OUR RIVERS, OURSELVES

Heading South, that’s where BC rivers are heading, straight into the arms of both US and Canadian corporate control. And gleefully riding the US bound river rapids sits our BC premier who never met a crooked privatizing scheme he didn’t like. And, I might add, riding the crest of his waves not far behind is one of his relatively newly recruited but prized enablers of BC public give-aways: the much admired and prominent environmentalist Tzeporah Berman.
And she’s on record. Ms Berman has publicly stated she thinks the privatizing of BC rivers through the Run of the River projects is a good idea. Why would this poster child for the Clayoquot Sound blockades lend her name and prestige to such a vicious thing as signing off our public river power to private control? In frustration I tuned to an old issue of DOGWOOD INITITIVE (2002) to an article by Denise Deegan (written for corporations) called MANANGING ACTIVISM; A GUIDE TO DEALING WITH ACTIVISTS AND PRESSURE GROUPS and we are told the following:
“First identify the “radicals” who are unwilling to compromise and who are demanding fundamental changes. Then, identify the “realists”-typically organizations with significant budgets and staff working in the same relative area of public concern as the radicals. Then approach these “realists,” start a dialogue and eventually cut a deal, a “win,win” solution that marginalizes and excludes the radicals and their demands. Next go with the realists to the “idealists” who have learned about the problem through the work of the radicals. Convince the idealists that a “win-win” solution indorsed by the realists is best for the community as a whole. Once this has been accomplished, the “radicals” can be shut out as extremist, the PR fix is in, and the deal can be touted in the media to make the corporation and its “moderate” non-profit partners look heroic for solving the problem”.
And this strategy has worked. In these past years most of us “radicals” have been shut out as the “realists” and the “idealists” have made questionable, supposed “win, win” deals with the Gordon Campbell government and corporations. Only the problems haven’t been solved and there are now serious splits in what little environmental activism there was out there. However, I remain optimistic and believe these splits could be setting the stage for a real environmental movement…one that engages not just a lofty few who think themselves special and rather intellectually superior but masses of people, many who haven’t the faintest idea how bio systems actually work but know that they do work and desperately want them to keep on working. So we’ll see. Betty Krawczyk

CAN WE TALK?

My last posting on marriage and religion generated a lot heat, which I expected. But some interest, too. One woman responded with the question "Okay, so what do we do now?" And my response? Well, that depends. I believe, as our economic and environmental status quo crumbles there will be perilous times ahead for us all that will demand the leadership of women. Yes, I know there's lots of good men out there (I think I know most of them personally) that's not the point. The point is that it is male culture that has gotten us into this mess. Male culture? What's that? Male culture is what we all live in and it always tetters on the violent side whether it's ball games or outright war (yes, Canadian men are less violent than most and some are very sweet) but the absolute, over riding rule of male culture is that women are inferor because they can be oppressed in sex specific ways. These sex specific ways of sexual oppression against women are what keep women from assuming real leadership roles domestically and gloably. Shall I count the ways?

(a) Prostitution: This scourge on the face of our earth must go. As long as there is one prostitute then all women are potential prostitutes if they get poor enough. And if all women are potential prostitutes (are, have been, will be)then is it absurd to even think of any women as real leaders? And when men get angry enough they will accuse even well off women of being prostitutes. Remember when Blinda Stronach crossed the floor to the Liberal side in Parliment and her former Conservative colleagues flung accusations of prostitution at her? Prostitution will go when enough women get strong enough to link arm and arm with prostitutes and sexually abused children and accuse those who need accusing...brothers, husbands, boy friends, sons, male teachers, politicans, corporation CEO's,church leaders...no person, no citizen, woman or man can hold heads high with pride as long as prostitution exists. Aside from being a crime against humanity, prostitution encourges all men to think of women as inferiors.

(b) Pornography: Women will not,cannot be thought of as world leaders, or even believe they can be leaders of any kind when almost every time a woman opens the computer she sees what men consider important in women: tits and ass. And children with computer access also know how to open up the really good stuff...hard core pornography. Many men love pornography or it wouldn't be such a hugh money maker. And when women are constantly presented as being primairly orifices for men to bore into then women get depressed. Which is what is happening when porn becomes main stream as it is now. My God, even China recognizes that pornography is bad for everybody and stops it from going into their country.

(c) Rape: Breaking and entering a house is taken more seriously by authorities than breaking and entering a woman's body against her will. And children's bodies, I might add. The police and courts and politicians pay attention if a woman or a child is killed in the process but rape happens so often it is still not dealt with seriously enough. Women know this and many raped women are too dispirited to even report it. Rape should be given the same seriousness as attempted murder. Then women and children would know that they matter.

(d) Battery: Funny how wife beating or woman beating has become spousal abuse. By called it spousal abuse women could also be beating on men, right? How many women do you know who physically beat their men? I'm eighty years old and I've never met a single one. But I've met way, way, too many women who have beaten by men. Men beat women on a fairly regular basis and when they are extremely angry and feel justified, even kill them. A woman who is beaten frequently, or even slapped around occasionally cannot consider herself or women in general as leaders of any kind.

So first, let's demand an accounting of these four sex specific crimes against women in order to consider ourselves in the process of preparing for domestic and world leadership. We must overcome these stumbling blocks if we want the human race to survive. Women must demand a full humanity even if we have to do it in a porn ridden, prostituted, sick and violent society. Our children and grandchildren demand it. The earth demands it. Life demands it. Let's start talking. Betty Krawczyk

Marriage and Religion? Underpinnings of Global Warming?

Could it possibly be true? That marriage and religion are the twin causes of global warming? I think yes. Prior to the rise of these two patriarchal institutions, marriage and relision, women practiced birth control via the taboo system. In most ancient societies, according to social scientists, when a woman became pregnant she marked herself as being in taboo and no man could touch her until that child was weaned, usually from four to six years. The first European anthropologists who came to this continent and even down into Suth America were astonished at this birth control system that not only limited the number of children any woman had, but whose maternal and infant death rates were much better than those in Europe at the time where weatern religion and marriage had taken hold and women were bearing a dozen or more children in their lifetimes. Where ever Christianity and Islam were introduced women became baby machines as women now must by law and religion always be sexually avaliable to the men.

As the two religions spread all over the world populations exploded. The old methods of child spacing practiced by women became illegal. For practicing them women could be cast out, or killed by their husbands or other male members of their family under Islamic law and early Christian law. The degradation of women through the religous idea that women had no right to protection from men's sexual demands has lead to the earth's over population that has in turn led to the degradation of the earth itself. And perhaps to the extinction of everything that breaths.

In my opinion men as a group don't have it together now even when we're on the brink. Our forests are still falling, our water being stolen and privatized, the worst industrial polluters claiming their right to do so with a taoken payment. The future looks very grim unless, we, as women, can do what men seem unable to do. And what is that? We can raise hell. We have the computer. And each other. We can stop being wimps and start challanging government and corporations and religions in maningful ways, as women. Lt's stop being so forgiving of men who had rather watch hockey and drink beer or further their political, corporate or religious careers than seriously consider whether their childrn may survive. Women's voices have been silent too long. It's time to roar. We have a right to our anger. Betty Krawczyk

Anti-Falcon Expression Of Rage

anti-Falcon rage video link

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/7a9fdfb01216e8caf5

INTO THE BREECH

“Into the breech, dear friends, once more into the breech”

I can’t identify who first said these words but I like them. They’re emotional words. Fighting words. There’s a struggle woven in between these words coupled with somebody’s tired determination not to give it up. And neither can we give it up. Ever. Even when things look bleak. Why? Because there aren’t any other alternatives but to keep on going. If we stop “going on” so to speak, we die.

Last Tuesday I lost my appeal in the Appeal’s Court of BC. This appeal originated in the protests and arrests in Eagleridge Bluffs which left me with a ten month’s prison sentence. Which I served. But in my appeal I said people have a right to protest needless governmental destruction of our priceless eco systems no matter how much press and media attend a protest; but the court said no, if there’s press and media attending a blockade that makes a protester guilty of criminal contempt of court and anyone who speaks to the press while on a blockade is a criminal. With a criminal mind (mens rea) no less.

This is just the most maddening thing. This means that while I was designated a criminal with a criminal mind and given a lengthy criminal sentence and sent to a place where other criminals are kept I was told by the appeals court that the term “criminal contempt” was simply a term used by BC courts but it didn’t really mean I was a regular criminal. Then how come I was tried and convicted like a regular criminal and sent off to prison? I don’t get it. I’ve come to believe that when confronted with a prisoner who has disobeyed a court order (at least a court order allowing the destruction of our environment) BC judges’ minds automatically hit a short circuit that creates some kind of cranial electrical storm. Give them mass murders any ole day, they seem to say, or extortionists, or the most vicious gang members, child pornographers, or whatever, and they will be treated much more tenderly by the courts in BC than an environmental protester.

But we can’t stop. If there is any room for me to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada I will. We must all prepare to go “into the breech, dear friends, once more into the breech”. Whenever and whatever way we can manage to do it.

Legal Brothels, Jamie Lee Hamilton, Ellen Woodsworth and Me

Legal Brothels, Jamie Lee Hamilton, Ellen Woodsworth and me

Last Saturday afternoon, in a open candidate debate in the Carnegie Centre on homelessness, Jamie Lee Hamilton chided me in front of the audience for not adopting Ellen Woodsworth’s opinions on further legalizing prostitution which means legal brothels, presumably in time for the Olympics. As this was done in public and I didn’t get a chance to reply in public then I will reply now.
In the Work Less Party we don’t necessarily agree on this issue. In fact, we don’t agree at all. We don’t have to. If I am elected mayor I will resist firmly and passionately any attempt to open legal brothels in this city. I have duly noted some of the people who support Jamie Lee Hamilton’s bid for the Parks Board, but does this mean these supporters necessarily also support her business interests as a sex trade worker in her bid for legal brothels? I think there should be some clarification on this, especially from Ellen Woodsworth and Adriane Carr. But wait a minute. What about all of the coalition members running in the municipal election which includes Vision, Cope, and the Green Party? And why should the NPA be excluded? Do these members of parties all support legal brothels, presumably in time for the Olympics? I am personally very fond of Adriane Carr and admire some of her work. However, this question is not about fondness or friendship; it is about something fundamental that is chewing away at our society like a dog knawing on a bone. It is lack of respect for women.
When I was serving time in the women’s prison in Burnaby for protesting the proposed clear cutting of the Elaho Valley my daughter Marian was hired by SAVE THE CHILDREN to research the experiences of young aboriginal youth in the sex trade, and fashion these experiences into a book for the government of Canada to ponder. It was published under the title “Sacred Lives”. My daughter’s research showed that the average age of aboriginal children entering the sex trade was fourteen years.
There is something so barbaric about this treatment of children, the fact that “kiddie strolls” still exists in Vancouver, that a prominent section of society thinks that might be okay if prostitution were only made safer. I have heard all the arguments surrounding this issues from the other side, the claims that that those who have a business interest in promoting brothels are not interested in prostituting children, only making things safe for adult women.
It doesn’t work this way. Men who seek prostitutes are particularly fond of young girls, the younger the better. We know that drinkers can find drinking places after hours and so can Johns find the youngest of girls after hours. We know that pimps already regularly patrol the malls and school yards, even elementary school yards looking for the freshest of young girls who can be lured with drugs, a few clothes, good times and once addicted, the girls are usually lost. We need to confront our politicians who support legal brothels and I think aboriginal women, whose daughters are particularly at risk, but all mothers of daughters should lead the way in this questioning. It is not too late. The election is not until Saturday. And oh yes. The government is still pondering “Sacred Lives”. On a dusty shelf somewhere in Ottawa.

AN 80 YEAR OLD TAP DANCING, BOOK WRITING, RECIDIVIST FOR MAYOR?

Ridiculous, you say? Outrageous? With all that prison background over trying to save old growth forests of British Columbia which makes me a little too colourful, not to mention way too old even though I tap dance to Bob Seger's OLD TIME ROCK AND ROLL?
Too colourful? Well, if you spend your life trying to save a smidgen of the planet for young ones and trying to knock down the province’s use of injunctions to make this next to impossible, and you insist on keeping on anyway, then sooner or later somebody in the press will start mentioning you as a colourful local character. Which of course then eliminates any chance of the work you do as being anything serious.
The books that I write? They aren’t taken seriously either, although one won a book prize and one is widely read. But my latest: Open Living Confidential”, which speaks to the condition of women in relation to the environment in relation to the BC prison system has been systematically ignored by local media reviewers just as my bid for the mayoral race has been. One could think, well, okay, perhaps my books and my message are just not worthy of mention except for one thing…when the press is desperate on a fallow news day and nobody has been murdered, beaten and robbed, abducted or sexually assaulted then there might be a small notice that I have been arrested under the incredibly effective silencer of public protest called a court injunction. But running for mayor? Never a peep.
But are either of the two contenders for mayor of Vancouver whom the media touts as the only serious contenders in this public lottery up for the job? Well, if we were looking at business as usual, if our construction based developer dominated economic system was sustainable, then that would be one thing. Under those circumstances, then Gregor Robertson (Vision) may not be quite the train wreck that Peter Ladner (NPA) is. But on the other hand, maybe Gregor is as bad practically speaking and worse philosophically speaking. Why? Because at least with Peter Ladner we know what we are dealing with Ladner is a hard core believer in elite rule which occurs out of sight of the public. He was old boys club before the term was even invented and that club is for ever expanding construction and money in their pockets. He is the classical “greed is good” capitalist. But Gregor Robertson? He presents as something quite different. But is he?
I don’t think Robertson and his party Vision really is that different. We tend to forget that in the recent city 100 million dollar loan to a private company it wasn’t just Ladner and the NPA at fault. There were four members of Vision who also signed on to that secret loan of public money to a private corporation (Louie, Stevenson, Chow and Deal). By taking corporation money as their majority contributors (over 70 percent) Vision will not be able to act independently. Money not only talks, it screams and shouts. Out of party necessity, Gregor Robertson and Vision will be obliged to continue to try to patch up the comatose construction bubble while their plea for economic justice will fade to a faint whisper.
I am not kidding you people of gentle hearts and good intentions; I would be the best one for the job of mayor of Vancouver. Our Work Less Party four candidates running for council (Geri Tramutola, Christopher Shaw, Ian Gregson, and Timothy Wisdom) and one candidate for the Parks Board, (Ivan Doumenc) would also be the best choices considering these coming troubled years. These are wonderful candidates that any city could be proud of. But why would I personally be best choice for mayor? Let me count the ways.
First, I am a deep ecologist, and a Motherist (a Motherist is one who believes that the mother’s love and protection of children of both sexes and the environment should be paramount in the world). This city needs some mothering, not more private exploitation of public assets. I believe that each of us are on a spiritual journey in this world and that should be acknowledged in our journeys, not in a religious dogmatic sense, but in our inner heart searches. I write what I believe and what I do. I read enormously, not only of history and anthropology, but of the current affairs of Vancouver and BC, the nation and the world. I follow economic trends and listen to economists of all stripes and balance them against my own innate sense of what is true and just.
Inadvertently I have become an example of how to be physically healthy while negotiating with old age. I would like to share my increasing knowledge of how old age can work physically and mentally to be an enormous source of energy rather than a determent.
And lastly, my experience with economic depressions and hard times; my knowledge of how to cope under stressful circumstances of fires, floods, hurricanes, and changing countries while rearing eight children could be very valuable to the unknown challenges we will be facing soon. It’s not going to be business as usual. Our future will be different. But one thing I am sure of…if we approach change as an opportunity for sincere evaluations of what it means to be human, to be in a journey on this earth, to be part of the experience of living with our fellow-sister beings including the animals both wild and tamed, the plants that nourish us and the oceans and rivers that sustain us, and the skies that keep us rooted on this earth then we will prosper. In the very most important ways, we will prosper.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Thomas Payne, often described as the Great American Pamphleteer, so great that his pamphlets helped spark the American Revolution, asked this question in his most famous pamphlet entitled “What is to be Done?” Well, this isn’t America and we’re not asking for the kind of revolution Thomas Payne was asking for. Not a bloody revolution. I favor a bloodless coup d’etat. And even though as Canadians we like to think of ourselves as more civilized that Americans, (and in some senses I think they, we, actually are) sometimes political structures become so corrupt that nothing else will do. And the Americans are certainly leading the way into deepening economic and political corruption.
A bloodless revolution? How. what and when? When enough women get up the gumption to do something about the childhood diseases our children are suffering, about the cut backs in schools and hospitals, the pitiful amount of money given to people on disability and welfare, the growing number of homeless in the streets, the lack of affordable housing for the working poor and even middle class families. But why am I sniping at women?
Because women hold the power, the key to change. We have simply been discouraged from using this power by men who fear it. Why, if significant numbers of women got into power they might make children in this country a priority, they might take away all hand guns, they might insist that some of the billions of dollars spent on sports be spent on social programs, they might insist on first rate care for the aged, they might repudiate war altogether and take away the right of corporations to pollute at will, the right of chemical companies to continue to poison the land and waters. and pharmaceuticals the right to dope up the citizenry, including children. They might even insist that advertising corporations stop using the blatant sexualization of children to sell the products of a sleazy minded clothing industry. Why, women might even want to put a stop to some of the TV programs that have made pornography main stream and the manufacture of “first shooter” games for boys that get bloodier and bloodier, that are in reality training ground for boys to want to get real guns into their hands. Civil society? We will never have one until women get out there and insist on it. But I believe that time is coming. It will come when enough women see there isn’t a chance in hell for their children to grow up happy and sane and healthy and safe…until these changes are made. And then the real revolution will come.

STRATEGY, POLITICAL POLLS AND LEADERSHIP

STRATEGY, POLITICAL POLLS AND LEADERSHIP
Elections of any stripe induce, in my opinion, some of the fuzziest thinking known to humankind. Why? Because the very first thing that seems to come to the fore in political parties when an election is called is STRATEGY. And what’s wrong with that, you might ask? Don’t we all strategize our way through life in many areas, both great and small?
Yes, we do. In making any decision we have to weight the pros and cons. What to study, if anything, where to live, what kind of job if any, what to eat, what to wear, when to procreate, whether to procreate, when and where to retire, the list is endless. And agonizing. But there is one area where I think strategy simply doesn’t deliver. And that’s in politics.
Politics, you say? But politicians spend endless hours over strategies. In fact, one can almost say that strategies are the entire composition of most political parties. First, a political party tests the polls, find out what the voters want (and the party knows who the voters actually are) and promise to make the most vocal majority want that is expressed a priority, whatever that is, next find out what voters are actually worried about, then cook up the strategy that can be spun like a glistening spider web moist from a fresh fallen dew, into a soothing balm for whatever has caused the voter’s fretfulness, and while all of this may actually win votes because it’s true and tried good politics, the concept of leadership becomes a farce.
But what exactly is leadership if it isn’t cruising the polls and creating strategies? What do people mean when they ask for leadership? Is it a rote learning of a poll driven policy spoken in a firm, authortive voice? Or is it something else, something almost indescrible, something…dare we say it? Something almost spiritual? Something that stirs our innermost desires to connect more fully with each other, the natural world, and an almost but not quite conscious yearning for a personal place, a real place in the contribution to the evolution of human consciousness? But when I speak or write in this way I am sometimes cautioned that I am trying to drag a religious element into the political arena.
Nonsense. We have been so indoctrinated with different religions that we think that patrichal religions own spirituality. None of them do. Spirituality is the way we live our lives, not what church we belong to, so we all have a spiritual life of sorts already. Most people realize this. Okay, then what I leadership? What is a leader?
If I knew I would tell you. I only know what a leader isn’t. A leader isn’t sailing under false pretense, isn’t pretending to know something he or she doesn’t know, isn’t so fearful and frightened they must make back room deals in secret, doesn’t think the ends justify the means, doesn’t believe in autocracy, and who does, honestly, and truthfully, believe in equality, not only of civil and social and legal rights, but of equal rights to the resources of the county in which we all reside. And that means equality to the money that these resources generate.
In other words, a leader somehow is more interested in the egalitarian ideals he or she is harboring than in the opinion polls and political strategy. And maybe this is why we have so few political leaders who inspire us. They have mostly been made spiritually skinny by staring at the polls and too fat headed struggling with strategies.
There. Now haven’t I been helpful today?

Gregor Robinson Afraid of Debate?

With federal elections upon us both north and south and Super Mom Sarah Palin comparing hockey moms to pit bulls below the border my immediate question is this…how many Americans south of the border even know what a hockey mom is? They don’t play hockey south of the border. It’s not that big down there. I’m from there. Down there it’s baseball, football. And Cheerleading. Cheerleading is big in America. No wonder Sarah Palin’s husband wants Alaska to succeed from the American union (he belongs to an organization advocating this). But while that storm is raging southward and our own federal election is poised to strike we are still looking at a imminent Vancouver civic election

I am running for mayor of Vancouver. This is a best kept media secret. As there is almost a complete media black out on my mayoral candidacy and the entire Work Less Party, and even though I am the only declared mayoral candidate other then Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson, there is still a media black out on my candidacy and party. But a peculiar thing…as media isolated as I have been in the mayoral race so far, and considering there are only three mayoral candidates at this point, I have heard rumours that Gregor Robertson refuses to be on the same platform with me in any of the upcoming debates.

I am hoping these are just rumours. Why would Gregor Robertson be so averse to appearing on the same platform with me? After all, Gregor has the blessing of almost everybody. There is going to be a debate next month on Peak Oil. The event had previously been tentatively scheduled to occur last month with the three mayoral candidate (at lest the organizers of this even recognizes that I am indeed running for mayor).but it seems Gregor couldn’t make it. And I understand there might be difficulty with his making the event next month. I don’t understand this. Gregor has remarked that his schedule is actually very flexible. If his schedule is flexible, why is he having so much trouble attending the Peak Oil debate that has given him two months to accommodate the event? And will he refuse to agree to the Unitarian Church debates that have also invited me?

I do hope the rumours are wrong. However, I have to confess… I have bet several chocolate cakes that the rumours are right. But I would love to lose this bet. I can’t imagine a man putting himself up for mayor of Vancouver who hesitates to debate all other candidates who are registered to run. If Gregor Robertson really is afraid to be on the same platform with me, or anyone else for that matter, then all of Vancouver should know this. People should know what they’re voting for.

LEFT OF CENTRE?

That’s how Vision, a Municipal Political Party of Vancouver is being described, by themselves, and by the media, as left of centre. My question is: how can any political party be described as left of centre when it is seventy per cent funded by developers and corporations? But this question is never raised by our only two daily print newspapers, The Vancouver Sun and the Province. Both newspapers are owned by the Asper family of Winnipeg.

Okay, if only one family who lives in Winnipeg owns the only two daily print newspapers in Vancouver, ( the family owns CanWest, the largest media conglomerate in Canada) what are the politics of this family, that is, the way they slant the news ? Decidedly right wing. That is, the usual right wing messages advocating the privatizing of everything public, including health care. All in a reasonable tone, of course. And the Aspers have already elected Gregor Robertson of Vision as the next mayor of Vancouver. How have they done this? By getting Gregor Robinson out there, at every opportunity, front and centre. in their newspapers. And never even mentioning the fact that I, too, am running for mayor of Vancouver.

The Aspers obviously consider the fact that a little old lady environmental activist running for mayor as completely unworthy of mention. Or, the other possibility is that I present some kind of a threat. Because here’s an odd thing. In my role as an environmental activist, both papers have covered my activities. But as soon as I’m out of prison and announce that I’m running for mayor of Vancouver there is absolute silence. The Vancouver Sun and the Province have never heard of me. And furthermore, they have no intention of hearing my name or seeing my face. Wouldn’t you agree that this is odd? Wouldn’t you think that the only two local daily print newspapers would at least mention that I, too, am running for mayor of Vancouver? Especially since there is only one other declared candidate for mayor (besides myself), Peter Ladner of NPA? And they do report on Mr. Ladner? I would even feel that the Aspers were fulfilling some kind of civic responsibility to their readers if when discussing the mayoral race in an article they just tossed a throw away line at the bottom by adding : and oh yes, and Betty Krawczyk is also running for mayor. But not even this footnote.

The fact that there is not even a footnote makes me suspicious. Could the Aspers really be afraid of me? Of what I represent? Which is public resistance to their corporate agenda and value systems? If so, what right have they to pick the next mayor of Vancouver, one whom they consider to be more amenable to their right wing agendas? To do this by endorsing a nice man with a soft image and calling his seventy per cent corporate and developer funded party left of centre? And the Aspers don’t even live in British Columbia. Oh, money is a powerful thing!

If one bluntly questioned the Aspers about this they would probably reply that they have a right to say what they please and ignore what they please as they own the newspapers. But I say they have a responsibility to the public as owners of the only two local print dailies in Vancouver to report the news, what is actually happening, not ignore what displeases them. I say, just print the news, you Asper family of the Vancouver Sun and the Province. And part of the news concerning the mayoral candidate race in Vancouver is that Betty Krawczyk is also a candidate and she is running under the auspices of The Work Less Party. You don’t like that? You’re afraid of it? Better to ignore it? Beneath your notice?

Ah, but you have a public obligation, you Aspers. You have an obligation to print names of declared candidates and legal municipal parties who have declared. In fact, I think there may even be some legal obligation here to do so. Just mentioning this as a foot note. Betty Krawczyk

The Big 80

And it was big. My birthday party was wonderful. I think the best I’ve ever had. What made it so big? And great? Well, anybody’s 80^th birthday is big just because you’re still here. But the chief ingredient that made my 80^th birthday party so delightful other than having the people I love the most all together in one space … friends, kids, grandkids, sons-in-laws, co-workers, my own personal heroes…was that it was a complete surprise.

Really. A complete surprise. And I’m not easy to fool. And I don’t get surprised much anymore. Because that’s one thing old age brings. Increased perception. At eighty years one’s perception is more honed and fined than it has ever been, particularly in dealing with other humans; one knows from experience what a particular kind of facial expression might mean, what that body movement is hiding or revealing, what that particular tone of voice is suggesting. One has become more delicately tuned to others. So I’m surprised that I was surprised by a surprise birthday party planned and prepared largely by my family, hosted by Monika and Byron Sharedown, and attended by my best friends and well wishers along with greetings sent by those who couldn’t attend. I think I didn’t catch on just because everybody involved is so separated by geography it was, and is, a wonder to me that it all got together.

And surprise is the spice of life. It’s also the spice of evolution. What is a mutation in nature except a surprise? And we’re all here because of mutations in our pre human ancestors, because of surprises that made us human. I believe in surprises. That’s why I left, and still leave, church dogmas, as all religious dogmas are fixed in time; they are not open to surprises. I believe we evolve by surprises. By the ability to be surprised. To stay open to surprises. To celebrate surprises when they are good surprises and to learn from the bad surprises. I celebrated my birthday party surprise for two whole days and the surprise factor will linger much longer. Thank you, flesh of my flesh, both biological and adopted flesh, for another thing happens when you’re eighty…all those you love become your children. It just happens. Betty Krawczyk

NOT ENOUGH MILK FOR THE MONEY?

There is an old saying that one gets what one pays for. But not in British Columbia. Taxpayers here pay a lot for a justice system that like a milk cow gives steady streams of the sweet milk of justice to posh people (Gordon Campbell’s friends of privatization) but decreasing dribbles to poor people (and that is increasingly including just about everyone else in Vancouver who are trying to survive the drug trade ratcheted up rents and mortgages and eat at the same time) while forcing regular citizens to bring in the hay and of course, clean out the barn. In fact, if I remember correctly, even the law society of BC was aggravated with Wally Oppal for his part in the trashing of legal services and wrote a public letter of non-confidence in him.

Our justice system is in tatters. Gordon Campbell, with Wally Oppal at heel, shut down two dozen courthouses in BC, bought out many of the justices of peace with early retirement, closed a dozen prisons and holding centers to save money, of course, for his two week party where he can strut before the world. The situation now? Well, let’s see. Citizens will cool their heels a couple of years before their cases might actually be brought to trial except maybe parking ticket disputes. A parking ticket might come before the court in perhaps just under a year. And judges have to take into account before they actually send anybody to prison if there is a bed in a cell somewhere because with all the prison closures, the ones still operating have started triple bunking prisoners or holding them up in tents. So a kind of justice by housing shortage is emerging in the courts that have to do with where does a judge send a person convicted of a crime if there is nowhere to send him or her? And the courts are now so crowded police are simply just letting people off with warnings, people they would have booked before Gordon Campbell’s “Shock and Awe” attack on our justice system.

So where does my civil case against Kietwit Sons Co and Kevin Falcon stand resulting from my part in the blockades at Eagleridge Bluffs? Well, while the court did throw out the two main issues I wanted tried, I was allowed to bring the charges of assault forward and also include the Attorney General (my stars, Wally Oppal) and Sea to Sky Highway. Their method of dealing with me? Simple. Ignore me. They haven’t answered my legal demand to acknowledge and present a defense. By law, they are supposed to do this. But of course, all of these powerful people are above the law. In fact, they make the law. The law as it is written holds no charm for them. How dare an elderly woman try to bugger up the traffic (as Kevin Falcon demanded at the traffic tie up on the Second Narrows Bridge when an elderly woman was in the process of being talked out of suicide) or get in the way of their clean sweep of the natural public resources of this province? Ignore the old woman, they seem to be saying. And tell her to go jump. They don’t have to obey the law.

But I say this isn’t over. And we’ll see. Betty Krawczyk

Power Poles and Power Outage Woes

Trust us, Gordon Campbell seems to assure the Mothers Against Power Poles in Tsawwassen, those high voltage power lines I’ve agreed to put into your back yards and the school yard aren’t really dangerous to your kids even though they will constantly zap their growing bodies and bathe their budding brains with voltages high enough to supply Vancouver Island with lots of additional electricity.

But I suspect it isn’t even Vancouver Island Mr. Campbell is worried about. It’s his American friends. The ones who want to privatize the entire electrical and hydro electrical fields of BC so they can suck it all up. Or most of it. But a growing worry among citizens is that our own people who build, repair, maintain important infrastructures might not actually know what they are doing. At least some of the time.

For instance, Monday’s blow out in Vancouver’s City Centre. How could the maintenance people who inspect underground vaults in substations around the city not know when one is approaching a dangerous condition of blow out? Or is there no way to tell? If not, why not? If it’s matter of aging wires and things, why in heaven’s name haven’t they been replaced long ago? Who is in charge of this? Whoever they are, why aren’t they on the radio and TV explaining what happened and why, instead of all the media speculation?

Sam Sullivan is calling for an independent investigation. At least that’s something. However, with the provincial government’s love of ruling as an oligarchy, and the mayor and council’s history of following Campbell’s lead, will we ever know the truth of it? Probably not. However, I don’t see how aging infrastructure can be hidden forever. As most of the public money is earmarked for Gateway expansion and other Olympic construction and the bloated overruns is there any money for tending to the nitty gritty things like upgrades on the power supplies in Downtown Vancouver? Surely Peter Lander and Gregor Robertson might help us out here. After all, they’re biting at the bit for the job of mayor. Is the Work Less Party the only municipal party who think it disgusting that so much of our communal money is going into the corporate games while our infrastructures rot? Speak up, guys. It’s your chance to shine.

And a word to the Mothers Against Power Poles: I think you are wise to be skeptical of the people who supposedly know abut electricity when they give you advice on what’s healthy or not healthy for your kids. This is the same provincial government who thinks cutting welfare to mothers with dependant children will make the children strong and healthy. Why would they act more intelligently about children anywhere in the province? They don’t and won’t. But when enough mothers find they can’t protect the health of their children and all three levels of government have in reality combined to become the enemy of the health of children, things will start to happen. I know they will. Betty Krawczyk

VISION AND DR. NORMAN BETHUNE

I heard on CBC radio, so it must be true, that Gregor Robinson, in order to court the Chinese vote in Vancouver, has announced that he is the nephew of Dr. Norman Bethune. Dr. Bethune, a Canadian doctor and surgeon, went to China during the Chinese revolution and was the first doctor and scientist in history to develop taking surgical facilities directly to the battlefield and operating on the wounded there. He believed utterly in socialism and the Chinese revolution, and died while engaging in that struggle. Dr. Bethune was revered for his contribution to the Chinese revolution and is still regarded as a hero in China. But in Canada?

Dr. Bethune was considered a traitor at home and more or less reviled by the governments of Canada. And even today Dr. Bethune’s contributions to medicine are more or less ignored in Canada. In fact, I was in Ontario when the first real thaw came between Canada and China and some Chinese dignitaries visited Canada and wanted to be shown Dr. Bethune’s birth place and family home. Nobody in charge even knew where it was and when they found it, it was so run down they had to spruce it up lickey split so the Chinese wouldn’t think they were unappreciative of a Canadian the Chinese considered a hero.

Dr. Norman Bethune was a real socialist, a believer in equality, and he sympathized completely with the Chinese revolution. In case it isn’t clear, Dr. Bethune is also a hero of mine. He fought the moneyed interests, both foreign and domestic that kept China a desperate, backward county. And I rather resent Gregor Robinson evoking my hero’s name, kin or no, in order to further the fortunes of the Vision Municipal Party of Vancouver, a party that is seventy per cent funded by corporations and developers. I think Dr. Bethune is turning over in his grave by this act of his nephew’s, this recent announcement, in the hope of influencing Chinese voters. I think Dr Bethune must be appalled that his own passionate, committed socialism could be used in such a cynical way. Dr. Bethune knew that he who pays the piper picks the tune. Gregor Robinson either doesn’t know that he is cruising on corporate money, or he doesn’t care. Blood is not always thicker than water.

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

Okay, back to the grind of trying to squeeze some justice out of the Justice system of BC. It ain’t easy. I promised to take anybody into court with me (so to speak) who might be interested in some of the legal ramifications of the aftermath of the blockades at Eagleridge Bluffs. Anybody out there who remembers Major Bowles and don’t touch that dial? Probably not, but anyway, don’t touch that delete button. What I’m about to say is important, not because I’m saying it, but because the laws courts of British Columbia are saying it and because Wally Oppal, BC Attorney General, and Gordon Campbell are saying it:

YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY TO SUE CORPORATIONS AND/OR THE GOVERNMENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA NO MATTER HOW BADLY YOU HAVE BEEN INJURED OR MISTREATED.

The paradox is this: if you had a lot of money to start with you probably would not have wound up in a situation where you needed a lot of money to sue the government or a corporation. Provincial governments and corporations know this. This is why they kiss off real miscarriages of justice they are responsible for. Because they can. Especially our particular BC premier, attorney general, and the corporations they favor, like the enormous American firm Kiewit Sons Co. that Gordon Campbell and Kevin Falcon brought in to destroy Eagleridge Bluffs. They think (know) they can buy their way out of anything. After all, they have unlimited access to citizen’s money.

However, if one is determined enough and mad enough about a perceived injustice a citizen can step forward and make claim that this is their court, their justice system, their law, their rights, these are supposed to protect people, not exist over and above citizens to persecute and injure them and doggone it, a citizen can decide to go into the courtroom and represent themselves. Nobody involved will like this, the courts least of all as they have to deal with someone they can’t threaten with expulsion from the Law Society, but it also sends chills into government and corporate places. So where am I right now in the process of suing Kiewit Sons Co, Kevin Falcon, Ministry of Transportation, Sea to Sky Highway, West Van Police and a guy who I claim tried to run over me with an industrial truck during my third blockade at Eagleridge Bluffs?

Well, I tried to sue them all for conspiracy and malfeasance of public and/or corporate office for depriving me of my rights under the criminal code in favor of injunctive arrest which left me (and the others) defenseless before the court. But the court threw that one out. The only thing I’m left with is my allegation of assault against the gentleman who tried, in my opinion, to liquefy my aged body underneath his big ole truck. However, the judge did allow me to include everybody connected with this in my suit (excepting West Van Police) so I’m busy trying to figure out the correct forms.

Let me tell you about the forms. They are monstrous. Piles of them. Each for just a certain thing. And the language comes from hell. Try to understand the language. The language, of course, is to discourage citizens from trying to understand the forms. Or the laws and rulings. If citizens actually understood what most of this language means, we might stop paying for BC courts. Especially the Supreme Court in Vancouver on Smithe Street with the impressive open architecture. However, I have recently enlisted the aid of several dear friends who have agreed to meet as a body and we are working on the principle that while none of us have had legal training, between us we should be able to at least figure out what form to use for what. Yes, we should be able to do that. I’ll keep you posted.

Betty Krawczyk

Blog: http://bettysearlyedition.blogspot.com/

For more information contact:

Betty Krawczyk

Mayoral Candidate, City of Vancouver

www.worklessparty.org

betty_krawczyk@shaw.ca