advice for people who transgress. I don't know for sure, but I think it's aimed at people who don't quite live up to their desired ally behaviour. Regardless, this is, for me, an excellent measure of good character.

I guess I started thinking about this because of the recent Beverly Oda announcement on food aid to Haiti (and other places). Particularly the idea that the Conservative government is untying food aid so that the food doesn't have to come from Canadian sources. I should look at this and think, this is a Good Thing, no? I mean, if Haiti gets food and gets more because the aid agencies can buy from cheaper sources, then that's good, no? Fewer starving people equals good. No?

But I'm not satisfied. Partially, I'm a bit suspicious of what this "untying" business is going to look like. Is it just a whitewash effort? Partially I just lack faith in the idea that the Conservatives will do anything truly helpful for Haiti. But I think that a big part of what sticks in my craw is the governments failure to follow the "How to Fuck Up" formula. I believe that the Canadian government is horrifically complicit in the overthrow of the Aristide government in 2004. I think we fucked up with The Ottawa Initiative, and with MINUSTAH and the interim Latortue government. I think we're channeling money through agencies like CIDA and FOCAL toward business-friendly political parties whose goals for Haiti are directly opposed to the will of the majority of the country. But Canada doesn't acknowledge that. Doesn't apologize for that. The government doesn't feel obliged to account for any of that stuff, and would probably be confused by a suggestion that they should brush up on the wisdom of Teh Portly Dyke.

But I'm supposed to feel good that the government has done a little thing that's good? I... I don't know that I can. And I do get the message from lots and lots of people that the government is in the other circle of the Venn diagram. The fannish rules don't apply.

And I'm aware that this is the sort of thinking that leads the left to constantly turn on itself, and to divide. The HRC sucks because they're failing to include trans folk. Shouldn't Clinton and Obama suck equally? No, at least they're kind of left, and we can accept them as the best of a bad bunch. They're in the other part of the Venn diagram. But, man. That thinking is really wearing me out.

The Government Nobody Deserves

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:34:17 GMT

On Sunday, President Rene Preval chose Ericq Pierre, 63, a respected Haitian economist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, to be the country's prime minister.
— "Canada welcomes Haitian PM's appointment"

Oh, for Christ's sake. An economist with the IDB?

In THAC, we often have conversations about the almost-stolen election of 2006. Préval is one of the good guys, and there's evidence that the elections officials destroyed many of his ballots. If Haitians had not marched in the streets in protest over fishy early results, the election may have gone very differently. (Canada, by the way, brags about the $30 million that it spent on the elections).

One of the guys in THAC talks about how it's too easy for leftists to say, "Whew, the good guys won. Fight over." Really, Haitians saved the Presidency, but the balance of power in the Senate, municipal and other government bodies was compromised. When Alexis was forced out a few weeks ago, that was a real blow for Lespwa (Préval's new party) and for Lavalas. It's not surprising that the Convergence-dominated senate ganged up on him. How shocking is it that he's been replaced with an IDB economist?

Edit: Here are two leftist analyses of this announcement. This passage, from the second (and quoted in the first) is intersting:

Preval was also pressured to choose Ericq Pierre by several visiting foreign officials such as Alain Joyandel, French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophonie, Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

One of the big issues that's going to emerge in the new few years is that, with both Préval and Aristide now out of the running for next president, Haiti needs the next batch of respected and popular political leaders. One of the reasons I take Lovinsky's kidnapping so hard is that I believe that he could have one day become Haiti's president. He is known, respected and politically connected.

Two Apologies

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:17:29 GMT

I got two apologies in my email, recently. The first was from WisCon, apologizing for the computer glitchy-ness relating to panel assignments. Me, I think, hey, I know that WisCon is done on a totally volunteer basis, and the still do better than any other con I've been to. So. While apologies are always a mark of class in my mind, it's only icing on an already perfectly chocolaty cake. Maybe I'm just too much in love with WisCon to see any of its faults, but, with me, its credit is so high it'd need to do something horrific to lose my faith. Thank you, WisCon volunteers, for everything you do.

The second apology was from Expedia. Remember how they screwed up my flight last October? How I was on hold for four and a half hours before giving up? Did I mention that I never did get to speak to someone there, and that their first email response was just simply wrong (after taking a week) and my follow-up email was never responded to and that I ultimately had to contact American Airlines directly to get a refund on my ticket.

Well, now, seven months later, they sent me an apology. According to them, their problems have been resolved, and they're offering me a $50 certificate by way of compensation. Unlike WisCon, Expedia is a business, and this, in my opinion, fails to entice me to ever try their service again. Screw you, Expedia.

Booky bookness

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:20:59 GMT

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The Carhullan Army, which was I picked up primarily because it won this year's Tiptree. I'm enjoying it, but I'm a bit fascinated by how little happens.

I'm a very lazy reader, and if a book can't hook me quickly, I often fail to get into it (I think it's interesting to contrast that with how patient I am as a movie watcher; I'll give a film a lot of time to build a mood or a story).

You seek Oda. Brave Jedi is She

journal@bcholmes.org — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:19:35 GMT

My cow-orker mentioned to me an announcement by International Development Minister Beverley Oda. Oda is the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which I've been following because of its fishy role in Haiti.

The announcement is okay. Canada is giving more food to more people. Haiti will get $10 million. The one part that seems, on face value, to be interesting is that we're going to untie food aid. What that means is that Canadian agencies who get their money from CIDA (such as, for example, the Canadian Feed the Children organization that I donate to) will not be required to buy a certain amount of their food directly from Canadian farmers. My initial read of that is that it sounds like a good thing, but I'd like to see how it plays out (if the US sells us the food, it'll look a bit fishy, for example).

Today, at around 4:45, I read stories in the online forms of the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. A passage in the latter of those two articles stood out to me: a suggestion that a big cause for the rising price of food relates directly efforts at ethanol/biofuel production (which is a big U.S. initiative). The paragraph talked about how Beverley Oda avoided the topic during her announcement.

We had a bit of a conversation in our project room about how ethanol is a very inefficient fuel: it takes far more fossil fuel (in the form of fertilizer) to create the crops from which you derive the ethanol than you'd save by switching a vehicle from gas to ethanol. Our project manager suggested that this is an exercise driven by the wheat lobby, and I buy that.

Half an hour later, I went back to those two articles and that passage was gone. There's another article in the Globe on this topic, but the paragraph has been removed from the original article.

Edit: it looks like the latter article was written by one of the authors of the original piece. Perhaps the author decided to break the point out into a separate story.

Hurm

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:44 GMT

Does one say "Poppy Zed Bright" or "Poppy Zee Bright"? Is that a choice the speaker makes, or is the pronunciation determined by the named person?

(I confess, when I want to screw with people's brains, I sometimes say things like "Zed Zed Top", but it's clearer to me, in that case, what the correct pronunciation is).

Foooooood

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:19:20 GMT

I had a good dinner, last night, with clawfoot, epi_lj, okoshun and RA. Wonderful food, wonderful conversation.

More TTC Factoids

journal@bcholmes.org — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:56:46 GMT

Between 1991 and 2001 the City of Toronto grew by 9% but transit funding was cut by half in the same time period. Funding cuts led the TTC to cut the bus fleet by 22% and to close two operating garages.
The TTC is more reliant on revenues from fares than any other transit system in the developed world.
The TTC is the only major transit system in the developed world to fund regular operations entirely from the property tax base and from fares.
In Toronto, 80% of the TTC's operating budget is paid by riders. This compares with 58% in Montreal, 46% in Vancouver, 59% in New York and 52% in Chicago. The Canada-wide average is 62%. In the US, the overall average is 41%.
Fares have more than doubled since 1990 and ridership has fallen by 10%.
The Province of Ontario used to provide 50% of the operating costs for the TTC but under the Harris Tories, this was eliminated entirely.
Capital investment per capita in public transit in Canada, at US$60, is less than half the recent level of investment in Seattle, New York, Denver and San Francisco.

I think that these numbers are a coupl'a years out of date (I think they're for 2005) but I don't think they've changed that much in the last few years.

More on the TTC

journal@bcholmes.org — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:29:01 GMT

From Wikipedia:

Until the mid-1990s, the TTC received operational subsides from both the municipal level of government, and the provincial level. When the Harris Conservatives in Ontario ended those subsidies, the TTC was forced to cut-back service, with a significant curtailment put into effect on February 18, 1996 and an increased financial burden was placed on the Municipal government. Since then, the TTC has consistently been in financial difficulties. [...] As a result, the TTC became the largest transit operator in Anglo-America not to receive provincial/state funding (the largest transit operator in the United States not to have this type of funding is the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA))

Dear Dalton,

If you make the legislature vote to force the TTC back to work, I'm gonna want you to explain how you keep avoiding proper funding.

Also:

Dear Mike Harris,

Even your legacy sucks.

Thought for the Day

journal@bcholmes.org — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:44:35 GMT

What bugs me is the reversed "I've got mine so screw you" meme; there seems to be a "I don't have a secure, well-paid job, so why should the TTC workers?" vibe going around which suggests that we as a citizenry should be content with a lowest common denominator standard, rather than striving towards a place where *everyone* has reasonable compensation and job security.
— charmingmonstrs, in a locked post (quoted with permission)

There are elements of the TTC strike that I wish had gone down differently. But, more than that, I wish people's attitudes toward collective bargaining and strike action were a lot different than what they are.

Taxes done

journal@bcholmes.org — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:09:18 GMT

I've just submitted my taxes. All done for another year! Yay!

Vignette

journal@bcholmes.org — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:48:06 GMT

I had a bike rack installed in the parking spot of my condo unit today. Since it was going to be installed in the middle of the day and I needed to be back at my building to point the guy to the right place, I took the car in to work. And since I was driving the car, I offered the_siobhan a ride to her place.

Anyway, we're at an intersection and there's an SUV in front of us, and I said something snarky about the SUV driver's signaling skills. Sio quizzes me about being snarky and I say, "I'm especially critical with anyone who drives an SUV."

Sio: "I get that. It's like how I always squee when I see a Smart Car." And, at that moment, we just happened to pass a Smart Car and Siobhan squee-ed on cue.

I looked over at her, a look of shy apprehension on my face, and said, "My car... is it good enough to be touched?"

And lo, she told me how beautiful my Prius was.

"It's a bit dusty, though," she said after running her hand over the dashboard.

Meeting Goodness

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:31:58 GMT

Really good THAC meeting tonight. We had a coupl'a people heavily involved in immigration and refugee work talking about the recent dynamics involving Haitian refugees to Canada (the numbers have really jumped up recently for a variety of complicated reasons).

We're endorsing the No One Is Illegal march on May 3rd, which sounds like it's gonna be cool.

Books

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:16:18 GMT

I went out on the weekend and picked up a coupl'a books. I think my brain is full of non-fiction at the moment, so I went to Bakka and got a few sf books. Two were short story collections. I really really really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald", and China Miéville's "Reports Of Certain Events In London." Regarding the latter, I think I'm a sucker for the "documents of the event" story structure; Timothy Findley's The Wars still stands out in my mind.

Eeep

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:23:09 GMT

First grey hair.

Peter Hallward Interview

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:00:19 GMT

CBC has an interview with Peter Hallward (author of Damming the Flood) on The Current. I think it's only an okay interview. Peter Hallward is interviewed in the latter half of Part One (after an interview with Guyler Delva.

Edit: There's also an impassioned review of Damming the Flood on Global Research.

Aid

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:57:22 GMT

In the name of Venezuela, I have decided to send 200 tons of food to the people of Haiti who are being assaulted by hunger and misery. Brotherly and heroic are the people of Haiti who are already suffering from the attacks of the empire’s global capitalism and the lack of true and profound solidarity from all of us. It is the least we can do for Haiti.
— Hugo Chavez

Is it a sin to rush into the secret house?

journal@bcholmes.org — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:35:10 GMT

So, this afternoon I learned about a film, Lost and Delirious, and, fortunately, my DVD place had a copy. It's a Canadian film about three teenage girls in a boarding school, two of whom are in a relationship that ends because one of the girls can't bring herself to come out. It stars Piper Perabo as the broken-hearted Paulie, and it has a few common Canadian actors, including Graham Greene and Jackie Burroughs.

I'm not sure what I think of this movie. On the one hand, it's one of these movies that ends in death, 'cause queerfolk can't have happy endings. On the other hand, it has Ani Difranco in the soundtrack, in a really moving sequence. I'm not sure if it comes off seeming like a caution about The Threat Of Lesbianism, or what.

Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

journal@bcholmes.org — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:12:53 GMT

Forbes magazine has named Haiti one of the world's 10 most dangerous destinations, along with Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
The Associated Press has called Port-au-Prince the kidnapping capital of the Americas.
The U.S. government maintains a perpetual travel warning on Haiti, while diplomats, journalists and aid workers spend much of their time holed up in fortified hotels.
The image stems largely from two violent years after the 2004 U.S. ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide when the slums of Port-au-Prince erupted in gunbattles between gangs, Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers, plus a wave of kidnappings.
Today, Haiti's reputation is undeserved, say security analysts and officials from the U.N. peacekeeping mission. They argue that Haiti is no more violent than any other Latin American country.
"It's a big myth," said Fred Blaise, spokesman for the U.N. police force in Haiti. "Port-au-Prince is no more dangerous than any big city. You can go to New York and get pickpocketed and held at gunpoint."
— Reed Lindsay, "BRIEFING: Haiti's image of fear 'a big myth' to some", The Washington Times

You don't see many articles about Haiti that suggest that Haiti's reputation as a dangerous place is over-hyped. This is one of the few.

I met with Reed Lindsay during one of my trips to Haiti (he lives there full time). He has some great journalistic insights into the country.

Thought for the Day

journal@bcholmes.org — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:54:56 GMT

What happens to poor countries when they embrace free trade? In Haiti in 1986 we imported just 7000 tons of rice, the main staple food of the country. The vast majority was grown in Haii. In the late 1980s Haiti complied with free trade policies advocated by the international lending agencies and lifted tariffs on rice imports. Cheaper rice immediately flooded in from the United States where the rice industry is subsidized. In fact the liberalization of Haiti's market coincided with the 1985 Farm Bill in the United States which increased subsidies to the rice industry so that 40% of US rice growers' profits came from the government by 1987. Haiti's peasant farmers could not possibly compete. By 1996 Haiti was importing 196,000 tons of foreign rice at the cost of $100 million a year. Haitian rice production became negligible. Once the dependence on foreign rice was complete, import prices began to rise, leaving Haiti's population, particularly the urban poor, completely at the whim of rising world grain prices. And the prices continue to rise.
What lessons do we learn? For poor countries free trade is not so free or so fair. Haiti, under intense pressure from international lending institutions, stopped protecting its domestic agriculture while subsidies to the U.S. rice industry increased. A hungry nation became hungrier.
In a globalized economy, foreign investment is trumpeted as the key to alleviating poverty. But in fact, the top beneficiary of foreign investment from 1985-95 was the United States, with $477 billion. Britain ran a distant second at $199 billion. Mexico, the only third world country in the top ten, received only $44 billion in investment. When the majority of this money fled the country overnight during Mexico's meltdown in 1995, we learned that foreign investment is not really investment. It is more like speculation.
— Jean Bertand Aristide, Eyes of the Heart

Things Break

journal@bcholmes.org — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:32:51 GMT

Sixteen of 17 senators at a special session voted against Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, an ally President Rene Preval placed at the head of a coalition cabinet in June 2006 that was meant to unite the fractious Caribbean nation.
The move by opposition senators was seen as a serious but not crushing blow to Preval, whose 2006 election brought a measure of calm to the poorest country in the Americas as it searched for political stability after decades of dictatorship, military rule and economic mayhem.
— Reuters

A United Nations soldier was killed Saturday in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the site of recent deadly riots over rising food prices.
Mission spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe says the soldier was shot in the afternoon, but that UN troops did not exchange fire. She had no further details.
Protesters clashed with UN soldiers this week and have blamed the government for a failure to create jobs and control soaring food prices. Five people have been killed in the clashes.
The shooting comes the same day Haiti's senate ousted Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis over the handling of the crisis.
CBC

Sometimes the news breaks my heart.

Hmmm...

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:58:44 GMT

There is no standard Java Locale for kreyòl ayisyen.

Edit: Oh, I'm wrong! "ht" is the ISO code.

Thought for the Day

journal@bcholmes.org — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:21:07 GMT

"While I have done some work for the government," [John Manley] said of Prime Minister Harper, "I disagree with it on a lot of things." As for the Liberals, they are so angry at Manley for supporting a war Liberals chose and proposing a policy Liberals wound up endorsing that he will probably never be asked to run for them again.
— Inkless Wells

Guess that band

journal@bcholmes.org — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:32:19 GMT

I was looking up videos on YouTube, thinking about (Canadian) musicians when I was growing up. Can you name these bands?

View Poll: #1167590

Deep Religious Ponderings

journal@bcholmes.org — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:26:53 GMT

How do you reconcile the theologies of ceiling cat and the flying spaghetti monster?