Sunday 27 November 2011

A Babysitting Weekend


Claire and Aunty Lulu showing off fashion

This past weekend Ingrid and I had the opportunity to babysit not just one but both of our grandchildren. On Friday night we babysat Claire so that Geoff and Miriam could go to a show, and on Saturday night we babysat Jonty so that Luisa and Mark could participate in a Curling bonspiel with their friends. The really cool part was that Luisa, Mark and Jonathan spent the night with us on Friday so that Luisa could do a couple of things with friends on Friday night and Saturday. This meant that Jonty and Claire had plenty of time to play together - and what an enjoyable time they had.

Claire demonstrating how it's done
It is so gratifying to see how well they get on together. Claire is very exceptional in that, at 17 months, she is prepared to SHARE! This is truly amazing. I don't think she got that from any McCann genes that I can think of. With a very superior air, oozing patience, she watches Jonty playing with something that she wants and is quite prepared to wait until he tires of it. You can almost hear her thinking, "He hasn't got a clue how to really play with that thing." Then she takes over and shows him how it is done. You can see something of this exchange in the photo I have added where Claire is demonstrating how the fold-up action works in her book and Jonty is looking in awe knowing that he can never be as clever as his cousin - doomed, as he is, to be forever 5 months younger.

Claire and Jonty enjoying (?) a splash in the bath.



Jonty demonstrating the Zombie Walk. He only took his first two steps 3 weeks ago.

Sunday 13 November 2011

Toronto City Council Hardship Fund Vote - a case of split personalities?


This week the Toronto Star published an editorial entitled, Balancing a budget on the sick and disabled.  Toronto city council, in a decision to abandon the poor being helped by The Hardship Fund project, recommended by a vote of 23 to 22 that city staff consider killing the fund to save on next year’s budget .

The Hardship Fund is a program helping the poor and disabled receive basic medical aid so they can stay in their own homes and out of hospital. It’s called the Hardship Fund and it serves 1,300 people in Toronto yearly.

Who are these councillors who, sailing under the colours of Mayor Rob Ford, voted against the fund?

Here are the 23 who voted against the program as listed in the Toronto Star's editorial: Mayor Ford and councillors Paul Ainslie, Michelle Berardinetti, Gary Crawford, Vincent Crisanti, Mike Del Grande, Frank Di Giorgio, Doug Ford, Mark Grimes, Doug Holyday, Norman Kelly, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Giorgio Mammoliti, Peter Milczyn, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Ron Moeser, Frances Nunziata, Cesar Palacio, John Parker, James Pasternak, David Shiner, Karen Stintz and Michael Thompson.

Good Guys or Bad?
Now, here's what I don't get. All of these councillors present themselves as veritable Florence Nightingales and Mother Theresas.  I did an Internet search of self descriptions on a number of them and found involvement in the following:

The Boy Scouts of Canada (at least two), the Canadian Cancer Society, the Knights of Columbus, the Friends of Fort York;  involved in a number of fundraising and educational awareness campaigns for a variety of charitable organizations including Providence Healthcare, Variety Village, Toronto Humane Society and local feline and canine rescue groups;  Daily Bread Food Bank - Community Awareness, Advocacy and Fundraising; Annual Police Chief's Children's Games; Neighbourhood Watch, Block Parent, Church Treasurer and Religious Instructor; volunteer for the North York General Hospital Foundation,  sponsors annual community clean-up days, has annual skating parties and created the Community Spirit Award;  board member of Eva's Initiatives which operates two youth shelters in North York (Eva's Place and Eva's Satellite) and one in Toronto (Eva's Phoenix).

So, we clearly have a bunch of councillors who, on the face of it, should have a good understanding of how the poor are struggling with hardship and suffering, and the people who are being helped by the Hardship Fund in particular. They should also have a good understanding of the economics: that helping people stay at home with the Hardship Fund in thousands of dollars is saving millions of dollars in hospital and long-term facility frail care costs. A bit like saving money by not changing the oil in your car.

How, then, explain the discrepancy in the behaviour of these councillors, solicitously involved in the community on the one hand, kicking the poor further into the gutter on the other?

From my reading I gather that these are all favoured leaders of Ford Nation. From the way they voted on the issue of the Hardship Fund it strikes me that, when the chips are down, these 'Yes' men and women are all going to do precisely what Mayor Rob Ford tells them to do and vote precisely as he tells them to vote, regardless of their personal convictions or their publicly projected images. This means that, if Mayor Rob Ford cannot find the gravy that he campaigned on, they will agree to gut programs for the poor instead of the rich to help the mayor save face.  The poor are soft targets and alienating them is likely perceived as not seriously influencing an election.

Let the citizens of Toronto take note and remember at the next election.

Thursday 10 November 2011

A Time For Remembrance... And Reflection



Three poems, three perspectives on war and the ultimate sacrifice

Anthem for doomed youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen
September - October, 1917
Wilfred Owen was killed at Ors, near the French Belgian border, on 4 November 1918, at the age of 25.




Entrenched
Trembling down in the trench, thinking of nothing but home,
Above I hear a roar, another mine has blown.
There is no turning back, the battle must go on,
Nonetheless it seems to me all meaningless and wrong.

As if one shot from me, will help the war at all,
My task is to 'go o'er the top', to fire and then to fall.
Of course I love my country, but I'm too young to die,
Echoing all around I hear the bitter battle cry.

I wish I hadn't come, I wish I wasn't here,
But it is far too late, and I'm overcome with fear.
I once felt so very proud that I was going to fight,
But how can any man have pride, after seeing this harrowing sight.

I long for freedom, and yet more for peace,
The day when this endless war will cease.
But for now I value every given breath,
For the time draws near when I shall meet my certain death.

Pippa Moss
A poem written when the author was fourteen-years-old.




Lest We Forget
What do we forget when we remember
What are the stories left untold
What do we think each November
As we march down that glory road
As we march down that gory road

One hundred million
Don’t come home from war
Another eight hundred million
Who lived to bear its scar
Who lived to bear its scar

Lest we forget
What they were dying for
Lest we forget
What they were killing for
Lest we forget
What the hell it was for

What do we forget when we remember…

Owen Griffiths
Owen Griffiths is an Associate Professor of History at a university in Canada. His area of study is especially modern East Asia (Japan and China mainly).
He writes: " I have never been to war but both grandfathers (both British) fought in WWI and my father fought with the RAF in Europe and Asia in WWII. My mother worked in a mortar shell factory and a pig farm in England during WWII. My parents immigrated to Canada after the war in 1949, among the many who passed through Pier 21 in Halifax (Canada's Ellis Island). My father was a navigator on the Argus for the RCAF so I lived on air bases in Canada until I was 10.  Professionally, I currently have two main research fields: One, examines how Japanese society from the 1890s to the 1930s became increasingly militarized by analyzing the stories written for children in mainstream print media. The other argues for a reorientation of our systems and tropes of remembrance to include killing and dying on all sides in the hopes of constructing more honest and accurate representations of war as universal tragedy and as a common ground of human inhumanity."


I found these poems on The War Poetry Website

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/

Thursday 3 November 2011

Movember Has Begun. Time for the Mo Grow

With the start of Movember most of my blogging efforts this month will go into my Movember blog site,The Mo Stashed Hairiers. Please head on over there and follow our fortunes. I have also added two pages of information on prostate cancer and on men's health issues which I urge you to read. Women, if you have a significant man in your life I recommend you read it as well. Quite a large proportion of men finally get to see their doctor because their wives are persistent about the need for them to do so.

To the men I say, with Nike, Just do it! You can do it! Get your checkup!