a room of my own

Charity, or Justice?

2012-02-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

An online friend of mine, a social worker, recently returned from Cuba. I told her I’m planning to travel with the 23rd Friendshipment Caravan again this summer, and she responded:

“I wonder about the impact of charity on the Cuban identity and their autonomy. I have this same concern with the work I do but do it anyways, cuz where would the people be without it? Very hungry and cold!”

Regular Street Newz readers know that we appreciate the hard work of front line workers, but ultimately we hope to inspire change at the source. We, along with the reputed 99%, realize that the overall situation is in serious need of an upgrade.

I told my friend that the Caravan does function in the realm of charity, bringing donated hospital and school supplies directly to an organization of Cuban people (not the government) who distribute the aid using an application process. In addition, though, the Caravan is working for fundamental, foundational, systemic change. We demand a normalization of relations. For the past 50 years, US Foreign Policy has maintained an immoral and (according to everyone at the UN General Assembly except the USA and Israel) an illegal economic blockade against the small island nation whose experiment with socialism is perceived as an ideological threat.

The Caravan crosses three international borders, traveling on 10-15 routes through the United States collecting people and goods, educating citizens in hundreds of cities about Cuba’s revolution, about the unjust imprisonment of the Cuban 5 in US prisons, and eventually delivering over 100 tons of aid and usually over 100 Caravanistas - most of them US citizens whose own government forbids their travel to Cuba.

Not only has Pastors for Peace succeeded in this quest 22 times, meeting with various degrees of resistance from the US and Mexican authorities, but they return to the USA (via Mexico) openly declaring that they have been to Cuba. These are some of the bravest US-Americans I’ve ever met, doing charitable work to address the immediate needs of the Cuban people, and also raising awareness about and challenging the ridiculous policies imposed by the most imperialist war-mongering nation currently on the planet.

Here in Canada, essential services are often abandoned by governments, and instead provided through charitable organizations. When an emergency is apparent, the humanitarian thing to do is meet the immediate need by providing food and shelter. My friend’s concern, and mine, is that by doing this in perpetuity we’re letting the government and “the system” off the hook. When we do charity without advocacy, we’re enabling the dysfunctional system which serves the 1% at the expense of the majority.

Did you know that Canada’s federal government has an ingenious arrangement to ensure that pesky activist and advocate voices remain silent? To attain charitable status in Canada, and gain access to most funding, applicants essentially agree to muzzle themselves.

An article by Toronto lawyer Mark Blumberg, published at GlobalPhilathrophy.ca, states “A registered charity CANNOT be involved in PARTISAN political activities. Charities should always keep this in mind… Under the Act, a registered charity can be involved in non-partisan political activities as long as it devotes substantially all (generally 90% or more) of its resources to charitable activities. Any political activity has to help accomplish the charity’s purposes and remain incidental (generally 10% or less) in scope.”

In Canada every charity is a non-profit, but not every non-profit is a charity. The Street Newz, for example, applies for funding through a non-profit society called the Bread and Roses Collective. We’re not a charity, though, because we don’t think we’d be much of a newspaper if we rendered ourselves unable to criticize government policies and call for systemic change. With charitable status we’d be eligible to apply for funding from the United Way or the Victoria Foundation, but we couldn’t condemn government policies (or lack thereof) that actually create poverty and homelessness through, for example, the Olympics or the enormous Federal military and prison budgets.

Some individuals within charities do speak truth to power using the 10% window. When Ken Wu was executive director of the Wilderness Committee, he organized rallies and circulated petitions. Those petitions and postcards were carefully worded, asking citizens to tell the government how they feel about clearcut logging, for example, rather than specifically saying ‘clearcut logging is bad.’ Ken recently founded the Ancient Forest Alliance, choosing to struggle as a non-profit without charitable status, and liberating an important collective voice calling for systemic change.

Victoria’s Community Social Planning Council offers a good example of how charities can draw attention to the types of systemic change needed to alleviate poverty and homelessness. Over the years they’ve helped launch organizations to offer services, and they’ve compiled a small forest’s worth of community based research illustrating the ill effects of poverty on families and individuals. They’ve reported on the very real challenges residents face as the cost of living increases but the minimum wage and fixed incomes don’t. They can crunch numbers and produce reports until they’re blue in the face, but they cannot launch a major campaign to directly lobby the government to, for example, increase the minimum wage or consider the benefits of a guaranteed livable income.

Why not? Because any charity that uses more than 10% of its resources to actually recommend systemic change, even if the evidence of need is provided by the other 90% of their work, runs the risk of losing their federal charitable status forever. And there are charity watchers, you bet there are, who monitor charities carefully.

It leaves me wondering who the government is listening to for policy advice, if not people directly doing the essential work within charities. Of course I know the answer, and it’s one reason so many people are taking to the streets here, and all around the world.

The charity group I travel to Cuba with is a US based society called Pastors for Peace. It was founded by Reverend Lucius Walker, who was shot by a contra bullet while vacationing with his family in El Salvador during the 1980s. While in the hospital recovering, Lucius thought about what it means to be shot by a bullet his own tax dollars purchased, and in the morning announced the formation of Pastors for Peace. Sadly, Lucius’ soul departed his body a couple of years ago, but his work continues. Lucius would remind us it is our responsibility, our duty, to challenge unjust and immoral laws. I look forward to helping keep his mission alive again this summer, and I thank everyone who donates to my independent, non-charity-status alternative media work, even though I can’t provide you with a tax write off.

Janine founded the Victoria Street Newz after working for a year with the Community Council where she helped write stories for their Quality of Life Challenge.

bears opposed to enbridge pipeline

2012-02-10T17:25:00.001-08:00

Sea to Sea Green Belt

2012-02-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

BC's Huge Gamble - Enbridge Pipeline

2012-02-10T09:15:00.001-08:00

prince rupert rally against enbridge feb 2012

2012-02-09T14:06:00.001-08:00

geoff olson - from light to enlightenment

2012-02-06T16:02:00.001-08:00

militaristic park police take down dc camp

2012-02-06T15:53:00.001-08:00

journalist describes occupy dc crackdown

2012-02-06T15:52:00.001-08:00

al jazeera reports on the cuban five

2012-02-05T19:39:00.001-08:00

this video was censored by shaw tv

2012-02-05T19:18:00.001-08:00

bbc doesn't like the phrase "free palestine"

2012-02-05T19:13:00.001-08:00

jagrup brar's final day on welfare

2012-02-05T09:30:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Final Day) from Sid Tan on Vimeo.

remembering ricky lavallie

2012-02-05T09:18:00.001-08:00

danny glover and the cuban five

2012-02-04T21:00:00.001-08:00

another oil spill cover up

2012-02-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

BC Government Employee's Union

2012-02-03T16:57:00.002-08:00

Tropic of Chaos: The Coming Era of Climate Wars

2012-02-03T16:55:00.002-08:00

fort chip is directly downstream from the tarsands

2012-01-31T17:13:00.001-08:00

another video about mla jagrup brar on welfare

2012-01-31T11:54:00.001-08:00

silly cat

2012-01-31T11:41:00.001-08:00

mla jagrup brar goes binning

2012-01-31T11:33:00.001-08:00

zeitgeist: moving forward

2012-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

mass arrest at occupy oakland last night

2012-01-29T09:02:00.001-08:00

Canada Pension Plan and Retirement Security

2012-01-27T09:06:00.001-08:00

bless this earth

2012-01-26T16:16:00.001-08:00

Ralph Nader and the "State of the Union"

2012-01-26T09:55:00.001-08:00

A vegan’s descent into hell

2012-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Well, not exactly hell, but certainly an unpleasant experience. It all began a couple of nights ago, when I was preparing dinner in this lovely little country home. It was dark and rainy, I was listening to music, and hoped that what sounded like a knock on the door was part of the music. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a face appeared at the window, luckily my brain quickly registered that it’s a female face and hopefully connected to a friendly person and not an axe murderer. I doubt the little kitties, lovely as they are, would be much help defending me against an intruder.

It turned out to be a neighbour woman, inviting me to dinner the following night. I thanked her for her kindness, wondering why she’d invite the houseminder next door to dinner, and explained that I’m vegan. After a short discussion of what I could or couldn’t eat, she said to be there by seven and bring my husband. I realized that she thought I was one of the homeowners, who are new to the neighbourhood but currently away at a conference. She invited me anyways, in good country community fashion.

I felt a bit out of place, but prepared a quinoa salad and carried a flashlight to find my way along the dark country lane. She had a cute little dog, could be another potential client. And I could be the vegan representative, breaking the ice for the vegan people whose house and cats I’m looking after.

Walking through the kitchen I noticed the four large steaks on the counter and my mind automatically began to prepare an exit strategy. I could feign sudden illness, which wouldn’t be a lie since the smell of cooking meat quite literally makes me nauseous. But I’m the vegan representative, it was raining outside and I was there in a warm and friendly environment. I decided to tough it out.

Earlier in the day I had noticed some horses in their field, and the many barn structures so, in the spirit of polite conversation, I asked about the farm. It’s a working farm, with goats and sheep and cows and pigs. I mentioned that I had lived on 40 acres when I was younger, with horses and dogs. Their other guests arrived – a single mom and her teenage daughter who very enthusiastically shared stories of her own horses and competitive dressage, and their farm cats. I thought about how the conversation might turn if my clients, rather than I, were sitting at that table. They’re of the philosophy that cats shouldn’t roam outside, I was listening to stories of a hunter cat dragging home more rabbits and mice than it could possibly consume.

We finished our salads, and the dreaded moment approached. I tried not to breathe as the thick stench of scorched meat circulated through the house. I tried not to look as the slabs of dead cow were distributed among the guests, focusing instead on the lovely rice and lentil meal that had been prepared with me in mind. The young woman mentioned that many of her friends are going veggie but when she asks them why they don’t really have a good reason. They’re just doing it because it feels better, she said. I hoped someone would ask me why, but nobody did. The young woman said she’d finally found one friend who said she didn’t want to be part of the industrialized slaughter, the animals suffer too much, so she’d decided only to eat locally raised meat. The hosts agreed that the pain and suffering is not good. They only eat the animals they raise themselves.

I managed not to throw up, the sight of them carving through the cow they’d raised from a calf entering my peripheral vision, thoughts of its happy little life suddenly and inexplicably taken from him by the very people he’d learned to trust. One day they were feeding him, caring for him, moving him from the delightfully grassy field to the warmth of a clean overnight bed, and the next day they were … what … killing him themselves? Shipping him off to the slaughterhouse? Why?

How is it that we live in a world where quinoa salad with yellow peppers, celery, cucumber, and blueberries, green salad with avocado, spiced lentils with caramelized onions, and chocolate cake isn’t enough?

Dinner conversation was all about horses and farm life and how much we love our pets and what a great life it is. I wanted to ask how can you eat the ones you love? But I didn’t. I sat quietly, thinking about how interesting it was going to be when my clients returned home to meet these friendly, but philosophically opposed, neighbours. It’s difficult to remain quiet in such situations. I wanted to do my vegan duty and speak for the animals, ask the questions they might ask, express the sentiment they might feel, but I didn’t. Sometimes just being present is enough. Conversation about the delicious vegan chocolate cake that the horse rider made, after being told there’d be a vegan guest, was enough.

I was asked about my pet minding services, but nobody asked for details about my other jobs even though I mentioned that this wasn’t only one way I earned money. We talked a bit about some of my clients, I explained that most of them are dogs, we chatted about the difference between cats and dogs, and how interesting it is to travel and live in different neighbourhoods to look after them. I didn’t feel at all like a newspaper publisher, or an alternative media person with a radio program and a blog. It was unusual. I felt welcome, and I was asked for my contact information upon leaving.

I’m writing about it because I love to write, and being in the country seems to inspire writing, and because if anyone reads it, and they’re veggie, they’ll likely nod with understanding. We intentionally avoid holiday dinners where dead animals are served up on a platter, but occasionally we find ourselves in these awkward situations. Thankfully it’s only occasionally.

Sometimes I forget how different I am.

happy birthday, egyptian revolution!

2012-01-25T14:56:00.001-08:00

john pilger on barack obama

2012-01-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

black market greyhound

2012-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

so i'm away from home, right, and i've booked a greyhound ticket for next week so i can get home. but i wasn't able to print the ticket before i left home, just the email confirming the online order and a reference number.

i took all that to the greyhound depot this morning, so i can get the ticket before the bus leaves next week. there's nothing more frustrating than trying to get onto a bus and not being able to, at the last minute. the guy at the counter looks up my reference number on his computer and says he can't print the ticket because the computer says it's already been printed. but i wasn't able to print it, i tell him. well too bad, he says (in a friendly way), you'll have to figure out how to print it.

okay, so what's the difference between me printing a ticket more than once, or him? i mean, i haven't printed the ticket yet but what if i had? he's telling me i can go print it again? and again? but he, the greyhound employee, is not able to print the ticket at all?

i guess it was kinda stupid to choose the "print at home" option when i don't own a printer. but i intentionally don't own a printer, on principle. i figured i could print the ticket to a pdf file, like i do with everything else, then transfer the pdf file to an external stick and take it to a print station at the university and print on tree free paper. why should everyone in the world own a printer? but no. when i hit the "print ticket" key on the greyhound website, i wasn't given any options about where i want to print the document. it didn't ask me which printer, or in what format, or what size, or anything. it just sat there and said nothing. so, instead, i printed the email confirmation to a pdf file, and took that to the university and printed it, assuming i could just show it to the greyhound people and it'd all be taken care of.

how was i to know that any failed attempt to print the ticket results in a "this ticket has already been printed" status in the greyhound computer, and that they'd refuse to do anything except give me an 800 number to call.

so i called the 800 number and explained what happened. the guy told me i shouldn't have chosen that option since i don't have a printer. yeah, no kidding. i was referred to a different 800 number. i called the second time. you have to print the ticket, the guy said with a thick accent. but i can't, i told him, i'm away from home and i don't have a printer. well take your computer to the library and go to the website and call me from there and i'll walk you through it, the guy said. but i don't have a cell phone, i told the guy. then take your computer to a friend's house and print it on their printer, he said. but i don't know anyone around here, i told him, i'm away from home. well then i can't help you, he said.

what?!!

i told him that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard and i want to talk to someone else. he said they'll just tell me the same thing.

of course i realize he's just a tech support guy, somewhere in a distant land, probably having a little laugh at the irony of the situation. here i am, in what's known as the first world, telling someone who's probably in what's known as the third world, that i can't follow his tech advice because i'm the one who doesn't have the technology. i thanked him for his efforts and hung up.

what to do. the people whose house i'm minding have a computer and a printer, perhaps they won't mind if i give it a try from there. i tested the printer to make sure it works, and went onto the greyhound website and found the page and entered all my information again. again the page just stared at me. no error message, nothing. no way to know why it's not printing the ticket except, perhaps, the obvious. i've already tried to print the ticket!!! maybe i'm a greyhound counterfeiter, printing lots of tickets so i can scalp them to the locals. but wait ... the guy said i'd be able to print it if only i could find a computer and a printer that work.

there was a message on the page to make sure the computer has adobe version 8 or greater, maybe that's the problem. nope, my friends have version 9. i try it again. again, no error message, nothing. i try the printer again and yes, it's working. i was able to print the web page. i call the 800 number again.

a woman this time, her accent sounded mexican or south american, suggests maybe i've got the computer set to not allow pop up windows. i'll need to change that, she says. it's not my computer, i say, but after some time i find the place in the web browser where i can temporarily change that setting and allow for pop up windows. i press the button again, and voila ... my ticket starts printing. i thank her and ask her where she is. no reply, she asks me if there's anything else she can help me with. i say i'm just curious, i'd like to know which country she's in. no reply. i guess you're not allowed to tell me, i say. she politely says goodbye and thanks me for calling greyhound.

i still don't get the logic. a greyhound employee standing in front of me can't print my ticket because the system says it's already been printed, but a greyhound employee in some distant land can help me print my ticket. i haven't tried, but i'm guessing i could go to that "reprint ticket" page and print it again. and again.

i guess it's true, corporations are good at job creation. i'm glad all those tech support people have jobs in all those far away lands. but, in retrospect, next time i'll insist on buying my ticket live and in person, from a canadian employee standing in front of me, and save myself the headache associated with trying to figure out corporate logic.

it could happen

2012-01-23T21:12:00.001-08:00

robert redford the environmentalist

2012-01-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

colbert and stewart are exposing the corruption

2012-01-22T18:44:00.001-08:00

ictv interviews ted smith about cannabis

2012-01-22T10:25:00.001-08:00

snow day in victoria

2012-01-21T19:07:00.001-08:00

the us war economy in action

2012-01-21T19:00:00.001-08:00

wasting food oughta be illegal

2012-01-18T16:59:00.001-08:00

snowboarding bird

2012-01-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

o brave new world, that has such [small minded] people in't!

2012-01-18T13:46:00.001-08:00

School officials in Tucson, Arizona, have released a list of seven banned books that can no longer be used in classrooms after the suspension of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program. Officials told teachers to stay away from any books where, quote, "race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes." The banned books includeRethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, Shakespeare’s play The Tempest,Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, and Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement

rick mercer on monied insurgents

2012-01-18T13:45:00.001-08:00

cornel west on the revolution

2012-01-17T09:06:00.001-08:00

Palestinian folklore dance “ Dabkah” in Tel Aviv

2012-01-17T08:48:00.001-08:00

mlk speaks about poverty in us-america

2012-01-16T16:27:00.001-08:00

enbridge day 2 public hearing, kitamaat, haisla territory

2012-01-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

ancient forest, or oil pipelines

2012-01-16T11:35:00.001-08:00

"I have a dream" - MLK full speech

2012-01-16T11:26:00.001-08:00

"smart meter" documentary trailer

2012-01-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

The Blue Bridge and The E and N 'conspiracy'

2012-01-15T16:57:00.001-08:00

convoy aid arrives in gaza

2012-01-15T16:55:00.001-08:00

how to make a viral video

2012-01-15T16:19:00.001-08:00

SASKATCHEWAN: TOXIC WASTE DUMP?

2012-01-13T17:56:00.001-08:00

MLA Jagrup Brar visits the Food Bank

2012-01-13T16:57:00.001-08:00

comic relief

2012-01-13T14:44:00.001-08:00

at last, some decent cbc queries re: pipeline funding

2012-01-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

crazy radical environmentalists opposing enbridge pipeline

2012-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

democracy now and guantanamo

2012-01-10T19:09:00.001-08:00

and they say castro's a dictator

2012-01-10T19:07:00.001-08:00

chris hedges and the decline of the american empire

2012-01-10T12:41:00.001-08:00

silly dog video

2012-01-09T17:03:00.001-08:00

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada's Pacific Coast

2012-01-07T21:12:00.001-08:00

OWS against Brookfield Logging on Cortes Island

2012-01-07T21:02:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 5)

2012-01-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

another new david rovics' song

2012-01-07T20:33:00.000-08:00

how to remove a smart meter

2012-01-07T13:52:00.001-08:00

wilderness dance party

2012-01-07T09:59:00.001-08:00

so much for freedom of speech

2012-01-07T09:56:00.001-08:00

Face to Face with the Fukushima Disaster Pt. 2

2012-01-06T16:24:00.001-08:00

Face to Face with the Fukushima Disaster Pt. 2 from ICTV Victoria on Vimeo.

these are the people the us wants to bomb next

2012-01-06T08:40:00.001-08:00

2012-01-05T16:42:00.001-08:00

very determined octopus!

2012-01-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

the power of raw cannabis

2012-01-05T08:20:00.001-08:00

occupy movie

2012-01-04T17:24:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 3)

2012-01-04T09:46:00.001-08:00

W2TV: Jagrup Brar MLA Welfare Challenge (Day 3) from Sid Tan on Vimeo.

david rovics - no fracking way

2012-01-04T09:36:00.001-08:00

2012-01-02T15:46:00.001-08:00

Risking it All - Oil on our Coast from Twyla Roscovich on Vimeo.

fukushima debris reaches vancouver island

2011-12-30T08:23:00.001-08:00

Eli and 100+ others evicted from Sacramento tent city three days after Christmas

2011-12-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

click http://www.kcra.com/video/30092237/detail.html for some media coverage of the eviction

isn't civilization grand?!

2011-12-27T15:04:00.001-08:00

year in race 2011

2011-12-27T15:01:00.001-08:00

ry cooder's song for the revolution

2011-12-27T09:30:00.001-08:00

occupy wall street thanks supporters

2011-12-26T16:49:00.001-08:00

billy bragg's version of the internationale

2011-12-26T16:34:00.001-08:00

9/11 truth from a whistleblower

2011-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

global flash mobs

2011-12-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

maybe the emotion numbing meds are the problem

2011-12-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

beautiful finite earth

2011-12-26T09:32:00.001-08:00

santa's stuck in the smoke hole

2011-12-25T17:03:00.001-08:00

rudolph goes to rehab

2011-12-24T18:09:00.001-08:00

sean penn, accused "communist," on chavez

2011-12-23T19:50:00.001-08:00

merry occupy!

2011-12-23T16:37:00.001-08:00

betty k: injunctions be damned!

2011-12-23T15:40:00.001-08:00

kinda cool!

2011-12-23T13:46:00.001-08:00

happy solstice day!

2011-12-21T07:34:00.001-08:00

Commemorate the Mutiny Dec 21st at 9 am at Fort/Quadra

2011-12-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

Tar Sands: dirty oil and the future of a continent

2011-12-17T12:55:00.001-08:00

anne feeney - corporate welfare

2011-12-16T09:03:00.001-08:00

merry greedmas!

2011-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Rick Mercer takes on Kyoto decision

2011-12-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

clearcutting on stolen native land

2011-12-13T16:57:00.001-08:00

AIM declares solidarity with the revolution

2011-12-13T16:50:00.000-08:00