Helen Polychronakos

Naomi Klein joins march against condos and gentrification in Downtown Eastside

2011-12-01T17:27:00.001-08:00

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, stood in front of a pile of rubble at 150 East Hastings-- the site of the old Pantages Theatre--on Dec. 1 to show support for Downtown Eastside residents fighting gentrification in this working class neighbourhood.

Klein talked about the meaning of Occupy movements and about Vancouver’s struggles with inequality and affordable housing.

For over a year, activists in the DTES have been petitioning the city to buy the site of the Pantages from developer Marc Williams and to turn it into social housing instead of high-end condos. That never materialized.

The Pantages has become symbolic in the DTES’s fight against gentrification. I wrote about one of the first demonstrations in front of the old theatre in January 2011. You can read it here.

Below is a transcript of Klein’s speech interspersed with photos of the Dec. 1, 2011 event.

Occupy to get your piece of the pie

"[Occupy Wall Street issaying] this country isn’t broke. This country doesn’t have a budget crisis. Ithas a distribution crisis. And I think it is so exciting and so moving that asthe movement evolves and changes now what we see is people occupy spaces at thesite of maximum exclusion, the site of maximum inequality to show the otherside of that. And that’s what’s going on this city and that’s what we’re tryingto show today and I’m very proud to be here with you, standing with you today.

Matt the Hat said: “I was at the Art Gallery [former site of Occupy Vancouver camp] before. For some chocolate pie, ya know? I just want my piece of the chocolate pie."

[Vancouver] is one of themost unequal cities in North America. It has the least affordable housing—notin Canada, not in North America—most unaffordable housing in the Commonwealth,the U.S., New Zealand, Australia.

It’s supposed to takethree years. For housing to be affordable, it should take three years of incometo be able to buy a home. In Vancouver it takes nine and a half years, okay?Gentrification doesn’t just drive the cost of houses up in this neighbourhood.It drives the cost of everything up in this neighbourhood. It drives the costof everything up across the city."

Exclusion not exclusive to U.S.

Police at Pantages protest Dec. 1
“I think it’s importantto challenge this idea that Canada doesn’t have any problems, that we’re somuch better than the U.S. This is the part of the country that no one wants tolook at. You know, there was so much anger at Occupy Vancouver, anger at seeinghomelessness, anger at seeing drug addiction and mental health problems.

Theyjust wanted to sweep it away. Take itback to the DTES, that’s what they were trying to say. But now in the DTESthey just want to sweep it away from here. This is a disgrace and I am proud tobe with you to say NO, drawing the line."

Klein’s Message for Marc Williams, Condo DeveloperExtraordinaire

“Marc Williams. He’sbeen putting up posters up and down the street saying ‘Welcome Naomi Klein. Youcan buy a copy of the Shock Doctrinefor $61 at Spartacus Books.’ We called Spartacus a few minutes ago. They don’thave any copies of the Shock Doctrine,but they have a copy of No Logo for$6. So I all I can say is I hope he doesn’t plan on marking up condominiums asmuch as he’s marked up my book. Obviously a man not to be trusted.

I would say to MarkWilliams that he is acting as if this is a game and he is playing with people’slives and he should be ashamed of himself. This is about survival.”

Stay Tuned (probably Sunday, since I have to do paid work tomorrow)

After Klein’s speech, the demonstrators moved on to 21 Doors, a condo development that opened Dec. 1. across the street from Pigeon Park. Find out what happened when Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council organizer Ivan Drury posted the following eviction notice on the door. (Click on image for larger size)

New Year’s in Tokyo

2011-11-30T09:11:00.001-08:00

Planning to spend the holidays in Tokyo? Here are some tips for catching a glimpse of Japanese New Year traditions and seeing Mt. Fuji without having to climb it. This piece was originally published in Matador.com on Jan. 12, 2010--my last month in Japan after having lived there on and off since 1999. New Year is the biggest holiday in Japan, and this year will be the first since the Tsunami. I’ll be thinking about my friends.

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt. Takao outside Tokyo

Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station is the world’s busiest transit hub. Seeing it empty on a Saturday morning had an Armageddon feel to it. Shops were shuttered and train station attendants yawned in their plexiglass cubicles. It was January 2^nd. Everyone had abandoned Tokyo for the lands of their ancestors. I imagined them indulging in impromptu naps, making up for sleep lost to work, commutes and urban temptations.

They’d watch variety shows. They’d visit relatives and eat yet another auntie’s New Year’s osechi. Shrimp would bring longevity, salted herring roe fertility, black soy beans health, and dried baby sardines a bountiful harvest.

At temples and shrines, they’d make offerings to seal the deal on all those promises of good fortune. But they’d be back, the commuting masses. In no time at all I’d be cursing them again as I shuttled between the three teaching jobs I need to make ends meet in this ridiculously expensive city. For now, though, the ghost-town emptiness felt creepy. I called a friend just to make sure the world hadn’t ended, and we decided to get out of town.

Yakuoin Temple on Mount Takao is a good day trip from Tokyo any time of year. The hike is an easy but satisfying workout, and there’s a splendid view of Mount Fuji from the top. It’s a great place, too, to witness Japanese New Year traditions.

From Shinjuku, the Keio Line gets you to Takaosanguchi (literally “Gate to Mount Takao”) in 50 minutes. A colourful map in front of the station displays all the trails to the top. The shortest takes 30 minutes to complete, and the longest ninety. A few of the paths are paved, while others offer some of the challenges of “real” hiking—rocks and slippery bits and stuff.

It was already past two o’clock when we got off at Takaosanguchi, so we chose the Omotesando Trail, which is paved and takes about 50 minutes. We could have hopped on the cable car and been there in ten, but adrenaline greatly enhances mountain-top views so we started walking.

We stocked up on provisions from the shops and stalls at the foot of the mountain. Onigiri (rice balls), shrimp crackers and roasted chestnuts would be just the thing to munch on while admiring a snow-capped Mount Fuji. It was a crystal-clear day, and if we reached the top before sundown, the view would be splendid. We could have made it on time, but we meandered.

Our first stop was at a bend in the path. People had congregated to take in a view of the Kanto conurbation. They pointed and named famous landmarks, like Shinjuku’s sky-scraper district or Yokohama’s observation tower. Me, all I could see was a blur of concrete.

The next bottleneck was about half-way up the mountain. Food stall vendors in ankle-length parkas proffered ramen noodles in Styrofoam bowls and sake in paper cups. But what I was drawn to was the sweet and smoky aroma of roasted mochi rice cakes. As a sugar and starch junky, I always do my very best to resist this sticky, gooey concoction. This time, though, the excuse was built in: mochi is a traditional New Year’s treat. For 400 yen, I got three mochi balls on a stick that the vendor dipped in soy sauce. The combination of sweet and salty, gooey and crispy, was divine.

At the temple we lit green incense sticks, cupped the smoke and fanned it towards our bodies. We threw five-yen coins into the slatted donation box and made wishes for the New Year. Students prayed for good exams, young couples for everlasting love. We wandered around the temple grounds, mesmerized by the chanting monks.

Then the air turned chilly, and shadows seemed to deepen all around us. We bolted and ran the rest of the way. When we got to the top, all we could see were darkened silhouettes pointing their cameras at the sky.

A boy yelled:

“Diamond Fuji! Diamond Fuji!”

“What’s that?” My friend asked.

We squinted and shaded our eyes. It nearly blinded us, but we saw it: a beaming circle perched on Mount Fuji’s fractured cone of a summit. We munched on our shrimp crackers and roasted chestnuts until the sun slipped away, streaking the sky purple, gold and pink.

“Diamond Fuji” sunset

TIPS for your Diamond Fuji adventure:

*Bring a flashlight. With all the touristy hoopla on Mount Takao, you’d think there’d bee some lighting. But there isn’t! It was pitch-black on the way down.

*For the fastest way to get there from wherever you are by train, check out Hyperdia. Enter your point of departure and your point of arrival, and presto.

*Impromptu stall purchases are fun, but if you’re on a budget, buy your food in Tokyo because tourist prices apply as soon as you exit Takaosanguchi Station.

Vancouver activists, policy-thinkers discuss lessons of Occupy Movement

2011-11-26T10:27:00.001-08:00

Friday night, while B.C. Place flashed and thumped with music in anticipation of the Grey Cup football final, a gathering of a different sort was taking shape down the street, in the basement of the Vancouver Public Library. What this subterranean get-together lacked in glitter and bang it made up for in spontaneity and earnestness.

“Who are the 99%: The Occupy Together Movement” was an ad-hoc panel discussion thrown together by local activist Harsha Walia, the Council of Canadians, unions, alternative media and a few other organizations. It was announced through e-mail, social media and word-of mouth. No one expected much of a turnout--not on a Friday night. They were wrong.

Hundreds packed the Alice McKay room and organizers kept expanding the rows with additional chairs. Even then people lined the walls, willing to stand for two hours to hear about “systemic inequality, environmental destruction, and government and corporate power.”

The spontaneous and explosive nature of the event speaks to the urgency of the problems at hand. Social inequality is growing, and fast--faster in Canada than the in the US, Walia said in her introductory comments, adding that BC has the highest child poverty rate in the country. Some single occupancy rooms, roach and bedbug-infested hovels in the Downtown Eastside that are supposed to house the city’s poorest, go for as much $1000 these days, according to anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson (welfare is under $800).

But these statistics are nothing new.

“Up until a few years ago, the 99 percent was 98 percent,” Walia said, explaining that the income gap--or chasm--has been present for a while. A couple of centuries, actually, if you trace the history of class oppression back to colonization. The corporate shenanigans and bailouts of the last half decade have merely expedited “resource extraction on indigenous land, dispossession and theft of labour,” said Walia.

Money Mart on East Hastings with really expensive car parked in front of it.
Can you say...gentrification?

It hasn’t trickled down yet; can we tax the rich now?

Occupy Together movements across the world have forced the political conversation to shift, corporate media to take note (finally) of social inequality and the public at large--not just a fringe--to get serious about change, according to the panelists.

“The outrage [Occupy participants] feel is felt by many, many others. It has captured people’s imagination and it’s been done in a peaceful way,” said Seth Klein, BC director for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Klein added that provincial and federal “regressive taxation systems”--the more you make, the less tax you pay--are largely to blame for inequality and poverty. The burden has shifted from corporations to households. For example, the BC government earns more from Medical Service Plan premiums than from corporate tax, according to Klein.

The Occupy Movement is a megaphone that’s popularizing solutions eggheads at the CCPA have been advocating for years, Klein said: a living wage, a full and fair tax commission (not a a referendum on a single tax like we had in B.C. over the HST) and the restoration of corporate taxes to 2007 levels (they are now lower in Canada than in the U.S.).

“We need to do it creatively. I was particularly captivated by the bank transfer days,” said Klein, referring to a campaign by Occupy to get people to move their money from corporate to cooperative banks. “It was a way in which the majority of Americans, who could not get to an occupy site could do something about it.

One Voice

If you’re on Twitter and socially engaged in Metro Vancouver, chances are you’ve heard of @lorene1voice whose tweets offer real-time coverage of every union meeting and social activist gathering she attends in #YVR. So when she left her phone on her desk Friday evening in a rush to get to the ad-hoc panel discussion, Lorene Oikawa, vice president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, was worried her tweeps would feel left in the dark about the event.

For Oikawa, social media is vital to solidarity. As an example she talked about public sector workers in Wisconsin demonstrating against legislation aimed at choking their unions.

“Corporate media was not talking about it. How did I find out? Through Twitter and Facebook” said Oikawa. "Sometimes you just feel so alone and you wonder, ‘Is anyone listening?’ What’s great is to click on Twitter and to see you are not alone.”

For Oikawa, this kind of solidarity is essential to bringing about social equality and a world where the government does not earn more from student loan interests than from corporate taxes--which is the case in B.C., she said.

Brave new post-NAFTA world

Harjap Grewal, an organizer for the Council of Canadians and for No One is Illegal (a migrant justice organization) also argued for solidarity. He called for partnerships between equality activists and environmentalists, and for an understanding of the more acute ways in which inequality affects colonized and indigenous people around the world.

In a globalized economy, said Grewal, all these aspects of social injustice become intertwined within and exacerbated by free market economics.

“Trade agreements take power away from the people to make decisions that would undermine the profits of corporations,” Grewal said. In this trend away from local decision-making and towards globalization, people lose the ability to control their day to day lives.

Water and food become contaminated while profits from resource extraction go elsewhere--to a universe far, far away where the one percent live.

Grewal gave some poignant examples. In 2009, the American company Dow AgroSciences LCC threatened to sue the Canadian government because Quebec had banned one of its pesticides. Dow claimed that the provincial ban violated NAFTA provisions. The case was settled out of court and with no monetary exchange in May 2011, when Quebec dropped its challenge of NAFTA. Dow saw this as a “vindication” of its pesticide. Here’s a summary of the case from the Council of Canadians.

Grewal also talked about B.C.’s Fish Lake. Vancouver-based Taseko Mines Ltd. wants the gold-copper deposits located in that area. Local groups such as the Tsilhqot’in National Government oppose the mining project on the grounds that it would destroy a trout-bearing lake that is economically and culturally significant for the First Nation. In November 2010 the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency agreed that the mining project was environmentally unsound and turned it down. Again, here’s a summary from the Council of Canadians.

Taseko promptly resubmitted a revised proposal, which the CEAA accepted earlier this month.

“The people of Fish Lake already said no and yet they are forced through a process that supports the one percent, ” said Grewal. “We are all still going through the process that supports the one percent. How do we engage? Let’s stop appealing to the systems but challenge their jurisdiction.”

Occupy Vancouver, with its non-hierarchical processes of discussion, is one example that would make a good alternative.

Words of wisdom from DTES elder

Cheers welcomed veteran anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson to the microphone. Coordinator of the Carnegie Community Action Project at Main and Hastings and author of Poor Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion, Swanson has been fighting poverty and inequality in Vancouver for more than 30 years.

Like Grewal, Swanson has little faith in governments and “the system". Politicians of all stripes and at all levels have let the poor down again and again.

“The City hasn’t bought property for social housing in three years, even though their policy is for one a year,” she said, adding that Rich Coleman, B.C.’s minister responsible for housing, isn’t any better and needs to fund new construction of more social housing instead of announcing the same units again and again.

Swanson is also critical of charity, such as the Blanket Drive to donate blankets to the homeless.

“Why do we need it? Because incomes are too low and housing is too expensive,” said Swanson. “What’s CCAP’s solution? Build housing low income people can afford.”

The Occupy movement has forced media to pay attention to CAPP’s issues, according to Swanson.

“The CBC called [CAPP colleague] Wendy Pedersen and asked ‘is there any inequality in Vancouver?’ after we had been trying to raise the issue for years."

Enter the Occupy Movement

Sign at Occupy Vancouver, late Oct 2011

Richard Porteous is a mild-mannered guy who reminds me of someone I knew in my Poli-Sci class years ago. He reminds me of me. Not someone you’d expect to see as a spokesperson for a movement that’s been characterized as a refuge for drug users and aimless youth. During her campaign for mayor a few weeks ago, Suzanne Anton referred to Occupiers as “pests”. Porteous doesn’t look like what Anton imagined when she said that. Yet he’s been on the ground at Occupy Vancouver since the beginning.

“At the original meeting there were 15 people and we said, ‘what the heck are we going to do?” Porteous reminisced.

Occupy Vancouver decided to leave policy to the wonks.

“Others have been writing about it for years and come up with well-articulated demands,” Porteous said, adding that Occupy Vancouver has more to do with changing the way communication functions. "We are modelling what we want to see in the world, non-hierarchical communication for a profound sense of empowerment.”

The fact that Occupy Vancouver is supported by an eclectic set of activists and policy-thinkers with long-standing respect in Vancouver shows not that the movement lacks focus, as has been claimed by some pundits, but that social injustice cannot be summed up in one simple problem-and-solution equation. The many aspects that exacerbate social inequality--from a regressive taxation system to environmental degradation to colonialism and a complete disregard for the poorest of the poor--need to be addressed from a variety of angles and in solidarity.

Quebec: Media task force recommends new contract between the press and the state

2011-01-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

An academic study commissioned by Quebec’s Ministry of Culture recommends an overhaul of journalism practice to address poor work conditions for journalists and political pressures that compromise journalism ethics, according to an article just published in Montreal’s Le Devoir (in French).

The study, entitled Task Force on Journalism and the Future of Information (Le groupe de travail sur le journalisme et l’avenir de l’information) was conducted by Professor Dominique Paquette at L’Université Laval in Quebec City.

Professor Paquette’s report proposes a “new contract between the press and the State”. Its recommendations include:

· A professional title for journalists modelled on some European examples
· Reserving government press releases for media organizations that hire accredited professional journalists
· Stricter enforcement of rules against conflict of interest
· Unions and a set minimum wage for freelance journalists (YIPPEEEE!! Exposing my conflict of interest to cheer vociferously for this one!!)

Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications, Christine Saint-Pierre, commissioned the study a year ago to address worsening crises in the profession. Journalists at the daily Le Journal de Montréal, which is owned by the Québecor conglomerate (which also owns the Sun chain in Ontario), have been locked out for two years. Dailies across the province face mounting political and economic pressures that jeopardize their impartiality. Freelancers work under unstable and untenable conditions.

What do you think? Are these recommendations elitist? Will they save journalism? Do other provinces need an overhaul of the contract between the press and the state?

Missing Women’s Inquiry: Wally Oppal faces critics

2011-01-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

My latest article in rabble.ca is about a community forum held last week in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Wally Oppal, commissioner of the Missing Women’s Inquiry, heard from local politicians such as Vancouver East MP Libby Davies. Aboriginal activists, women’s groups, and sex-trade workers also gave testimony. The forum was not an official part of the inquiry, which is set to begin later this year. It will examine the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP’s investigations into the missing and murdered women.

A VPD poster at a bus stop near Main and Hastings in the Downtown Eastside.
From 1970 to 2002, sixty-nine women disappeared from this low-income
neighbourhood.

City Council Cancels Hearing on Controversial Historic Area Height Review

2011-01-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

The Woodward’s condo development in the Downtown Eastside has brought gentrification, say advocates

Vancouver City Council voted Thursday morning to postpone hearings on the controversial Historic Heights Review which recommends higher density zoning for the Downtown Eastside and China Town.

The hearing was scheduled for 2 pm Thursday afternoon and would have allowed Council to hear reactions from affected groups and residents of the communities concerned.

Councillor Andrea Reimer told reporters in front of Council Chambers that they were postponing hearings and a vote on DTES rezoning for higher density in order to conduct social and economic impact studies first. The portion of the report that makes recommendations for zoning in China Town will be brought before council at a later date, perhaps in February.

"We received several hundred correspondences from local community groups in the DTES and individuals, and they have all been quite clear. They want to see a local area plan and a social impact study,” Reimer said.

The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council, an ad-hoc citizen’s group of about 600 members who mounted a "Fight the Height Campaign" against increased density because they feared it would bring gentrification to the the low-income neighbourhood, was ambiguously happy about the decision :

"First, we are glad to see that they have finally recognized the wide-spread opposition of the low-income community and the DTES against the recommendations of the Heights Review," said Ivan Drury, a board member of the DNC.

However, he added : "We are sorry to see that they have begun this recognition by excluding the voices of the people who wanted to speak at City Hall today. Instead of allowing this process to go ahead, City Hall rammed through a backroom decision."

But Reimer denied that the process was sudden or undemocratic. Council first began discussing rezoning in the DTES and China Town last January, when it directed the City Planner’s office to make Policy recommendations for height and density changes. The Historic Area Height Review was the result of that 2010 discussion.

"Since the issue was first debated last January, we have really understood that a community plan was needed,” Reimer said. "Why [the Historic Area Height Review] came to Council without those two pieces, there’s a lot of factors that lead to that. But Council today recommitted to the decision made last January, which is that those two pieces need be part of the process. That will be in the hands of the community."

NPA councillor Suzanne Anton was disappointed at the sudden decision, calling it undemocratic.

"There were eighty people waiting to talk about the issues," said Anton. "This is called debate. You hear the people, you make a decision. There was a certain momentum, and I don’t think we’ll ever recreate that momentum again."

The DNC’s Drury is also critical of the fact that City Hall has separated the issues affecting the DTES from those affecting China Town.

"They are continuing to try to divide China Town from the DTES, and they are proceeding with a developper program that the low income community in China Town does not support."

Vancouver City Hall: 15-Storey Condos for the Downtown Eastside?

2011-01-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

Anti-condo postering on the walls of the Pantages Theatre, 152 East Hastings, Vancouver

Fight the Height: Opposition to City Hall’s Historic Area Height Review

More Woodward’s style social-mix condo towers may come to the Downtown Eastside after city staff present council with rezoning policies that will include height-increase allowances in some of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods.

Council will hear the recommendations, as well as presentations by delegations, at 2 pm tomorrow. The report, “Historic Area Height Review”, recommends 15-storey towers for areas such as Main and Hastings, Gas Town, China Town and Victory Square.

Like Woodward’s, any development in the DTES will have to include 20 percent social housing. But some anti-poverty activists say that twenty percent is not enough. Last Friday, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council (DNC), a group of 600 DTES residents, set up a table with “Fight the Height” pamphlets and a “Ten Sites” petition in front of the Pantages Theatre on East Hastings.

“Right now what we are trying to do is get the city to purchase 10 sites in the DTES for one-hundred percent social housing,” said Fraser Stuart, a DNC board member who’s been waiting for social housing for 19 months.

The Downtown East Side Neighbourhood Council petition outside the Pantages. January 14, 2011

The ten sites on the DNC’s list are: the Pantages Theatre, the old police station on Main and Hastings, a Buddhist temple at 301 E. Hastings, space above the Downtown Eastside/Strathcona branch of the Vancouver Public Library, and seven empty lots around the DTES.

“There have been no properties purchased since Sam Sullivan,” said Stuart. “So the nice words of the [current] mayor about ending homelessness and all that, well, he’s done absolutely nothing to end homelessness. As a matter of fact, he’s made it worse.”

Councillor Ellen Woodsworth Responds

COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth said that city council has made some strides in the fight against homelessness, but that more collaboration is needed from the provincial and federal governments.

“I did fight very hard to get housing over the library. I will keep pushing for those 10 sites,” she said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.

She added that Mayor Gregor Robertson obtained provincial money to develop 14 social housing sites that the city already owns, as well as to fund cold weather emergency shelters.

“So he has been committed to housing and homelessness,” Woodsworth said.

“Social mix”: progressive compassion or regressive poor bashing?

The legendary Pantages Theatre, located Hastings near Main, is at the geographic centre of the Downtown Eastside. Now boarded-up and graffitied, the Pantages embodies the neighbourhood’s past glory and current struggles. Charlie Chaplin graced its stage in 1912. Last year, Heritage Vancouver put it on its list of Top Ten Endangered Sites. The current owner, Marc Williams of Worthington Properties Inc., tried to sell the building to the city but was turned down. He now plans to bulldoze it and build condos.

“If the project here at the Pantages goes through, we are looking at approximately 500 residents in the Regent Hotel, the Empress and the Balmoral, who would be facing major rent increases,” the DNC’s Stuart said, pointing at the single-occupancy-room hotels that dot this stretch of East Hastings. “Same thing that’s happened with Woodward’s.”

The ripple effect of high-end condos in poor neighbourhoods has been researched by Jean Swanson and the anti-poverty group Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP).

“In our neighbourhood, the biggest gentrifier is Woodward’s, which some people are putting forth as this great model of social mix,” Swanson said in an interview. She added that Woodward’s condo owners have separate amenities and separate entrances from the social-housing residents, so “social mix” is a misnomer.

According to Swanson, the ripple effects of million-dollar condos can be devastating in the DTES. Everything becomes more expensive, from food and basic amenities to land that could be purchased for housing and social services. Gentrification also causes a shift in the power structure.

“You see more security guards harassing people. Some richer people, some of them, start going to council and saying, you know, we don’t want anymore social housing in our neighbourhood, we don’t want social services.”

The notion that poor neighbourhoods need an infusion of “the gentry” to become viable is nothing short of “poor bashing”, according Swanson.

A City Hall study on the social effects of Woodward’s is due out next spring. CCAP and the DNC are asking council to wait for its results before endorsing rezoning that would usher more condos into the DTES.

POLAR BEAR SWIM 2011, VANCOUVER

2011-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

January 1, 2011, was a clear day in Vancouver.

There was sunshine in the palm trees and everything!! It LOOKED like perfect weather for a swim.

My sister, warming up before the swim. She had the coolest costume.

Cooler than the reindeer, even.

Victorious after her dunk.

In the distance: Inukshuk, Vancouver’s most famous landmark.

2011: Bring Stanley Home!

Riot Police State: A Look Back at 2010

2010-12-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

Milos Bicanski/Getty Images for the New York Times

This picture appears in today’s New York Times with a story about confrontations in Athens between police and protesters. According to the NYT, 20,000 people (union members, civil servants, and private sector workers) took to the streets to oppose austerity measures adopted by the the Greek parliament yesterday.

These measures, which conform to conditions set by the EU and the IMF for a $110 billion loan, include cuts in wages and jobs, as well as legislation to restrict workers’ rights, says the NYT. The protests were mostly peaceful, though one minister was attacked.

I think the story and photo are emblematic of the kind of year it’s been around the world. Governments and big business have pillaged jobs, pension plans, and the environment. There is little or no consultation with voters. When people speak up, they have to confront scary-looking cops in gas masks and shields. Off the top of my head, here’s a list of places that have produced photos and footage of riot police confronting protesters:

Paris
London
Athens
Bangkok
Toronto
Mexico City

Can you think of any others?

P.S.:I don’t condone violence, whether it comes from violent factions and crooks and looters who infiltrate peaceful demos, or cops with batons and tear gas. PEACE!

Vancouver, English Bay: Beach under snow

2010-11-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Chinese artist Yue Minjun’s A-mazing Laughter, a sculpture from China’s CYNICAL REALISM MOVEMENT

Part of Vancouver Biennale 2009-2011

Love these laughing guys. Always laughing, no matter what the weather.

English Bay, Vancouver: Snowman on the beach

West End, Vancouver: Woman at Bus Stop With Single Ski Pole

Kintaro Ramen: a bowl of steaming Japanese noodles in pork broth: hearty and tasty. The perfect meal on a snowy day. Kintaro ramen is on Denman north of Robson.

....HAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAHAHA
Still laughing

Reuters defending Cambodia's ruthless human rights abusers?

2009-08-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

Photo:
Dey Krahorm, Phnom Penh
March 2008,
A year before it was
completely destroyed
by developers

An article posted yesterday by Reuters India encourages investors to overlook the Cambodian government's human rights violations and to concentrate on the "stability" of Prime Minister Hun Sen's rule.

"Tens of thousands of people have been driven out of their homes in a slew of land seizures, while critics have blasted Hun Sen for filing lawsuits they say are merely attempts to intimidate journalists, activists and political opponents.

However, Hun Sen gets plenty of plaudits as well, and some analysts say the firm hand of the undisputed strongman is exactly what Cambodia and its economy needs."

There may have been improvements in Cambodia's economy, but wealth is concentrated in the hands of Hun Sen and his cronies.

In March 2008, I was in Phnom Penh investigating the forced evictions that this article so breezily brushes aside. You can read about one working-class neighborhood whose homes were bulldozed so that Hun Sen could give the land to developers. (here)

Human rights activists such as Phnom Penh's LICADHO say that these forced evictions are the single most pressing human rights issue in Cambodia at the moment. Non-governmental organizations have recorded footage of homes homes burning to the ground or being bulldozed while residents are chased away and beaten. The culprits wear government-issued army and police uniforms.

The Reuters article also praises Hun Sen for some populist reforms that supposedly help the poor. But I remember reading in a Phnom Penh newspaper that Cambodia has failed to meet several development criteria set by the United Nations and agreed to by Hun Sen himself. The most striking is the failure to educate and protect children. Though initial enrollment is high, most drop out before finishing elementary school. Education is supposed to be free. However, according to a 2008 BBC report, teachers are severely underpaid and live below the poverty line. Students must supplement their teachers' meagre incomes and contribute to the purchase of uniforms and school supplies. Most Cambodian families, particularly in rural areas, cannot afford these fees.

The Reuters article doesn't quote any of the local activists working to end these human rights violations. The article's two main sources are based in Singapore and both highlight Cambodia's economic growth while undermining concerns about corruption and human rights violations.

Ian Bryson of Control Risks, a consultancy firm whose main goal, according to its website, is to "accelerate opportunities and manage strategic and operational risks" for its clients, tells Reuters that "it's easy to criticise Hun Sen as a single-party ruler, authoritarian and totalitarian, but he's a pragmatist -- he does what he needs to do."

So what does that mean? That if violently and illegally evicting people is what Hun Sen needs to do to boost his GDP, it's justified, and we ought to help him along him with investments and aid money?

The Reuters article also quotes Pou Sothirak, a senior researcher at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies. Sothirak has the last word in the article. He explains that the world-wide economic crisis has meant a bumpy ride for Cambodia, but that the country remains "stable": "for that reason, I expect foreign investors will return when the global economic situation improves."

There are no quotes from Hun Sen's critics, and the Reuters article reads more like a commercial for investment opportunities in Cambodia than a piece of balanced and objective journalism.

CBC.ca | The National | Archive | Politics/Economy | Dambisa Moyo

2009-05-30T18:52:00.001-07:00

CBC.ca The National Archive Politics/Economy Dambisa Moyo

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In this CBC interview, Dr. Dambisa Moyo, an economist and author of Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How there Is a Better Way for Africa, explains why bilateral aid has failed to raise African countries out of poverty.

Governments in developing countries become answerable to their foreign benefactors and not to their people's demands for infrastructure, health care and education, Moyo told the CBC. Furthermore, factions engage in violent conflicts for control of government, where all the wealth is located. You can imagine the consequences. Innocent civilians are caught in the middle, chased from their homes, impoverished and left to languish in refugee camps.

Great. So governments in rich countries are, at best, wilfully blind to the havoc they wreak when they sign cheques to sooth their conscience. At worst, they have some sort of economic or geopolitical interest in propping up these corrupt and evil governments. Which makes donor countries--and by extension us, the tax payers who provide them with funds--complicit.

It reminds me of what I saw when I went to Cambodia, one of only 25 countries hand picked by Canadian PM Harper for bilateral aid, despite the fact that Cambodian PM Hun Sen is responsible for serious human rights violations. We're talking torture, murder and forced evictions that help out his buddies in real estate, from whom he gets handsome kick backs. Oh, yeah, and he's a former Khmer Rouge cadre, but never mind about that. We'll keep sending him money because...uh...What does Harper imagine that Hun Sen does with his bilateral aid?

Anyways, I'm starting to believe that, as Moyo says, private investments (like China's doing) may be more beneficial to lifting African and other countries out of poverty. Here she is discussing better development solutions with Dr. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on micro financing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUPqyFk2Mq8

Ben Affleck's latest film: how much suffering should a journalist expose?

2009-05-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

(Photo from my story on forced evictions in Phnom Penh).

Though gratuitous exploitation of trauma is reprehensible, journalism that ignores, hides, or sugar-coats war, poverty, and oppression should also be condemned. So how does a journalist strike a balance? New York Times/International Herald Tribune columnist Nicholas Kristof doesn't even try.

Reporter, a documentary produced by Ben Affleck and recently screened at Toronto's Hotdocs Festival, follows Kristof on his 2007 trip to the Congo. Accompanied by two regular Americans who post their observations alongside his columns, Kristof's mission is "to shine a light into the darkest pockets of conflict and poverty."

Kristof gained notoriety in 2004, when he bought two women from a Cambodian brothel in order to prove that slavery is alive and well in the 21st century.

In war zones and brothels around the world, Kristof's MO is to find the most horrific, heart-rending, stomach-churning story, and to tell it unsparingly to the world. A suffering individual, Kristof believes, shocks complacent readers into caring.

Unfortunately, Reporter hasn't been screened in Tokyo yet, but if Kristof's column is any indication, the viewer should expect merciless depictions of misery. His latest column on maternal death in childbirth (International Herald Tribune, May 18, 2009) describes the fate of Mabinti Kamara, 25, in Sierra Leone:

"On Mabinti's fourth day of labor, she was finally taken to a hospital in the city of Makeni, where a surgeon found she had a ruptured uterus. The surgeon removed the dead fetus and repaired the uterus."

Kristof often comes off as self-righteous, melodramatic, and not a little patronizing. On May 6th, for instance, he wrote about inner-city prostitution rings in his very own American backyard. Did you know that "If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest"?

Yeah, Nick, we did. These causes have been championed by pop-culture icons for quite a while now. The TV series E.R. was in the Congo in 2005, and Oprah has been talking frankly about incest, rape, and sexual abuse since the eighties.

So the public is, for the most part, aware of the horrors that take place around the globe. Still, very little has changed. How much of a difference does Kristof really make?

This debate reminds me of a scene from the movie Hotel Rwanda. In the midst of the genocide, a local man says to a foreign reporter that viewers in Europe and America will surely be shocked and horrified into action. The reporter answers that when people see his footage, they'll say, that's too bad, and they'll go back to eating their dinners.

I read Kristof's column every day, on the train or over lunch. I shake my head at what he tells me, and even sigh audibly at times. But when I get home at night, the newspaper goes into the recycling bin, and I to my dinner.

If we New York Times and International Herald Tribune readers are so enlightened and engaged, why does complete and utter misery continue to afflict so many of our fellow human beings? Perhaps we deserve Kristof's patronizing dispatches.

Bangkok in a day (March 2008)

2009-05-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Forced Evictions in Phnom Penh

2009-03-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Phnom Penh, March 2008

Dey Krahorm, a working class community in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia, looks like the gap-toothed mouth of a six year old: some tin shacks and cement bungalows still stand amid mounds of rubble and plastic bags.

Noren (who only goes by one name) is lucky. Her house has survived the police and military force, bulldozers and fire that have ripped through 30,000 homes in Phnom Penh, according to an Amnesty International report.

A popular singer of traditional Khmer music, Noren came to Dey Krahorm after surviving the Khmer Rouge. Between 1975 and 1979, this genocidal regime evacuated cities, moved people to agrarian labor camps, and sought to exterminate all artists and intellectuals.

When the nightmare ended, a band of surviving musicians gathered at Phnom Penh’s National Theatre. The community of Dey Krahorm grew on its parking lot. Now, they are facing a new nightmare with eerie echoes of the old.

“If we move, our students won’t have access to us,” says Noren through an interpreter. “Our music won’t survive.”

Cambodia is one of only 25 countries targeted for bilateral aid by the Canadian government. But NGOs and activists based in Phnom Penh say that aid to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is encouraging human rights abuses such as these forced evictions.

“We say, okay, next year we’re not going to give you any money unless you meet these [human rights and anti-corruption] benchmarks,” says Lee Robinson, a Canadian activist who often spends the night in Dey Krahorm because the presence of foreigners stills the bulldozers. “And then the next year we give more money, even though none of those benchmarks have been met.”

Between 2004 and 2005, the Canadian International Development Agency spent $16.68 million in bilateral aid to Cambodia. These annual donations guide the implementation of land laws conceived in 1991 and legislated in 2006.

“We’ve been working closely with Germany, Finland, Denmark and the World Bank,” says Michael Rymek, CIDA’s director of aid in Phonm Penh. “We provide funding to recruit, train, and pay the salaries of land-titling teams who survey the land, which will eventually lead to the issuing of land titles.”

Cambodians never kept written records of ownership. Like singer Noren, people occupied whatever property they could find after the Khmer Rouge’s labor camps. In the nineties, when refugees returned in droves, land scarcity led to inflated speculation.

“Many powerful people will use state apparatus to grab land—military police, local police,” says Nyla Pilorge, director of LICADHO, one of the largest human rights NGO’s in Cambodia.

The 2006 legislation states that peaceful occupation for more than five years constitutes ownership, a stipulation that aims to curb land grabbing.

But the government still gives permission to clear “squatters”, taking over their land as public property and selling it. It’s part of a scheme to launder bribes, Pilorge says.

“There are people who are buying to buy [the government’s] loyalty… The purchase of land is a good way to hide the money.”

Evicted communities are then displaced to “human dumping sites” where children “drink their piss and eat their shit,” according to activist Robinson.

Though international trials against Khmer Rouge leaders are a step towards social justice in Cambodia, Robinson expresses cynicism about a world that ignores Cambodia’s current human rights crisis.

“[Donors] come here in their BMW’s, and the people, they ask us, ‘Is something happening behind the scenes?’” says Robinson. “They know how much money Hun Sen gets, but they never see it.”

Speaking off the record, a UN official based in Phnom Penh admits that progress has been slow, but that it is unreasonable to expect too much too soon in a country razed to misery by the Khmer Rouge.

As for Noren and her family, they are hopeful despite the looming wrecking ball.

“We’ll just camp in front of Hun Sen’s house and play our music until he gives us a new house,” says her husband, musician and instrument maker Chien Ry.

Their son and nephew arrive with a couple of drums for an impromptu lesson. Ms. Noren smiles, confident that her art will survive for one more generation.

February 2009:

A year after my visit to Phnom Penh, it seems like the residents have lost their battle:
http://www.humanitarianchronicle.com/2009/02/violent-eviction-at-dey-krahorm-video/