Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

What a great gift for Mother's Day for men brave enough to strap on some sexy high heels! Take part in your local event as part of the International Men's March to end sexualized violence. Take Mom to watch you march and then give her a framed pic of you in those strappy violence stoppers. She'll be totally proud of you.
For all the info you'll need about details like how to get heels in a manly size 13, click here. You'll find yourself at the website for Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, where you'll be invited first to walk the walk, and then to talk the talk. "It's not easy walking in these shoes, but it's fun and it gets the community to talk about something that's really difficult to talk about: gender relations and sexual violence."
There's no better way to say it.

Just saw the first few moments of a recent video of Gordon Lightfoot singing "Alberta Bound". I couldn't watch any more of it, Had to stop. It's wonderful the man is still making his music; wonderful there are still those for whom today's Lightfoot is enough, but I prefer the Lightfoot that lives in my memory, the Lightfoot that was magic.
Set the clock back to the 70's and turn up the stage lights in Toronto's Massey Hall, the "grand old lady of Shuter Street". Many claim near-perfect acoustics for this venue, but few who went there to see a Lightfoot concert gave much thought to that. When Gordie strode onto that stage, most were just too busy applauding the man and waiting for the first notes from him and Red Shea to fill the hall and set an upbeat mood that could so effortlessly carry the thousands in attendance through a couple of hours of pure joy. Generally, I think Lightfoot was always playing to a house packed with the already-converted; to those who loved his sound. To say he was prolific in his song writing is to bring new meaning to understatement. Each time that the faithful filled Massey Hall, the first bars of song after song would be met with happy exclamations and appreciative applause from those of us who recognized yet another favourite. God, the music was good.
One song in particular stood out for me. Every time they launched into the first bars of "Alberta Bound", it felt like opening gifts at Christmas. While the hall erupted in applause, I would close my eyes and feel the magic begin. I swear that man and his guitar could make you feel the prairie wind blowing through your hair as the Rocky Mountain foothills appeared in front of you, beckoning. To this day, I can not listen to the song without seeing the ravens circling over the streets of Jasper, and the sunshine yellow of the arnica waving in a gentle breeze.
No, I don't want to hear Lightfoot's voice now. It has lost too much to the passing years. I want to remember him when its timbre was still rich and full, and the mighty Rocky Mountains could be summoned to Toronto by its powerful rendition of "Alberta Bound".

No Second Chance, Please

On Monday, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario will begin reinstatement hearings for a former family physician and a former pediatrician, both of whom were barred from practice because of having sexually abused patients. Both of them seem to think for some reason they should once again be allowed to hold such a position of trust.
Stephen Dawson, the physician formerly based in Toronto and Barrie, wants his medical license reinstated, but he has proven himself to be a person totally unworthy of the public's trust. Before he lost his license, he had already been brought up before a disciplinary hearing for setting himself up as judge and jury and refusing to provide both birth-control and viagra to unmarried persons, for religious reasons.Having already conducted himself in such a high-handed manner, he went on to demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was not fit to hold such a position when he had oral sex with a woman whom he was treating with psychotherapy. Dawson is familiar with the concept of judgment being passed. He really should have no problem understanding that he was judged to be unworthy of holding the right to practise medicine.
Jeffrey Seidman, the former pediatrician, was a member of a sexual assault team at a Scarborough hospital when his license was taken from him after he sexually abused a fifteen-year-old patient. Does such a vile action not make him a child predator? Doesn't his name belong on the listing at the National Sex Offenders Registry? Surely, he should never again be allowed to hold a position of trust after using it to victimize such a vulnerable individual.
How can the public ever really trust such unreliable, criminal types? How could anyone feel really safe knowing their doctor purposely abused other patients who had put their safety and welfare in their hands?
When one takes the Hippocratic Oath, do they simply voice the promise to do no harm as though it was nothing but meaningless syllables? Do they, perhaps, indulge in behaviour so juvenile as to cross their fingers behind their back while they repeat the oath, so that they can later claim they were under no obligation to fulfill the promise?
Anyone who has voiced that promise and then gone on to knowingly and willingly break it should never, ever again be allowed to practise medicine. No-one held a gun to their head and forced them to perform the acts that cost them the licenses in the first place. No-one can ever be really sure they will not make such unjustifiable choices again. They chose to indulge in behaviour that they knew was wrong, wrong, wrong. They should live with the consequences. Dawson and Seidman should drive a taxi or sling garbage into the back of a truck all day if they need a job. One can be sure both men feel such a job to be beneath their dignity, but many a person of much better character than either of them do such jobs daily and they do them with pride. Dawson and Seidman should spend the rest of their lives working to contribute to society, but they should never again be provided the opportunity to rob society from positions of trust.
The College should be cautious of reinstating these two. To do so will send society the message that its members operate with the impunity to do whatever they want to their patients. Do they want to send the message that the College expects victimized patients to lie meekly back and accept abuse?

Wal-Mart and Hate Groups

Newly released results from a study conducted by researchers from Penn State, New Mexico State, and Michigan State have pinpointed a correlation between the number of big box stores in a county and the number of local hate groups. This correlation appeared more significant than other area characteristics usually associated with hate groups, such as the unemployment rate, high crime rates and low education. The study, published online in the "Social Science Quarterly" on April 4, 2012, used counts of hate groups provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center for each of the over 3,000 U.S. counties in 2007. The researchers paired these stats with the number and location of Wal-Mart stores from 1998. It was felt that this lapse of time between the two data sets provided sufficient time for the store's presence to affect its host community.
Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics at Penn State, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development said that the researchers chose Wal-Mart specifically for their study because of the readily available data on the stores, but it did not mean that they are the only big box retailers directly involved in this phenomenon. The researchers did seek perhaps to soften the perceived blow to Wal-Mart's image by stating, “We doubt strongly that Wal-Mart intends to create such effects or that it specifically seeks to locate in places where hate groups form,” I don't think the statement will be enough for the good folks at Wal-Mart. I'm pretty sure this study will result in their getting their corporate shorts in a knot. I'm also pretty sure that, while these stats are specifically relevant to the U.S., Canada should be paying attention to them as well. We are so often so similar to our neighbours to the south.
The study's authors have an interesting hypothesis to explain the correlation between Wal-Mart's presence and hate groups. They posit the likelihood that local merchants may find it difficult to compete against large retailers like Wal-Mart and therefore be forced out of business. These local business owners, however, are so often members of community and civic groups, such as the Kiwanis, an organization that describes itself as "a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.". Losing members of such groups, which help to promote civic engagement may cause a drop in community cohesion, according to Goetz. Big box retailers are generally nothing more than a large, anonymous source of lower-priced merchandise.
The researchers suggest that retailers such as Wal-Mart should use this study to find ways to play a role in supporting local groups that can foster stronger social and economic ties in a community. Perhaps they should give some thought to taking their corporate image through a one-eighty, from the chain that rolls back prices to the chain that seeks first and foremost to contribute to changing the world, one host community at a time.

Safe Motherhood?

I was reading an article by Alison Motluk in the spring issue of the U of T magazine, wherein she compares Kenya and Canada on the basis of women who die "as a direct result of carrying a child". She cites the number of 1 out of every 133 women in rural Kenya, and 1 out of every 12,500 in Canada. The difference, of course, is staggering, but the meaning of "direct result of carrying a child" is not made clear. Does Motluk mean during childbirth itself, or is she referring to the entire duration of the pregnancy, childbirth and post-childbirth included?
Although the meaning in the article was not clear, the numbers were enough to send me off on a quest of my own. What I found was interesting; hopeful and disappointing all at the same time.
Looking at the deaths during childbirth, I found that my own country, Canada, has posted numbers that have remained more or less static for thirty years. Seven women died per 100,000 live births in 1980, and the number in 2008 was the same. We do pretty well, compared to the rest of the world, where women in Italy seem to have it the best, with only four women dying before, during or after childbirth in 100,000 cases in 2008. Pity the women of Afghanistan, however, where the worst rate sees 1,575 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births. As of 2010, Kenya's maternal mortality rate is 578 per 100,000 live births. (Finding these figures added to my confusion about the numbers quoted in Motluk's article. She needs to be more clear.)
The numbers I have quoted are from a 2010 study reported in the British medical journal,The Lancet. In an editorial on the study, editor Richard Horton wrote that "the apparent failure to reduce maternal mortality during 20 years of the Safe Motherhood movement has been one of the most deforming scars on the body of global health." He went on to say political leaders are failing to make women's health issues a priority.
Of course they are. Women are the oppressed of the oppressed. Look at how they are treated as little more than property owned by some male in far too many countries. The late UNICEF Executive Director, James P. Grant, used the term ‘the apartheid of gender’ to describe the conditions under which so many women today toil, and an apt term it is. Illustrating examples are so distressingly abundant. In 12 Latin American countries, for instance, the courts and society will completely exonerate a rapist if his victim marries him, something which most of the victims' families pressure them to do, in order to restore the perceived family honour. In such an atmosphere, how can women expect their health while they carry a baby to be of significant import to their country's political leaders?
In another example of this apartheid of gender, women work in the fields in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under the constant threat of being abducted and raped repeatedly. Girls as young as 5 are treated in this horrific manner. Sticks and guns are sometimes forced into their vaginas and when the rapists tire of this particular brutality, the guns are sometimes fired. Such behaviour has not been stamped out by the government. Sing me no songs of how difficult it might be for the government to find the perpetrators of this evil. If the women of the country were truly valued and equal citizens thereof, it would be brought to an immediate halt and much example would be made of any captured culprits. No, the truth of the matter in the Congo is that the name they give to their country is a bold-faced lie. Nothing more. There is no democracy there. There is no democracy in any country where such examples of violence directed at women and disregard for their welfare hold true.
In any country where women are property, how can anyone expect their health while they carry a baby to be of significance to the political leaders? Their health is unimportant because they themselves are unimportant. Until the world sees every woman as being every bit as important as every man, the failure to reduce maternal mortality will continue to be the "embarrassment to global health leaders" that Morton terms it. The Safe Motherhood movement will continue to be simply empty words for too many women.

No God But ...

A religious ad has been placed in one of Toronto's subway stations, and apparently it has more than just me feeling a little out of sorts about it. After complaints were received about it, a group was convened to deliberate, but they have decided to allow it to remain. Why should its display be in dispute? Well, the ad in question states "There is no god but Allah".
My problem with the ad is with the reception I think it safe to assume such wording would be given by many of Islam's adherents, were such a statement based on other belief systems to be posted.
Can you imagine the scene in some mosque in Afghanistan/Iran/Pakistan, etc., were the message to reach the muftis gathered there, that the subway system in Toronto boasted ads firmly declaring "There is no god but Jahweh/Jesus/Ganesh, etc," ? After an appropriate amount of time spent on the rending of garments and beards, one of the worthies would rise up in wrath and declare a fatwa on the people of Toronto, affirming that anyone exacting righteous revenge against such an ungodly people would be sure to earn the eternal attentions of multiple houris. Can you picture the rush on explosive devices were such a declaration to be made?
While I am fully aware of the fact that the unreasonable reaction I describe here is not a fair description of many in the Muslim world, I am also fully aware of the fact that for so many others, it does hold true. I am also aware, as are you, that the community as a whole demands from countries like Canada "rights" they are totally unwilling to give in Muslim countries like Iran and Afghanistan, to mention a few. Again, can you picture the buses in Iran proudly giving fair and equal space to ads declaring there is no other god but (fill in the blank)? Of course, you can't. Neither can I.
Although I know there are those who say we are obliged to give this ad space because we are a society that values freedom of speech, I say, don't give it any space, Take down all religious ads if you need to, in order to keep an equal balance and appease those who talk of free speech, but I say, give this ad no space at all, until those other ads appear in the public transit of Iran.

Marbled Eggs, Not Just For Easter

Everyone's familiar with eggs dyed all one colour, but marbled eggs are unusual conversation pieces! They're easy to make, too, which is one of their best features. To make these beauties, you'll need hard-boiled eggs. They're so much easier to handle that way, especially if little ones are helping, and they make a beautiful addition to Easter morning breakfast. Of course, you could make them for other special days, too!

*hard-boiled eggs, as many as you want
*liquid food colouring, in different colours
*white vinegar
*vegetable oil
*large coffee mugs
*spoons
*paper towels, or plates

For each dye colour you have, mix 1 tbsp food colour in a coffee mug with enough boiling water to fill the mug about 2/3 full. Stir in 1 tsp vinegar, and allow it to cool. When it is cooled off, add 1 tsp oil.
To marble the eggs, first cradle an egg on a tablespoon. With another spoon, really stir up the dye you're going to use and IMMEDIATELY dip the egg on the spoon in and right back out of the dye. Do this only ONCE. Place the egg on a paper towel, or plate for it to dry.
Store your "marbles" in the fridge until Easter morning, or whatever day you've made them for.

For a really different effect, once an egg has dried, try dipping it into a second colour, using the same stir-and-dip-and-dry method as above. You'll get compliments on these eggs, and everyone will be wanting to know how you did it. You decide whether or not you want to share the secret!

Have More Than One Slice

The whole house smells so wonderful right now, and it's because of the bread I made that is now happily sunning itself in my oven. The 2 tbsp of flax meal in it add 4 grams of fiber all by themselves, and of course, you're getting more from the whole wheat flour in it, too. They both bring you iron content, so it's just plain good for you! Allow me to share the recipe!

Easy Irish Soda Bread

2 c. all purpose flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 heaping tbsp ground flax meal
1/4 c sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
1 1/2 c buttermilk, or milk soured with vinegar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients, stirring with a fork. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture is even in consistency.
Combine buttermilk (or 2 tbsp vinegar and milk added to measure 1 1/2 c ) with the egg, then add all at once to the flour mix. Stir with a fork to make a soft dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently, adding a little more flour if the dough is too soft. Knead until the dough is elastic, then shape into one large ball, or two smaller ones. Cut an X-shape in the top with a sharp knife.
Bake about 50 to 55 minutes for one ball, or 40 to 45 minutes for two balls. Loaf is done if it is crispy-firm on the outside when you check it.

This bread makes up quickly and smells just as good as a yeast bread baking, but it doesn't take as much time to make as a yeast bread does. It will keep nicely for several days in your fridge, if it doesn't all get eaten on the first day!

Iran Woos the First Nations

Iranian officials have approached a group of Manitoba First Nations Leaders, proposing they make a trek to Tehran where they will address the Iranian Parliament. Former Roseau River First Nation chief Terry Nelson, along with two Dakota chiefs and an adviser, met with Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani, the charge d’affaires at Iran’s Ottawa embassy, for about an hour Monday afternoon. Afterward, Nelson said, "They were pretty clear on the message. They are working very hard to get us the invitation to Iran and they are taking us very seriously,They are going to work with us to make sure that the stories of what happened to our people will get out.”
If Nelson really believes that the Iranian regime, with its terrible record for trampling all over the rights of its citizens, is motivated by any type of altruistic desire to help, then I have got some amazing real estate to sell him.
After the meeting, Canupawakpa Dakota Nation Chief Frank Brown declared, “They understand what Aboriginals are going through. They also said they are demonized and I can understand that too. Everyone says Iran is a warring country. We all face the same things from a stronger country that wants to demonize smaller people.”
Let's talk a wee bit about "demonizing" shall we?
Human rights campaigners say that Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world, and when one recalls that one form of execution by torture favoured there - death by stoning - is used for such "crimes" as adultery, well ... Iran is being demonized, is it? Could it be the regime itself that is responsible for this demonizing?
It is very important, as well, to remember that Iranian law allows a huge loophole through which Iran's general disregard for human rights can easily slip. "Judge's knowledge" is the loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present. Any country that retains a judicial code into which they have built such total disregard for justice is surely not a country that gives a good goddamn about what happens to the aboriginal people of Canada.
I am completely in support of the First Nations of Canada in their quest for better treatment here in their own country. I have expressed my support of them before, for instance, to do with the genocide attempted in the residential schools. I have decried the reprehensible inaction of Canada's government on issues faced by the First Nations of Canada, but I do not believe that the Iranian government is out to help the native peoples of Canada better their lot in any way. They are out to use them solely for the purpose of deflecting attention away from their reprehensible actions in perpetrating injustices against their own people. Truly, they know all about perpetrating injustice.
I sincerely hope the proposed trip to Tehran never takes place. I hope those like Terry Nelson and Frank Brown come to realize that Tehran is indeed a monster in disguise, seeking to lull the First Nations into an alliance that will do nothing, absolutely nothing to further the very real cause of Canada's native peoples. If anything, it may do very real harm to their worthy cause for the First Nations to ally themselves in any way with the ogre that is Iran.

Nosing Into Allah's Decision-Making

Parliamentarian Anwar al-Balkimy, representing the Al-Nour party of Egypt, has just had a nose job. Yep, the man went under the knife. He had plastic done. Here in the western world, that might seem rather unnoteworthy, but there in the Muslim world, it is stirring up a great to-do.
It seems our man Anwar went to a Cairo hospital on February 28 for his nose job, and then the very next day checked into a second hospital, claiming he had been the victim of a beating during an attempted carjacking. Why would he do such a thing? Well, the ever-so-conservative party he represents follow a strict interpretation of Islam that forbids its followers to have plastic done. Whether one likes one's nose or not, the feeling is that to purposefully have it surgically altered is to question God's handiwork. God forbid (sorry! mea culpa) anyone should suggest that the Almighty does not know the best shape for one's nose.
Knowing his party's attitude and being of a rather deceitful bent, al-Balkimy tried to cover up his tracks with the carjacking story. Unfortunately for him, it seems his story smelled suspicious to the party leader and other officials. They followed their noses to the hospital to check on the story with the doctors who treated the prevaricating politician. Based on what the medics had to say, the decision was made to expel the liar from the party, which then had the onerous task of issuing an apology for the conduct of its former member.
The state prosecutor is now awaiting the dissolution of al-Balkimy's parliamentary immunity so that he can be questioned. IF found guilty of filing a false police report, our man Anwar could face a jail term.
That brings us to the bothersome question - why is there any waiting involved here? Why isn't Anwar already under a death sentence? Why does there need to be any interrogating? There are pictures widely available of a heavily bandaged al-Balkimy with only his eyes, mouth and chin visible through the bandages. There is the testimony of the doctors at the hospital which was sufficient to cause him to resign and the party to offer a public apology for his behaviour.
Why isn't al-Balkimy even now being rushed out to be buried up to his armpits in preparation for being stoned to death? This is the fate of so many women who are "convicted" of insulting the finer sensibilities of their deity by such horrendous conduct as talking to a man other than their husband. Both these women and al-Balkimy have behaved in a way deemed abhorrent to Allah. For far too many of these women, the supposed evidence presented against them is so flimsy, it could be blown away by only the slightest breeze wafting through the miasma of misogyny so prevalent in their world. Yet this vain politico has admitted to his own questioning of Allah's authority, without any of the tortures so often visited on the women, and he is only awaiting questioning. He is only facing the possibility of a prison term. The leader of the Al-Nour party has made no mention of a death sentence.
This story speaks sad volumes about the unbelievably skewed version of justice that stands in so much of the Muslim world. If you are male and you dare to buck society, your fate will likely be vastly different than that which would be visited on any woman who even inadvertently aroused the self-righteous wrath of the patriarchal society that rides roughshod over her life. Until this incredible imbalance is rectified, stories like that of Anwar al-Balkimy are nothing more than a laugh.