Billion Dollar Smoke Screen

For the low low price of 1.2 billion dollars (officially), Stephen Harper has built a fence high enough to hide all the G8 dirty dealings and hypocrisy. Media and the public are spending so much energy on that boondoggle that they're ignoring the bigger issues of what the leaders are talking about, let alone what the rest of have to say.

Yesterday's reproductive rights rally did make the local TV news. They reported the number of police (outnumbering us 3:1), the traffic blockages, and the fact that there was no violence. Not one interview with a marcher, not one mention of why we were out there, nothing but security.

The Toronto Sun's cover page proudly promised "10 Pages of Summit Coverage!", with an accompanying picture of police on motorcycles. Here's what was inside:
p.4 - bomb materials found in someone's house
p.5 - arrest of a potential agitator
p.6 - outrage about the cost of security
p.7 - editorial that police should not use the sound cannon
p.8 - security in Huntsville
p.9 - assassination threat on prime minister
p.10 - earthquake that happened during yesterday's rally
p.18 - letters to the editor about the cost of security
p.19 - risk of property damage to toronto buildings by protesters
p.63 - recipes for summit-themed drinks: "The Spiced Reform", "The Fiscal Freeze", "The Deal Maker" and "The Summit Shake-up

On the bottom of page 19 was the only article dealing with anything close to a summit issue - energy. The whole article was lamenting the rising cost of electricity, which will "add another $1800 to the bill of his 2,300 square-foot house", caused by "all of the massive so-called green energy contracts."

Is there really that little interest and respect for what the citizens and non-profit organizations have to say? Or has Harper created such an enormous distraction that he's diverted our attention away from why we all - the leaders and activists alike - are really here? This alleged boondoggle looks more like a billion dollar blindfold.

Protest, Peace and Patience

After a full week now of G8 protests, summits and meetings, I've been alternately inspired and frustrated by the process we activists are using. What (if anything) is the best way to effect change, influence leaders, change public understanding and priorities, and come up with innovative sustainable solutions?

The Gender Justice Summit was powerful, extremely well run, a great diversity of speakers, high energy - so many good things with high education/background value. BUT, for a whole weekend we listened to panel after panel sharing their creative ideas and brave experience, but not until the final 30 minutes did we get to sit in smaller groups and talk about solutions. In that time we couldn't make much more than a laundry list, and who knows where it goes now.

The rallies are powerful, spirit-raising, lotsa people look up from their Starbucks table and snap pictures on their cellphones. They're brought alive by creative clowns, clever signs, drumming on oil drums, people who douse their bodies in fake oil, dancing on top of bus shelters, and once again powerful speakers. BUT, the media passes us off as fringe radicals who are blocking traffic, and certainly no deep messages can be conveyed in that format, just a general outrage and lack of support for government policies and status quo.

Last night's Peoples Summit for Climate Justice was the first true opportunity to share and develop ideas and plans. Rather than preach to the 150 people crowded into the hall at 7pm, the organizers simply put up a leading question - "How are justice and climate change related in your community" - and let us form into groups and start talking. Halfway through each group reported back, key themes were picked out, then groups formed around each theme to discuss/plan in greater depth.

I chose to work on the idea of a national referendum on climate change. In a short time we looked at the goals, various existing models of how to run it, logistical considerations, the first steps needed to make it happen, and who was willing to commit to moving it to the next stage. Other groups made similar progress in areas of energy reduction, tar sands, political partnerships, government accountability, etc. Something may actually happen because of the 3 hours that this motivated, committed group spent together.

Last night's Assembly was based on, and built upon, the innovative work done in April at Cochabamba - the gathering organized by Bolivia in the wake of the failed Copenhagen political fiasco. At Cochabamba, 30,000 people from civil society and indigenous groups from around the world gathered in this collaborative format to work together and produce inspiring, original and do-able proposals and statements. All being ignored, of course, by the G8 leaders, but things that citizen groups like ours can follow up on. The basic belief is that governments are failing us, so we have to work together to create the world we want our children to inherit.

Put all together, this week in Toronto has many of the elements needed to make a difference. Panel presentations to educate. Rallies to inspire, bring together, and gain a spotlight. Discussion groups to generate new ideas and advance plans. It's still too early for most of our government leaders to listen to the people they represent, but the stronger we become, the more power we will have to create change either with or in spite of them.

Hope

Through all the hard lessons of the Gender Justice and Peoples Summits so far, there have been strong messages of hope. Southern partners creating impact and positive change through grassroots activism and advocacy. People living in seemingly the most helpless situations showing the most hope and strength.

"Sixteen women die every day in Malawi (in childbirth and unsafe abortions). Sixteen are dying today. Sixteen more will die tomorrow. Sixteen the day after that," explained Dorothy Ngoma, one of the powerful "W8" women speaking for women around the world. "But don't give up hope, don't stop what you are doing. You never know how many lives you are saving."

Despite the consistent message that abuse of patriarchal power, both at leadership and individual levels, is one of the root causes of the suffering and injustice, there was thankfully not a blanket demonizing of my un-fair sex. A speaker from Ethiopia (above, right) observed that "Men and women always rely on each other. Men and women always are concerned for each other. That's an opportunity we can build upon."

This same Ethiopian woman - "Bogy" - even found a thin, provocative silver lining in the HIV-AIDS epidemic. "HIV has been an entry point for women to talk. Whereas before women were muted, without a voice, HIV is a common concern for men and women, for old and young, so it has given women a chance to speak for themselves and start a dialogue with men."

If Harper could have just opened his ears, let alone his heart, to these powerful, courageous women, he would see the arrogance and ineffectiveness of his policy to only fund direct services instead of empowerment and capacity building of these local organizations to change their own society. "The reduction of Female Genital Mutilation and the increased acceptance of pre-marital HIV testing hasn't come about by changes in the law," explained Bogy. "They're the result of a change in culture that has happened because of people's understanding."

Dorothy Ngoma summed it up, "We don't want charity. We want solidarity. We want dignity."

Fascist Canada

Harper's government isn't just cutting valuable services abroad and locally. It's also systematically muzzling the voice of dissent and constructive civil debate in Canada.

As outlined in a Globe and Mail article, non-profit organizations who dare to speak against government policy are losing their funding. It's happening in the women's movement, in international development, in many progressive organizations. Planned Parenthood, KAIROS, Match International, and most recently the Canadian Council for International Cooperation are just some of the organizations who have lost their funding for daring to suggest that the minority government might not always be getting it right.

At the most certain risk of further funding cuts, several organizations have come together to expose and protest this erosion of our precious freedom of expression and full participation in democracy. Please take the time to read, sign and circulate the document at their new website: www.voices-voix.ca

In partial answer to the Why am I at the G8 question, I'm here to learn more about these serious issues threatening our society, but also to regain some hope that together we can do something about it. Do I believe that harper will listen? Of course not. But I do believe that enough of us together can finally wake up the rest of Canadians to stop electing him. The US finally got rid of Bush - why do we still have him up here?

what price morals, eh?

Stephen Harper wants to kill women. At least, that's what he'll accomplish if he succeeds in forbidding Canadian aid money to make abortions safe for women in developing countries.

For reasons unknown - likely pure ignorance, certainly not true love or respect - the head of our minority government put women's health and child mortality on the table at the G8, offering up a billion dollars of matching funds. Stephen really cares, right?

Then he turned around and declared contraception to be off limits. Apparently he's unaware of the high number of unwanted pregnancies that women experience due to rape, lack of economic or social power to say no to a husband, deep-rooted disempowerment and inequality. Apparently he doesn't keep up on statistics of 10-year-old mothers (yes, ten - see the stats in this photo of number of adolescent pregnancies in one year in Guatemala); girls who never get the chance for an education or a life of their choosing. Or if he does know it, he doesn't see giving these girls and women control over reproduction as a fair response.

Then he imposes his moral standard that all these young girls and adolescents, these women who can't support a first or another child, must have that unwanted baby. By refusing to allow safe abortion, he condemns them to illegal, unsanitary abortions that have been outlawed in our own society. In Africa, 40% of women who die during pregancy and childbirth die because of an illegal abortion. That number is 13% worldwide.

Outlawing abortions has never made it go away, it just drives it underground. And women and their babies die. Four out every 10 of those African women and their babies die.

Quite simply, if mr. harper really cares about women and wants to keep them alive, he will allow us to continue our work - which has been proven to reduce maternal mortality - of helping women choose when to become pregnant, and ensuring that those who choose to end an unwanted pregnancy can do so safely.

This is just one of many messages that we are here in Toronto trying to pass along to the leaders who will come nowhere near us. Harper is imposing his personal beliefs - beliefs not shared by the majority of Canadians whom he is supposed to represent - and the girls and women of the world will continue to pay the price. The same girls and women whom he is pretending to champion.

The Accidental Purist

Not all who inspire are inspired.

It's 6:26am and I'm on the dirty carpet of the Detroit Greyhound station, halfway through a 12-hour trek to Chicago to attend the G8. To attend the Gender Justice Summit, the Peoples' Summit, the protests, and all the other meaningful citizens events that the governments of the most powerful 8 nations of the world largely ignore as they make their decisions on our behalf about how to rule the world.

I'm here because it's my last function of my 3-year tenure on the Oxfam Canada board. I'm here because it's a great chance to have a few weeks to myself, to visit my brother, to get some solid consulting work done, to let my boys have time with their Chicago grandparents and uncles, and to unwind after a school year of high energy parenting. And oh ya, I'm here as a deliberate act of world citizenship.

The fact that I'm spending 92 hours in transit (plane, train, automobile, bus, ferry) and 2 weeks away from the farm to be here is not indicative of any heroic efforts or passionate commitment. It all happened by accident, by the fact that Oxfam scheduled this meeting at this time. I wasn't an on-fire protester who determined to get here to save the world or protest its demise.

But in a recent Quaker discussion group about how we try to live our lives in accordance with testimonies around Peace and Equality, a wise Friend asked me about my G8 involvement. His assumption that I was acting out of a deep calling or "Leading" was a wake-up call that this should be more than a casual adventure. It is a gift-wrapped chance to put my faith into action.

From that simple, pivotal moment, I've become excited about the G8. I'm no longer here to catch up on my writing and sleep and fraternal bonds; I'm here to be a presence. I'm representing my Quaker Friends, my community of friends who believe as I do that the world leaders can and must do better. I'm here for social justice, for environmental justice, for gender justice, for a better world for our children. I'm here because being here makes a difference.

I don't yet know what that will look like, beyond participation in the amazing discussion fora that Oxfam and other groups are staging. Is this finally my time to go to jail for justice? To write that powerful media piece that changes some minds? To march in some historic ground-shifting protest that captures the world's attention? Or maybe it's just to be here and learn, to share my little perspective and energy.

It's exciting to be this open, to have 10 full days devoted to nothing but being present and ready to respond, contribute and learn. This is just one of many gatherings in a time of many gatherings, and I don't fool myself that my little piece will make a big difference in this one little act of the grand play. But my full, intentional plunging into this river is a baptism of sorts, a new depth of self-awareness and involvement.

So thank you, wise Friend, for the gentle nudge you probably didn't know you were giving. Or probably you did. I have a lot to learn, and a big supportive space to learn it in.

So ready for summer

This is not a complaint about the weather. Nor about school. I'm just ready for summer break.

Ready to not hustle through the morning routine of bath-food-lunch-boots-bikes. Not hear myself saying, "Come on guys, time to move or we'll be late." Ready to just not be late for anything. The lettuce never requires a late slip.

Ready to have the boys around more. Late nights in the garden not worrying about being too tired for school in the morning. Getting some good work done then rewarding ourselves with a jaunt down to the river. Finally building that tree fort, that swing, that bike jump.

This will be a summer of balance, of relaxation, of quiet time with family interspersed with friends gatherings and outings. We've got it beautifully blocked out:
- 2 weeks in chicago with their grandparents and uncles while i'm at the G8
- 2 weeks home
- 1 week of just me and sarah on the farm while the kids are at "Camp Grandma Dia"
- 1 week with dear friends visiting, probably with a quick camp-out on the west coast
- 2 weeks home
- 1 week back-country camping at Cathedral Lakes
- 3 weeks home

And by then, I'll be writing another blog post saying how ready I am for school, for blocks of kid-free time each day, for routine and daily parking-lot communion. But for now, it's no more pencils no more books, bring on the Meatballs video. This stay-at-home dad is ready to stay at home.