Amazonian Frenzy

Amazon has thoroughly chummed the waters with their call for a second HQ. Apparently over 50 cities have declared they plan to bid. Halifax seems to be bubbling up as one of them. The other cities include:

Alberta is putting a committee together (Calgary, maybe Edmonton)

Windsor & Detroit

Fort Monmouth, NJ

Boston

Washington DC

Suffolk Downs

San Francisco

Sault Ste Marie

Rochester

Waukegan

West Dallas

….

Yada

Yada

We tell people looking for a job not to just respond to posted ads. Find the hidden job market, we say. 

Can we find the hidden bid market? Can we put together the outline of all that is fantastic about Nova Scotia and then think hard about what kind of company / industry we want here, instead of just jumping after a dangled pot of money? 

Do we have the 'stuff' to do retail well? Maybe we do, though I have heard questions about our position in a global supply chain. 

Do we have the 'stuff' to be a centre of manufacturing (that calls for a big, cheap labour supply and close proximity to raw materials or a place for them to arrive...)

Who do we want to be? This choice matters. I think all of us imagine a beautiful province with clean air and water in our future. We don't want to be industrial England circa 1885. We don't want cities that are 90% like Burnside (no offense to Burnside, but who wants to live there?) 

We need to be clear on what we're good at, what we have a lot of, and what we want. The first two we can research but the third one is going to take some soul searching and leadership. 

I know what I personally don't want us to be: Losing Bid # 51 on the Chasing Amazon Train. 

Paint everything rainbow.

Orlando is the latest, but let’s start closer to home: there was Raymond Taavel, beaten to death by someone suffering mental illness. Scott Jones, forgiving the man who stabbed him for being gay, severing his spine. A wider circle: all the missing or murdered aboriginal women; the missing and murdered sex workers. Harley Lawrence, burned to death in a bus shelter for the crime of being reprehensibly … homeless. Hate crimes targeting Jewish, Muslim and Christian peoples.

I am a middle-class, middle-aged white woman, from a Christian tradition. Theoretically, none of this directly impacts me. But how do I (how does any mother) explain to my daughter what causes a psychopathic person’s evil act? How do I explain that my child, who will also occupy my demographic divide, owes the world an obligation to spread love and fight evil? 

Orlando ripped me to shreds. We’ve all seen the horror movies – a homicidal maniac tearing through a crowd, the victims huddled in the bathroom trying to survive. We know it will not end well. 

I am an ally. I have, all my life, had friendships with gay and lesbian individuals of different races, ages, nationalities. Being an ally means not making this tragedy about me. It means accepting and holding a place for all of my friends’ reactions – fury, sadness, defiance, inability to cope – holding that place and supporting, and I do that. 

But this is about me too. I live in this world. We are all, fundamentally, people. As a woman, I have a sense of what it is to be seen as an abstract representation rather than an individual.  I treasure my LGBTQ friends for their resiliency, their positivity, the magic they often bring to my world – in all different ways, because every LGBTQ person is still an individual! 

But I need to personalize this, or I will feel unempowered to try to fix it. And when politicians moronically feel the need to capitalize on a tragedy by tying it to an overarching narrative they have built about Evil Brown People, or This is Why Everyone Should Have a Gun, or God Will Sort it Out, I need to be able to direct my own anger. I can fix this. WE can fix this – all of us. Demand a better world. Support mental health initiatives. Fight the wealth disparity that leads to sick communities. Love everyone. Let black feminists have their own truth, let disabled veterans have their truth, let Muslim homosexuals have their truth. Understand. Make others understand. Find your fight, and fight it.

Hug someone near you, even if (maybe ESPECIALLY if) they are an angry loner. Love is love. Paint everything rainbow.

Love is Love, and The Enemy is Us

What if the radicalization, the turning to ultimate violence as a solution, actually has nothing to do with any religion or the influence of an organized group?

What if it's just a subculture zeitgeist, the predictable outcome of the cognitive dissonance of being told you can achieve anything and understanding that the division of wealth clearly delineates that you cannot; of being told that in the past, men were treated like gods (not actually true in most cases) and because of equality and equity movements, that heritage is lost to you; of being shown in every form of entertainment that violence is acceptable and enjoyable?

What if "radical" were the noun and the "Muslim" or "Christian" piece is the adjective, an afterthought tacked on as a scapegoat, groups victimized like everyone else because we cannot admit that the enemy is our systems, our corporations, our capitalism, the failures of democracy? We have met the enemy, and we are not prepared to admit the enemy is us.

#prayfororlando
#loveislove

To be or not to be... voting for Hillary

Are you for Hillary?

Yeah, I'm not even American so I don't get a say, but the discussion around Bernie vs Hillary has taken a turn into hard core feminism vs politics and I love BOTH those things! 

So... here's my thinking.

I am sure there were some black voters who experienced a similar challenge during Obama's run. There is a real tear between wanting to agree with the politics of the candidate and just wanting to get past that first historical precedent setting win for eff's sake because it's 2016 and WHY THE HELL HASN'T THIS HAPPENED YET?? Because the 'perfect' candidate hasn't come along yet? Like all the men have been perfect? Was George Bush perfect? Either of them?? Sure, she's not perfect but JESUS.

No matter how much I love his politics, Bernie won't be president. I'm Canadian, and I love him. That's a tip off.

Let's face it, in an open election Bernie's going down in flames because the US is full of gun-toting yahoos* who think that socialism and satanism are the same thing. 

So, frig it, vote in some-of-the-same-old. Vote in the candidate that is acceptable, marginally, and already knows where the towels are kept. Get Hillary in there, we can all come to grips with the fact that she isn't perfect and she may have some of the problems that the men folks have - IMAGINE. And then we can normalize the fact that a woman can run the US and doesn't have to be virgin, mother, whore, madonna, Mother Teresa and Jane Russell and Vandanna Shiva and Margaret Thatcher rolled into a gorgeous brilliant perfect country-ruling feminine burrito. 

* #NotAllAmericans

The value of film

There are some industries whose value must be measured in more than dollars. Cultural industries help reflect, strengthen and challenge a place and people's identity and understanding of the human condition. They contribute to wellbeing and retain the dreamers and thinkers. They build morale. They make a place cool, which is a more fundamental and profound requirement in today's world than the glib nature of the words might make you think.

Halifax needs the Khyber. Cape Breton needs Gaelic language. Nova Scotia needs the film and theatre industries. Without these things, our collective soul dissipates. (We lose our shine, if you want to belabour the embedded unintentional reference).

Government is the collective way we express how we want our society to look. We, as a people, need to stop differentiating between ourselves and what government does ("What can ya do? the government just ruins everything.") because this is a democracy which means we are the government. We are the bosses*. We run this show. Sure, the formal performance review is only every 4-5 years, but in between times, we can give feedback, directly and individually by mail, email, telephone, web posts or in person (a bit harder!). Or we can get together in groups to provide it, by marching, petitioning, or organizing civil protests (strong feedback!).

BUT - to be effective, each of us needs to be clear on what kind of a city, province, society we want to live in. We need to get clear on what we value, and why. We need to talk to each other about that, because if you are the one saying you value debt-free government above all else, I would like to talk to you about diversity and compassion and humanness... and the evidence that exists about the effectiveness of austerity governance. 

*This is not your cue to go cuss out the next government clerk or teacher you see by saying "I pay your salary!" -- because I pay their salary too, and our say is equal -- and I say, leave the front lines alone.

 (Thoughts on the film, music and arts industry inspired by the world's loss of Bowie and the short-sightedness of our government.)

Resolutions because tis the season

Well, sort of resolutions -- I'm more about themes and commitments. 2016 is going to be themed "Better, not perfect" and also "serenity."

A - Apples, avocados, abalone. I will recommit to mostly vegetarianism, and continue to seize opportunities to try new, unique foods.

B - Beer. Not giving it up.

C - Calm.The neverending search for inner peace, or at least a facade of calm will continue. Also, coffee - not giving it up either, but maybe cutting back.

D - Vitamin D. Getting outside more to get fresh air and sun, even in the godforsaken depths of miserable winter.

E - Education. I will make a decision with what I am doing and commit to it. 

F - Films. I will see more and continue to learn from Todd (and Bruce). :-)

G - Goofy. I will be exactly as silly as I want. No apologies.

H - Halifax. I will explore more of this amazing city, like a tourist.

I - Imagination. I will flex mine more. Believe 10 impossible things before breakfast.

J - Jealousy. Lettin it go. I've been good at not giving in to it over the last few years, sticking with that.

K - Kitties. I will always make time to pat them.

L - Love. I will focus on doing more to show my appreciation for those \I love, especially Maddie and Todd.

M - Movement. I will stick to my workouts and my monthly goals. January: do 10 toe push ups. 

N - Novel. NaNoWriMo will never happen, so I will choose a summer month and get started. 

O - Owls. I will craft more owls, because I love them so. Bubo!

P - Pen to paper. Daily.

Q - Quietness. I will embrace it.

R - Relationships. I will remember what is important.

S - Space. I will leave some around my reactions and my thoughts, to ensure I give things proper consideration.

T - Truth. I will spend more time facing it and embracing it- and sharing it.

U - Unkind. I will try hard not to be. Also, double negatives, bad they are.

V - Valance. I will finally get one in the kitchen.

W - Words. I will keep working at mastering them.

X - Xenophobic - I will avoid racist people and monitor my privilege and reactions for vestiges of my own biases.

Y - Yin and yang. I acknowledge that this is a world of opposites that requires balance. Sometimes balance is not the middle way but swinging through extremes. That is okay.

Z - Zest. I will cook more with lemon, because I love lemon!

Rampant Restlessness

(Stillness not exactly as shown.)



Hilarious to note what my last post was. I came here to vent about what feels like a midlife crisis. I don't like what I do, don't think I'm very good at most of it, and most of all, don't feel like I have a driving passion or cause.


It's the rootlessness again--or, as my dear ex-husband the life coach points out, it's my saboteur: restlessness. Well, restlessness has a cause, and it's a fundamental discontent with--something. I have a fire in my belly that drives me, and absolutely no direction. So, I am driven in circles. (Around the bend, one might even say.)

It's mighty frustrating.

To start, I want to do ALL THE THINGS. Write novels, paint, knit, run a company, win awards, practice yoga, learn to code, learn to play guitar, get thin, travel, build, do! But I don't want any one thing enough to focus fully on it.

Maybe my chakras aren't aligned.

I have to keep at what I do because it feels late for a big switch, and some parts I love. But these ADHD afternoons are killing me.

Any suggestions? What do you do with a surfeit of ambition and limited resources?

I am nothing.

I am nothing.

This isn't a false modesty post, it is a factual statement on my identification with subcultures, or in fact, any culture. I am nothing.

I have no strong ethnic identification, nor country-of-origin identity. Apparently, according my genealogy-expert uncle, I have ancestors from Wales, Scotland, England, France. My family cherishes no special cooking, dancing, or language traditions. We have no strong religious affiliation. I venerate no special country as my 'homeland' (if anything, that is Parrsboro, the small Nova Scotia town my mother was from.)

I am not gay, though in the right circumstances I could probably move along the sexual identity spectrum nearer to 'gayish'.

I am not a gamer, a musician, an uber fan of anything. I have watched my partner make himself a movie expert over the last 12 months. I am jealous. I am an expert in nothing.

I have no ancestry related to native or aboriginal peoples. I am not black. None of my ancestors, that I know of, were slaves or gypsies or forced to build a railway. None of my ancestors will likely be featured in a movie of the week.

I have no cultural identity. Where that should be sits a bath of white privilege, surrounded by a shallow moat of economic disadvantage, a leftover from my youth that my adulthood has made moot.

Oh, I have family traditions. Sayings, shared references, shared recipes. My family on one side contains business people, entrepreneurs, apparently rum runners from way back. Writing talent, creativity, ridiculous humour, alcoholism. Blue collar, mostly. On the other side, poverty, mental health challenges, family drama, abuse, some typical Nova Scotia stories of split families half located in Alberta or BC. Some colourful, unique characters. Strong women.

I have no deep traditions nor roots. When I was a teen I explored some subcultures--goth, extreme music fan. None really rooted. I am balanced, I guess. I am an ally. I support those who lack my privilege, the privilege embedded in my skin colour, in my country of birth. But what do I support them with? In some ways, I have no identity.

Ironic that my work draws me to branding. That I am drawn to be an authentic witness and spokesperson... but cannot find for WHAT, which cause, company, identity can I authentically voice? It's terribly frustrating.