The Dominion - 33

"Holy Cow, Farmers Really Are Efficient"

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 18:02:13 +0000

Record corporate profits are linked to farmers' woes: NFU

"It's farmers that are most hooked in to the input corporations that are having the hardest time making a profit." photo: Dru Oja Jay

The story of farming in the last few decades is a familiar one and a sad one. Competition means lower prices, and lower prices mean that farmers have to produce more to break even, which drives prices lower yet.

This story is present everywhere farming is discussed. Official government policy says that farms must become larger and more efficient. News reports chronicle the shut down of hundreds of family farms, which are no longer viable in the global economy. In a recent editorial on stagnant productivity growth, the Globe and Mail singled out farmers for their inefficiency. Farm subsidies, the conventional wisdom says, can only soften the impact of the inevitable transition to hyper-efficient, large-scale operations and imported food.

Canada's National Farmers' Union (NFU), however, says there's a small problem with the story: it's wrong.

The NFU's director of research, Darren Qualman, says that farmers have achieved the largest increases in efficiency of any sector in the Canadian economy in the last 30 years. Farmers "can make and deliver products for 1970s prices. No one else can do that," says Qualman. Only half joking he adds that someone should challenge theGlobe and Mail editorialists to write for 1970s freelance rates.

In November of 2003, the NFU released a report entitled "The Farm Crisis, Bigger Farms, and the Myths of 'Competition' and 'Efficiency,'" which details the drive for efficiency in government policy and its effects on farm income.

A series of graphs shows that while prices for food products have increased three- and fourfold, the prices farmers get for their crops have stayed constant since the 1970s.

Farmers have made massive gains in efficiency, but have not received any financial benefits. Paradoxically, even as per-farm revenues have increased due to consolidation, farm profits today are at an all-time low. 2003 was the worst year ever for Canadian farmers, when per-farm Market Net Income was negative $16 000. Farm profits for the last 20 years, the NFU says, have been near or lower than they were during the Depression.

"Today, farmers are paying to produce," says a recent NFU report. "Were it not for taxpayer-funded support, off-farm income, depletion of savings, and access to debt, farming in Canada would have to cease."

Why do farmers remain in such dire straits?

While news coverage often dwells on the plight of farmers, it rarely looks at the overall success enjoyed by agribusiness. This is the subject of the NFU's November 2005 report, "The Farm Crisis and Corporate Profits."

The report examines the finances of 75 companies in the supply chain of food production, including meat packing, farm equipment, veterinary drug manufacturing, fertilizer, fuel, food processing, and food services . It finds that 41 companies posted record profits in 2004, which was at the same time the second worst year on record for farmers. For 76 percent of the companies examined, 2004 was one of the three best years for profits .

The NFU says there is a direct connection between corporate profits and farmers' losses.

Qualman says that the main problem is the difference in market power between farmers and the small number of corporations that control distribution. Because "a handful of companies" are buying from 250 000 farmers, they can effectively set prices as low as farmers will go, but can also raise prices for consumers. Corporations like Kellogg, Cargill, PepsiCo (which owns Quaker Oats), and Tyson Foods were among those posting record profits while farmers were posting record losses.

The dynamic is similar for suppliers of farm equipment, pesticides, seeds, veterinary drugs and fertilizer. According to the report, "Huge profits and impressive ROE [return on equity] rates are the norm at the non-farm links in the agri-food chain." Having consolidated ownership through mergers, the NFU says, corporations selling inputs and equipment are able to raise prices to account for any profits that farmers earn through increased productivity.

Qualman says there is a direct link between farmers' relationships to powerful conglomerates and their lack of profits. "It's farmers that are most hooked in to the input corporations that are having the hardest time making a profit."

Because of their relatively direct channels of distribution and lack of dependence on fertilizer, veterinary drugs and pesticides, Qualman says organic farmers "have an easier time hanging on."

The root problem, says Qualman, is that "policymakers economists and media assume that markets work... these guys are market ideologues, and their a priori assumption is that markets work."

"They say, 'If these people are earning poor incomes, maybe it's because they're inefficient."

"We just say 'No no, the markets are failing.' We've made tremendous progress. " in pushing back against the prevailing wrong assumptions, says Qualman.

"Three ministers of agriculture have been largely forced to stop talking about inefficiency." When shown the evidence, they're forced to say, in Qualman's paraphrase, "'Holy cow, farmers really are efficient!'"

Dru Oja Jay investigates what the National Farmers' Union says is a direct connection between corporate profits and farmers' losses.

A Bear Of A Deal

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:27:08 +0000

A decade of negotiations give way to an unprecedented agreement

The protected area is three times the size or Prince Edward Island. photo: The Coast Forest Conservation Initiative

In February, the Great Bear Rainforest agreement was announced in the media around the world; the story was printed in over a thousand newspapers, including coverage in India, Russia and China.

The agreement covers an area that represents 45 per cent of North America's three temperate rainforest ecoregions. New parks total 1.8 million hectares – more than three times the size of Prince Edward Island. Another 4.6 million hectares are subject to a strict new management regime that puts the ecosystem first.

The Great Bear Rainforest contains the world's largest tracts of intact temperate rainforest, and it is home to spawning runs for 20 per cent of the world's remaining wild salmon. The area is so rich in wildlife and flora that biologists have compared it to the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon jungles. The agreement means that habitat for endangered species including grizzlies, the total population of 400 white "spirit" bears, coastal wolves, peregrine falcons, and the Northern Goshawk is preserved.

Unprecedented collaboration

In 1993, following protests and blockades, the British Columbia government announced the Clayoquot compromise – a deal that protected 33 per cent of the region, leaving the rest to be logged. The decision sparked the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada's history; that summer more than 850 people were arrested. First Nations were not consulted and the communities remain divided over logging in Clayoquot Sound.

The focus shifted to the Great Bear Rainforest with its hundreds of pristine and intact watersheds. In a high profile international campaign, a collaboration of environmental groups forced the customers of the companies operating in the Great Bear Rainforest to cancel contracts. Over 80 companies, including Ikea, Home Depot, Staples and IBM, committed to stop selling wood and paper products made from ancient forests.

As a result of the market pressure lumber companies on the coast began to shift their approach and agreed to sit down with the environmental groups.

"It was tough in the beginning, but everyone agreed in the end," says Lisa Matthaus of the Sierra Club. "People came to accept that they no longer had the social licence to log in the way or in the places that they were, so it had to change."

The Joint Solutions Project was formed in 2000 as an initiative between coastal forest companies and a coalition of environmental groups including ForestEthics, Sierra Club of BC, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network.

While a land use plan was being developed, the coastal forest industry agreed to stop logging in exchange for a hold on the environmental groups' market campaigns. They then agreed to create a team of international and local scientists to create ecosystem-based management (EBM) for the coastal forests using the best available conservation biology. Environmental groups and industry each raised $600,000 to support this process with provincial and federal governments providing the remainder.

Two multi-stakeholder processes had been mandated by the province to develop land use plans for the Great Bear Rainforest region. The Joint Solutions Project fed the conclusions of its scientific work into this process.

Meanwhile, but separately, the David Suzuki Foundation was working with a group of eight coastal First Nations in an initiative called the Turning Point to develop a set of principles for EBM. To many coastal First Nations, EBM represents a scientific articulation of thousands of years of cultural practice and traditional resource use.

photo: savethegreatbear.org

The area that is not protected will be managed according to the EBM process. "This is a transformation of what happens in the British Columbia forest," Merran Smith of ForestEthics says. "The revolution is looking at a standing forest not as a commodity, but as an economic model based on conservation."

The BC government took the land use plans developed by the multi-stakeholder committees and entered into unprecedented government-to-government negotiations with the First Nations, who had developed their own land use plans. The final outcome is a compromise between the two parties.

"It's a cultural shift," says Shawn Kenmuir, an area manager for Triumph Timber, which has already forsaken old clear-cut practices and begun consulting with the Gitga'at before cutting on their traditional lands. "We've started the transition from entitlement to collaboration."

Many areas that will be preserved have been chosen based on the oral tradition of native groups and the opinions of their elders. These include areas with cultural significance such as ancient cemeteries, or areas that contain medicinal herbs and cedars big enough to make totem poles, canoes and longhouses.

"We are [excited]. We all [coastal First Nations] came together and agreed to something that hasn't happened for a long time", says Ross Wilson, chairman of the tribal council of the Heiltsuk, one of the native nations involved.

"Now we can manage our destiny. Without this agreement, we would be going to court forever and we would have to put our children and old ladies dressed in button blankets in the way of the chain saws."

Transforming the economy

"For all the First Nations the value to protect the Great Bear Rainforest is utmost, not only for cultural and environmental but also for economic reasons," says Ross Wilson. To emphasize the economic benefits of preservation, he adds, "The hunter comes in and pays a lot for one night but you can never see that bear again; with wildlife viewing, as long as that bear lives you can have tourism activities that happen year after year."

This philosophy is supported by an innovative $120 million endowment to support the creation of a conservation economy in the Great Bear Rainforest. It includes: $30 million contributed by the BC government to help ease the transition of impacted forestry workers; $60 million raised by the US-based Nature Conservancy from donors and foundations; and a $30 million contribution from the federal government.

The endowment includes a Coast Conservation Fund that will invest in skills development and monitoring amongst First Nations to guarantee the implementation of the Great Bear Agreement. A Coast Economic Development Fund will invest in shellfish aquaculture, cruise-ship tourism, sustainable forestry, conservation activities, fisheries, high-end lodge tourism, and pine mushroom harvesting, potentially creating up to 1700 new jobs.

In addition, Vancouver-based credit union VanCity will create an innovative fund with up to $80 million dollars from socially responsible investors for sustainable economic initiatives on the coast.

Challenges Remain

Environmental groups acknowledge that challenges remain. It is not clear what EBM will actually look like on the ground. A number of First Nations groups have yet to sign government-to-government agreements.

Both the David Suzuki Foundation and the Raincoast Conservation Society point out that the agreement does not meet the minimum target of 44 per cent protection that the scientific body indicated was required to ensure that biodiversity is maintained.

"Raincoast supports the legislating of the proposed protected areas, but the province should do so with the full knowledge and recognition that lasting protection of the Great Bear Rainforest will require additional steps and commitment from all parties," says Raincoast Conservation Society's executive director, Chris Genovali.

The entire population of the spirit bear lives in the Great Bear Rainforest photo: Forest Ethics

And, as the Globe and Mail article pointed out, if the lifting of the oil and gas moratorium on the BC coast will mean that supertankers loaded with tar sands oil enter the Queen Charlottes basin, then an ecosystem that is inextricably linked with the ocean will be endangered.

"Greenpeace will be watching to see if the British Columbian government follows through on these commitments and takes this opportunity to make the Great Bear Rainforest a global model of forest sustainability," says Amanda Carr, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Canada.

Ecosystem-Based Management Guiding Principles
Ecological Integrity Is Maintained: Biological richness and the ecosystem services provided by natural terrestrial and marine processes are sustained at all scales through time.
Wellbeing Is Promoted: A diversity of economic opportunities is key to healthy communities and sustainable economies.
Cultures, Communities, and Economies Are Sustained within the Context of Healthy Ecosystems: This idea of entrenching a demand for both human wellbeing and ecosystem integrity veers sharply away from thinking in terms of a "trade-off" between people and the environment.
Aboriginal Rights and Title Are Recognized and Accommodated: First Nations assert aboriginal rights and title to the lands and resources within their territories.
The Precautionary Principle Is Applied: the proponent of change in the ecosystem should err on the side of caution, and the onus is on the proponent to show that ecological risk thresholds are not exceeded.
EBM Is Collaborative: Collaborative processes are broadly participatory; respect the diverse values, traditions, and aspirations of local communities, and incorporate the best of existing knowledge (traditional, local, and scientific).
People Have a Fair Share of the Benefits from the Ecosystems in Which They Live: In the past, the burdens imposed on the local communities by externally driven activities have been greater than the benefits the communities have received.

Source: Coast Information Team (2004): Ecosystem-based Management Framework.

After over a decade of negotiations, environmental groups, industry, First Nations and the Canadian government have come to an unprecedented agreement discovers Yuill Herbert

Bordering On Apartheid

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 18:50:20 +0000

Challenging immigration control in Canada

Abdelkader Belaouni (centre) before taking sanctuary in St. Gabriel's Church in Montreal. CMAQ

Abdelkader Belaouni is telling me about his day. "Every day I wake at seven," he begins. "Ten after seven at the latest. I make my bed, listen to the news. Around seven twenty or seven thirty I head down to the kitchen." He methodically lists his daily activities. "I play the piano - I'm getting lessons now. Around one - after lunch - I use the stationary bike for fifteen or twenty minutes."

Belaouni can't get his exercise outside. He can't go outside.

Abdelkader Belaouni has not left St. Gabriel's Church in Montreal since he took sanctuary there on January 1st 2006, defying Immigration Canada's deportation order.

The nights are the hardest. "I have a lot of nightmares." His voice is quiet. He explains that he can't sleep without medication; even with the medication he often wakes at 3 in the morning. "I think a lot... I think too much."

Belaouni has a lot on his mind. On November 21st, 2005 Immigration Canada notified him that on January 5th 2006 he would be deported; forced to abandon a life and community that has taken him three years to build and over a decade to find.

Belaouni fled Algeria, his country of birth, in 1996. He left behind a civil war that took the lives of over 100 000 people and a country where he no longer felt safe. He moved to New York City, but after September 11th 2001, he no longer felt safe there either. Belaouni crossed the border, filed a refugee claim, and became one of more than 200 000 people in Canada living without status.

Refugee claimants will wait months or even years to learn whether Canada will award them permanent status. In the meantime, "you're a second class citizen," notes Jordan Topp, a member of The Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni. Lack of permanent status makes finding work extremely difficult, "even if you're a professional - a nurse or an engineer - your degree doesn't mean anything once you get here," she explains. "[Non-status people] end up doing the shit jobs that no one else wants." Belaouni reports that many of his non-status friends also suffer from stress and depression - as he does - while living under the constant threat of deportation. Non-status people (like refugee claimants) are only covered for essentials and emergencies under Canada's medical system, and some - like Belaouni - are not covered at all.

Living in such a precarious state is not a choice that many people make willingly, says Topp. "People generally don't want to leave their homes and families," she says. "They don't want to uproot their entire lives and move." But many people - like Belaouni - do. They do, says Topp, because they're fleeing--among other things--war, poverty, and oppression. And although many refugee claimants may count themselves as 'lucky' to be here, Topp says Canada is partly to blame for many people's initial displacement.

Canada's foreign policy and immigration system contribute to what Topp calls the 'global apartheid:' a system where a minority of the world's population controls a vast majority of its wealth and power, a system where capital can move freely but the majority of people cannot. "Canada's economic and geographic interests take priority over people's well-being," she asserts. Topp gives the example of mining projects in the global south that benefit Canadian multinationals: people are displaced and livelihoods lost due to Canada's economic interests, "yet we won't let them into Canada because they don't fit the bill" says Topp. "Immigration Canada makes boxes that you have to fit into," boxes into which few people can fit.

One of these boxes used to assess Humanitarian and Compassionate Applications for permanent residence is based on whether or not an individual has "established" themselves in Canada. According to Immigration Canada, the fact that Belaouni does not have a job, and does not have a wife and child here means that he has failed to establish himself in Montreal.

Belaouni argues, however, that he does have a family in Canada: he has a family of friends and supporters. His connections and contributions to his community are reflected in the over 40 organizations in Montreal that are supporting his demand for status, most recently the French-speaking branch of Amnesty International in Canada. Belaouni also says that he was working, he just wasn't being paid. For over a year he had been volunteering with The Multi-Ethnic Association for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities. His involvement with that particular organization points to another reason he couldn't find paid work despite his best efforts: Belaouni is blind. According to Topp, this, along with his non-permanent status means that he's facing "huge systematic barriers [to employment]."

According to a study conducted by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind last year, only 25% of blind and visually impaired people are employed - and only 30% of those people have permanent employment. As a non-permanent resident, Belaouni didn't qualify for government programs that may have increased his chances of employment. "We ask people to prove that they're established," explains Topp, "but then create a system where it's next to impossible for them to become established." Topp is tired of the hoops non-status people are expected to jump through, and the boxes they are expected to fit into, in order to prove that they deserve to stay in Canada.

Topp is not alone. Last June up to a thousand people took part in the No One Is Illegal March On Ottawa. The 200 km march from Montreal to Ottawa was organized by Solidarity Across Borders, a network of self organized migrants, refugees, immigrants and their allies. With a rallying cry of "No Borders, No Nations, Stop The Deportations!" Solidarity Across Borders asserts that all people - not just wealthy and educated people- should be able to decide where they wish to live and work. To this end, they call for an end to deportations and the regularization of all non-status people.

Belaouni and his supporters have reframed the debate. Instead of focusing on risks he may face if forced to return to Algeria they are making the case that he should be allowed to stay based on his right--on the rights of all human beings--to choose where he lives his life. But won't Canada's borders be flooded with refugees? "That's exactly the point," says Topp.

Topp's analysis is shared by Samir Shaheen-Hussain, a member of the
NoOne Is Illegal collective in Montreal. "Because of the primal
injustices that exist globally, people should be able to move wherever they wish," says Shaheen-Hussain. "So long as wealthy, powerful corporations and nation-states continue to benefit from the oppression and exploitation of those living in the global South, those people who are displaced should have the freedom of movement to determine where they will live"

This economic and political analysis of the immigration system may seem radical to some, and the proposed solutions may be dismissed as 'unrealistic', but the No One Is Illegal movement is gaining ground; No One Is Illegal groups have been established across Canada and around the world.

Besides, argues Topp the normalization of immigration controls is a relatively new phenomenon.

"Until recently, people have been able to migrate to where they are best able to live and survive. Today, that's not possible unless you have a bank account with over $200 000 in it or are one of the people who meet the very narrow criteria of persecution required for refugee status."

This narrow criteria is also applied in an arbitrary manner, continues Topp. In the last two years Belaouni's refugee officer sat on the Immigration and Refugee Board he accepted only one person. "That's why people call it a lottery," she explains. "It has little to do with the actual case and more to do with the person you end up in front of."

Although The Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni is doing everything it can to help Belaouni win the legal 'lottery' for permanent status, it is also trying to shift the terms of debate about refugees from ideas of charity to ones of justice, dignity and autonomy; from benevolence to solidarity. At a press conference announcing his intention to take sanctuary in St Gabriel's Church, Belaouni was clear. "I'm not hiding from Immigration Canada, but I want to tell them clearly, I will not be presenting myself for deportation. I've been able to achieve autonomy and dignity in Montreal, and I don't want to lose that. My family are my friends here. I am here to defend myself; I am here to defend justice".

Hillary Bain Lindsay talks to Abdulkader Belaouni about his struggle for justice and permanent status in Canada.

Canada's Phantom Menace In Afghanistan

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:01:14 +0000

Who is receiving Canada's "Phantom Aid?"

How much of Canada's funding in Afghanistan is going to clean water and how much to the military? photo: CIDA

Afghanistan became Canada's largest recipient of foreign aid in 2002, but critics say that this money may be aiding Canada more than Afghanistan. According to the Canadian International Development Agency's (CIDA) website, Canada has given $100 million to Afghanistan since March 2005, up from $10 million in 2001. In an interview with CBC in February, senior CIDA official Bob Johnson predicted that between 2001 and 2009, Canada will spend $616 million in Afghanistan. Recent claims by a former minister in Afghanistan, however, have called into question the effectiveness of that aid. Ramazan Bashardost, a former planning minister, said that the billions of dollars Afghanistan has received in aid from donor countries, including Canada, has not resulted in "the least improvement" in Afghani people's lives. Responding to questions about Canadian aid in Afghanistan, New-Democratic Party's (NDP) Foreign Policy critic Alexa McDonough said that it is difficult to determine how much of the aid sent to Afghanistan is going to development assistance (education, transport infrastructure, health clinics) and how much is going to indirect military assistance. A January op/ed piece from mediamonitors.net pegged current direct Canadian military costs in Afghanistan at $600 million a year. How is it that a Member of Parliament and foreign affairs critic on the foreign affairs committee does not know how millions of Canadian dollars are being used? "All of this is happening in the never-never land of no committees in the PMO [Prime Minister's Office]," said McDonough, referring to the government's lack of transparency.

A 2005 report by Action Aid suggests that even the aid that is earmarked for beneficial infrastructure may not be reaching its nominal destination. Action Aid found that many countries are donating "phantom aid": aid that does not help the people it is intended for in the donor country. Phantom aid includes spending on overpriced technical assistance, aid tied to spending in the donor country, double-counted debt relief, and other aid that never materializes for poor countries.

Canada's habit of tying aid to spending in Canada, effectively transforming aid into subsidies for Canadian corporations, has given us "a black eye in the international community" said McDonough.

A September 2005 article in Reuters reported that during last year's famine in Niger, 90% of the food money given by Canada had to be spent on food from Canada. A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that this kind of policy can result in food taking four to five months longer to arrive and, when it does, can drive down prices for local farmers if the famine has already passed.

Most OECD countries, including Canada, signed onto the UN's 1070 mandate to have overseas aid reach 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI); however, very few, save Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Luxemburg, have managed to come even close to that goal. In 2003 Canada donated 0.22% of its GNI to aid but spent 1.1% of its GNI on the military. In addition, research by Action Aid shows that when phantom aid is taken into account, the percentage of real aid given is even lower.

Phantom aid accounts for over half of Canada's aid spending. 17% of Canadian phantom aid is spent on technical assistance that could be spent in the donor country and therefore cost less, be more effective and better coordinated. In addition, the Action Aid report states that 47% of Canadian phantom aid is tied to spending in Canada.

McDonough hopes that the new Conservative government will improve Canada's reputation in aid spending. She points out that in February 2005, all of the then opposition parties, including the Conservatives, committed to an increase in aid and a restructuring of how aid is used. In a recent letter to Prime Minister Harper, NDP Leader Jack Layton reminded Conservatives of their election promise to increase aid by over $400 million over the next five years. This would bring Canada's aid up to 0.42% of its GNI by 2010.

When asked if she felt the Prime Minister would rescind on these commitments McDonough responded, "You don't speculate on the odds of whether or not [the Prime Minister] will live up to [his commitments], you use every tool you can to push them through."

After last year's famines in Niger and Mauritania, the Canadian government changed its aid policy, requiring 50% of food aid be purchased from Canada, down from 90%. This may be a sign that Canada's aid programs may be on the verge of reducing other tied aid, which is good news for countries like Afghanistan, which is scheduled to receive hundreds of millions of aid dollars from Canada over the next four years.

Geordie Gwalgen Dent investigates where Canada's aid money goes and considers what that might mean for Afghanistan.

Hot Politics

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:45:37 +0000

Women are leading Burlesque's international revivial

photo: Vancouver International Burlesque Festival

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys and Dolls, Chicks with Dicks…. Welcome to the show!"

It's the final evening of the first Vancouver International Burlesque Festival (Feb. 9-11, 2006), and two young men in suits and straw boaters are opening the night with a catchy, cheesy, antiquated song about loving scores of girls.

The theatre is filled with couples and friend groups of all varieties. Slender, spangled young women catcall each other, sip cocktails through straws between red-painted lips, and eat brownies. Tattoos are peeking out from under those frilly panties and camisoles. One woman has lollipops sticking out of – not pin curls, but a fantastic set of dreads. Tonight is a nexus of the neo-burlesque and proof of the accelerating comeback of this metamorphic genre.

The newer style of burlesque, situated in the 21st century and hence exhibiting a different set of concerns about the body – including feminism, AIDS, body types, transgender and queer community politics, and plain old desire – self-consciously uses sexualized play and the act of witnessing as the basis of empowerment for messages about sexual or sexualized issues. Some of these issues are progressive, and some are less so. Progressive politics are mixed with old-fashioned heterosexist versions of desire. The two have ample space to feed off of and reform one another.

A hundred and sixty years ago, the burlesque form took root in the low-class variety show culture of Great Britain and America. "Burlesquing" meant lampooning the operas and affectations of the upper classes. Audience attention was held by ribald parody and shapely underdressed dancers in an era when all proper women (not to mention tables) kept their legs well covered. By the 1960s though, shock value was redefined as full-nudity stripping. Performers joined the trend, by choice or just to survive professionally. Bump 'n' grind overtook campy comedy.

photo: Vancouver International Burlesque Festival

Over the last decade, an international, women-led revival has taken place. There's a whole variety of variety shows out there, with wide-ranging ratios of strip to tease. Styles are as divergent as the women who participate. Some set out to recreate, others to wholly reinvent, vintage aesthetics of glamour. Using a retro aesthetic in costumes, props, or music automatically puts the performers in dialogue with that era. They may be teasing its values or meshing it with contemporary concerns (exemplified by a performer peeling off satin evening gloves and clumsily putting on latex ones instead).

The performer who goes by Your Little Pony, 29, says that burlesque performers share, "the experience of pushing the boundaries of self-presentation," with the added thrill of being watched while doing so. In comparing onstage and offstage sexualities, she explains, "The biggest thing is the witnessing. Both can be messy, erotic, personal. But on stage you're witnessed without a lot of touch. Offstage you're witnessed mostly by touch. Then there's how you witness yourself: offstage is slower and less influenced by adrenalin; onstage is a whirlwind and often more planned."

Witnessing oneself is central to burlesque yoga, an inventive practice that its creator and instructor, Little Woo, describes as "low-brow art meets sacred spirituality." Moves expressing archetypes such as mermaids, belly dancers, and kung fu fighters are taught as yoga postures, with emphasis on meditative breathing, inner connection, and refreshing hilarity.

Not everyone agrees with the powerful intentions behind some performers' playfulness. One producer declared that the variety skits are just work for theatre people who can't get into real theatre or for women doing it "just for the strip." Another scornful dancer commented, "Burlesque is stripping for fat people – you can quote me – and that's why I've moved on from it." (California's Big Bottom troupe, on the other hand, revels in reviving burlesque's historical preference for shapely dancers.)

photo: Vancouver International Burlesque Festival

"Oh, some people want to see slick polished girls. But some just want to laugh," says Maz, 29, a member of BYO (Bring Your Own) troupe. The troupe formed after Maz's roommate walked out of a burlesque performance one night, tired of repetitive body types and hetero plots, determined to bring a more gender-transformative, DIY-attitude to their own productions. Maz adds, "What I learned from burlesque class is you don't need to take a class. You can just do it."

"I always say amateurs are the new professionals," laughs fellow performer Coral, 33. "We're empowered as amateurs, more hot, edgy, raw. Everyone's got a repertoire. Just get those moves together!"

"It's not even about nakedness. If you have humour, you don't need nakedness," Coral continues. "Not that we'd want to impose limits or rule out full nudity!" Verotica143, Seattle's erotic mime, comes to mind as someone who can pretend to take her clothes off more sexily and more wittily than most people would imagine possible.

Your Little Pony explains a key point: "Dancers choose how they are portrayed, so you have the power over the dialogue, and the audience meets you in the middle with feedback." Burlesque gives women (and the less-numerous men and intergender folks who also participate) a chance to laugh, redefine gender archetypes and body type ideals, to form communities of sexual solidarity through interaction, and to just plain be sexy within a wider horizon of repercussions and contexts.

People love a little saucy sass, after all. Turns out that with the right music, female empowerment can look like pulling green onions out of a sequined corset. Or dressing up like a skunk. Or twirling pasties on your bum while, as Your Little Pony wrote, "a crowd of people FREAK OUT!"

At Vancouver's International Burlesque Festival Jane Henderson and Edie Jackson find both progressive politics and old-fashioned desire.

Fairytale Squat Faces Political Squalor

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 20:40:13 +0000

Denmark's Christiania prepares to take on the state

The remote areas of Christiania's 85 acres are still dotted with the alternative housing of innovative young families. photo: Shaughn McArthur

There is little heating in the sparsely furnished ex-barracks. The ashtrays need emptying, the tables need customers, and the walls are desperate for a fresh coat of paint, but 22-year-old, Montreal-born Nicco doesn't seem to mind.

It's the end of a day's work at the Infocafé. The Canadian-Dane-Christianite is pouring leftover coffee down the sink. He has spent most of his adult life living and working in the "Free State of Christiania."

Christiania was stablished in Copenhagen 35 years ago when a group of hippies breached fences around disused military barracks, and its land has since been collectively owned and administered. The community began in 1971 as a self–governing safe haven for artists and intellectuals who wanted to live simply, affordably, and by their own rules. Young families moved in, built homes, and declared cars, hard drugs and violence banned within Christiania's borders.

Today, much of the idealism that founded Denmark's famous fairytale squat has faded, and what remains is under threat.

Still a place to escape capitalism yet remain close to its best amenities, the "inner-city," or commercial area, of Christiania is now populated with drunkards, pushers, and outlaws. Gathered around trash-barrel fires and on the verandas of bars, drinking, smoking and dealing their wares, they make the unsuspecting visitor feel unwelcome, to say the least.

Nevertheless, Christiania retains a certain level of social cohesion. The community runs its own kindergartens, waste management program, successful businesses and a radio show, but citizens must turn to the city for benefits such as higher education and healthcare. When a vacancy arises in the community, the Citizens' Council decides by consensus on the next Christianite from the long waiting list.

photo: Shaughn McArthur

At least, they did.

On January 1, 2006, an amendment to the Christiania Act ended the 'collective right to use' agreement that had allowed the urban commune to exist on the fringes of the free market.

"It's all a dream in my eyes," says Nicco. The self-proclaimed cynic speaks grimly of the impending changes facing Denmark's social experiment.

"They want to make it into a rich people's paradise," he says.

Since the politically conservative Liberal Party--an accepted contradiction of terms in Danish politics -- formed a majority coalition in 2001 with the Conservative Party, Christianites have been fighting to preserve their alternative lifestyle.

"Christiania for them is a symbol of hippie socialism. They just don't like it," says Ole Lykke, 59, a Christianite for 26 years. The editor of Christiania's newspaper, he is part of the coalition negotiating with the state.

Beginning with the crackdown on its multi-million dollar open-air hash market in 2004, Christiania now faces real-estate development and urbanization of the state-owned land it occupies. 'Normalization' is the term the government uses.

"'Normalizing' means shutting us down," Nicco says.

Authorities insist that's not the case.

"We don't want to interfere in the life they want to live in Christiania. They just have to live by the same rules," says Peter Christensen, a Liberal Party spokesperson. "We have said to every man and woman there now that we guarantee them a place to live in Christiania"

Championing a unique consensus democracy, property has always been owned collectively in Christiania. Now, more than three decades later and with a housing crisis skyrocketing prices in the capital, that's all changing.

Last December, residents and business operators in Christiania were required to register the properties they occupy in order for it to be leased back to them individually by the state.

"Now, legally, there's no such thing as collective ownership," says Lykke.

This summer the Palace and Properties Agency will submit a plan to build private housing for up to 400 residents, restore and convert historical military buildings into state-owned social housing, and restore a sixteenth-century rampart along Christiania's waterfront.

On March 16, the Christiania advocacy group to which Lykke belongs will take the Agency to court. "I'm for compromise," says Lykke.

photo: Shaughn McArthur

One compromise both sides of this debate seem to accept is being developed in dialogue with the City of Copenhagen. It is a plan whereby individual residents and business operators in Christiania could maintain a sort of collective ownership by renting their properties from a fund. The fund then leases the land from the state on their behalf.

"Christiania should be a place where all Danes have access to live, without being exempt from the normal laws of the country," said Peter Fangel, team manager in the Planning and Architecture department of the City of Copenhagen.

"Things are going to change," he admits, but "it is important to preserve whatever is worth preserving out there."

Leaving Christiania, a sign over the gate reads like a prediction: "You are now entering the EU."

Shaughn McArthur visits Denmark's Christiania at a time when the struggling, self-governing community is preparing to take on the state.

A Picture Says 1000 Words

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 22:13:27 +0000

"Harmless" cartoons are more than meets the eye

Journalists crowd around Peter March, a professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, who posted one of the offending cartoons on his office door citing 'academic freedom.' photo: IMC Maritimes

From the burning of its flag to a boycott of its brands of butter and cookies, Denmark is feeling global outrage over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Danish paper Jyllands-Posten first published the cartoons on Sept. 30, 2005. The drawings included a caricature of Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a lit fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy grey beard and holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. A third depicted a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick, in front of a donkey and a sunset. The purpose of the cartoons, the paper's editor-in-chief said, was "to examine whether people would succumb to self-censorship, as we have seen in other cases when it comes to Muslim issues." The paper insisted that it meant no offence.

In the past week alone, crowds of angry people in several Arab countries burned the Danish flag. In Palestine, the European Union offices in Gaza were surrounded; Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador from Denmark; Libya closed its embassy; and Iraq, Iran, Jordan and Sudan lodged official protests. Danish products were taken off the shelves in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Kuwait, Bahrain and other countries, forcing one Danish dairy firm to lay off 800 workers.

With growing political and economic pressure, the editors of Jyllands-Posten apologised, while defending their right to publish the cartoons. A French newspaper, France Soir, reprinted the Danish cartoons along with drawings of Buddha and Christian and Jewish gods. Its editor declared "no religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society…we will never apologise for being free to speak, to think and to believe."

In the media, this incident is being framed as a struggle in Western democracies to reconcile the right to free expression with respect for religious belief. Many Muslims believe that the cartoons are offensive because pictorial depictions are prohibited in the religion. Others, however, have offered an alternative explanation. For example, Mr. Akkari, a spokesperson for the Danish Muslim delegates, denies that Muslims were unable to accept any portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad without reacting in outrage. In an interview with the Telegraph on February 3, he stated that there were reference books in libraries in Denmark carrying ancient Persian images of the Prophet that caused no offence, but the stereotyping effect of the newspaper cartoons was deeply offensive.

I come from a region of the world where religious dogma has been manipulated to stir up fanatic frenzies. Hindutva, a right-wing religious fundamentalist ideology, has formulated a political experiment based on communal hatred and the slogan "India for Hindus" has an immensely popular appeal with a formidable blend of religion and ideology. Usually, any explanation for an uprising that utilizes religion sets off alarms bells in my head.

But I agree that the cartoons are offensive. Not primarily because they violate religious tenets, but because they are offensive in the way that they depict and stereotype the entire Arab community and those perceived to be Muslim.

For example, the dominant media representation surrounding the Danish cartoon controversy is, unsurprisingly, of the stereotypical irrational, uncivilized, frothing Muslim mobster. Even the terminology used such as "rioters" invokes images of senseless people gone wild, much like the media response to the Paris riots. The controversy over these cartoons is also dominating discourse on many weblogs, with emphatic calls to "Free the West!", slanderous rhetoric such as "Welcome to the multicultural society. We let in the bigots, anti-Semites, homophobes and religious lunatics," and images of veiled women with the caption "What is more obscene? Depicting the Prophet in cartoons or forcing girls and women to live like this in the name of the Prophet?"

The media is increasingly becoming an agent for the communication of societal values. Those who control media are powerful because they are able to control the construction of representations and hence, of what is real. In a world of media spin doctors, our awkward embrace of an ideal of objectivity can make us passive recipients of the news rather than active analyzers of the inherent biases within it. Let us be clear that the Western media have not used the explanation of religious doctrine- that the Prophet is not supposed to be pictorially depicted- in an effort to offer a respectful and educational explanation to non-believers. Instead, the effect of this explanation is to invoke the rigidity and intolerance of the Muslim community in what has been dubbed a "clash of values":"freedom of religion versus freedom of expression."

In Disturbing Remains: Memory, History, and Crisis in the Twentieth Century (edited by Michael S. Roth and Charles G. Salas, Getty Research Institute, 2001), a collection of essays that explores the transformation of traumatic events into social memory, Roth and Salas explain that, "it is through the extreme that the normal is revealed." Media accounts of the protests in reaction to the Danish cartoons represent such an extreme through which the "normal" attitude towards Muslim communities within Denmark and beyond is revealed. A mixture of Arabs, Turks, and Kurds, Muslims make up about 3 per cent of Denmark's population of 5.3 million. As in much of Europe, the Muslim minority remains marginalized and largely alienated from Denmark's dominant culture. After a series of trips across the country in 2005, a delegation of Muslim and Arab community members assembled a 43-page dossier on racism and Islamophobia in Denmark, which is most evident in the success of far-right, anti-immigrant political parties. The Danish People's Party, riding anti-Muslim resentment, emerged as the third-largest party in the past two parliamentary elections in 2001 and 2005.

It is easy for non-Muslims to comment on the harmless nature of cartoons. It is equally simplistic for media commentators to talk about how "open-minded" Western societies are in accepting caricatures of Jesus Christ or other Christian-based satirical representations. The crucial difference in the Danish cartoons is that the depictions in the Danish cartoons perpetuate the stereotypes of an entire community. Although the cartoons only depicted Prophet Muhammad, his image nonetheless signified and personified all Arabs as savages, terrorists, and desert-dwellers in the Western imagination.

A short section in Edward Said's book Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979.) on popular images and social science representations of Arabs is worth mentioning at length here:

"From a faintly outlined stereotype as a camel-riding nomad to an accepted caricature as the embodiment of incompetence and easy defeat: that was all the scope given to an Arab.... In the films and television the Arab is associated either with lechery or bloodthirsty dishonesty. He appears as an oversexed degenerate, capable, it is true, of cleverly devious intrigues, but essentially sadistic, treacherous, low. Slave trader, camel driver, moneychanger, colorful scoundrel: these are some of the traditional Arab roles in the cinema." (pp. 285-287)

Former president Bill Clinton, whose stock as statesman seems to be on the rise, commented on the cartoons, warning of rising anti-Arab and anti-Islamic prejudice, comparing it to historic anti-Semitism. "So now what are we going to do? ... Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?" he asked at an economic conference in the Qatari capital of Doha. Edward Said also discusses the relationship between anti-Semitism and anti-Arabism of the sort expressed by the cartoons:

"The transference of a popular anti-Semitic animus from a Jewish to an Arab target [is] made smoothly, since the figure was essentially the same.... Thus the Arab is conceived of now as a shadow that dogs the Jew. In that shadow--because Arabs and Jews are Oriental Semites--can be placed whatever traditional, latent mistrust a Westerner feels toward the Orient. For the Jew of pre-Nazi Europe has bifurcated: what we now have is a Jewish hero, constructed out of a reconstructed cult of the adventurer-pioneer-Orientalist....and his creeping, mysteriously fearsome shadow, the Arab Oriental." (p286).

Many cartoons depicting Ariel Sharon or other representatives of the Israeli government have prompted immediate protests. Such blatant hypocrisy is not lost on the Arab world; Jews can protest anti-Jewish stereotypes (even when often times allegations of anti-Semitism are attempts to invalidate criticism of Israeli government policies), but Arabs and Muslims cannot protest anti-Arab or Muslim stereotypes. "In (the West) it is considered freedom of speech if they insult Islam and Muslims," Mohammed al-Shaibani, a columnist, wrote in Kuwait's Al-Qabas daily Monday. "But such freedom becomes racism and a breach of human rights and anti-Semitism if Arabs and Muslims criticize their religion and religious laws."

Freedom of expression in some cases is legally limited when it becomes hateful speech. The rationale for this is that certain forms of hateful speech actually hinder the freedom of those who have been targeted for humiliation and derision, and they are effectively silenced. In Canada, for example, it is a criminal offence to advocate genocide, publicly incite hatred, and wilfully promote hatred against an "identifiable group," and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms states that the exercise of the freedom of expression, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to conditions and restrictions. Some libertarian commentators, however, argue that the best response to hate speech is not criminalization but more speech. Regardless of whether one agrees that such restrictions on free speech are justifiable or not, it is clear that if such standards are to exist, they should apply equally to protect all communities. Therefore it is not a Western over-tolerance of multiculturalism that has fuelled this indignation; it because of a shallow and hypocritical multiculturalism.

The huge outcry against these cartoons has less to do with the doctrinal limitations of Islam itself than with the social context in the post 9/11 climate and the never-ending "War on Terrorism" within which Muslim and Arab communities operate today. The construction of the Arab terrorist in a Danish cartoon is not harmless or a simple experiment in free speech. It is deeply hateful and affects the inherent dignity of all Arab and Muslim people. The Bush administration and sensationalist media outlets depend on both the cartoons and the subsequent images of violent Arabs to justify their racism and to sell their illegal war. In response, what such communities are demanding and deserve is an end to the demonization of their communities and the right to full dignity, a genuine and egalitarian multiculturalism, and self-determination within Western borders and beyond Western borders in Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan.

"Harmless cartoons" are more than they seem when one explores the social and political context in which they appear says Harsha Walia

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Panarchists To The Rescue

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:13:45 +0000

Out Of The Pan And Into The Fire

"Coming Home From Buffalo Mountain" by Stewart Steinhauer. photo: Stewart Steinhauer

This, the fourth and concluding article in a series intended to introduce the readers of The Dominion to an Indigenous perspective, has had an unintended consequence for the author of this series. The necessary research, communication and dialogue has instead introduced the author to the Canadian perspective on Indigenous issues. This introduction comes complete with the assurance that Indigenous issues are not just dead issues, but are so deeply submerged in a 500 year long campaign to eliminate Indigenous Peoples from the world stage, that bringing forward a discussion amongst the general Canadian population becomes impossible. While completely discouraged, the author intends to finish the task at hand, and so now turns to the concept of anarchism.

While interviewing Noam Chomsky, Ziga Vodovnik, an Assistant/Young Researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, makes this point about anarchism:

"Ordinary people often confuse anarchism with chaos and violence, and do not know that anarchism (an archos) doesn't mean life or state of things without rules, but rather a highly organized social order, life without a ruler, "principe." Is pejorative usage of the word anarchism maybe a direct consequence of the fact that the idea that people could be free was and is extremely frightening to those in power?"

As commonly understood in Canada today, the "pejorative usage" referred to above implies that anarchy means "without order," further implying that this lack of order will naturally result in a state of chaos, random violence and wanton destruction. The wealthy and therefore powerful have invested heavily in promoting this "pejorative usage." They rule the grassroots people fearfully: the powerful have invested a lot of wealth, generated by the grassroots people, into setting back the day when these people will be free.

Before the civilizing mission from Europe reached my homelands, here on the northern prairies, my ancestors did not have a "principe." Zealous firearms/firewater traders and over-zealous Black Robes (Jesuit Missionaries), backed by the Imperial Might of Western Europe, invented the headman system for us, so that we could escape the nightmare of our highly organized social order without a ruler. Now, thank God, we have Indian Act Chiefs and Councils, responsible to and directed by the head naughty boy, himself, Mr. Minister. Under a "principe," our former orderly home and native lands, now the Rez Zone, are characterized by chaos, random violence and wanton destruction.

In my first language, nehiyawewin, fresh new words are coined, on the spot, out of pre-existing word components (morphemes), to describe something new. Listening to great orators vying with one another in public story telling contests was the theater of the pre-colonial culture. Bearing witness to brilliant minds spontaneously creating new language that tickled us at the borders of our capacity to comprehend was fireside entertainment. Aren't the sound stages created in the free spaces of the human imagination incredible?

Following humbly in the footsteps of my ancestors, although nowhere near to that caliber of linguistic inventors, I've decided to take the prefix "pan" and add it to "archy" to invent a new word that more closely describes pre-colonial horizontal organizational structures. I'm going to suggest that this transformed word, "panarchism," explains why we are surviving the largest longest running genocidal campaign in human history, and in fact, holds a kernel of hope for humanity, if humanity's sincere desire is to avoid the collective species suicide we're currently contemplating.

To gain a true understanding of panarchism's highly organized social order, you must go down the path called "spirituality." It's not an easy path to start down, because the Black Robes, and their spiritual heirs, bar that path. To explain what I mean, I'll quote a bit from Ellen Meiksins Wood's "Empire Of Capital" (Verso, 2003):

"Christianity had to be transformed from a radical Jewish sect, which opposed the temporal authority of the Roman Empire, into an ideology supportive of imperial obedience. This transformation can be traced from St Paul to St Augustine, both of them Romanized imperial subjects – one a citizen of Rome in its imperial ascendancy, the other as Bishop of Hippo who witnessed the imperial decline – and two of the most ingenious ideologues any empire has ever produced. In their hands, Christianity became not a politically rebellious sect of a tribal religion, but a universal spiritual doctrine that sought salvation in another world and rendered unto Caesar his unchallenged temporal authority.

"This transformation would not have been allowed to occur if the Roman imperial functionaries had not recognized the utility of a universal religion, the first of its kind, as an instrument of imperial order. The notion of a universal church, as distinct from the traditional local or tribal cults, which included Jewish monotheism, would probably not have emerged if the Roman Empire, itself, had not been conceived as universal, claiming to represent a universal human community."

Access to spirituality denied by order of the Pope? The panarchism I see operating every day, in the Stomach of Empire, here at Saddle Lake Last Nation, is not a "politically rebellious sect of a tribal religion". This panarchism is definitely universal, but refers more to "the universe" than to "all humans". Indigenous panarchism is rooted in our Great Mother, and hinges on the notion of our "property relations" with Mother Earth. Here's a short racialized story, featuring two fictional "races" of human beings, to try to provide a glimpse into the mysterious world of indigenous panarchistic property relations.

The Whiteman came up to The Indian, pointed at the ground, and asked, "Does this land belong to anybody?" The Indian said, "It doesn't belong to me." The Whiteman looked nervously around, saw no Real People watching, said, "Then it belongs to me," and stood back to see what would happen next. As the saying goes: "Shit happens." Centuries later, The Whiteman is still saying, "This land belongs to me." The Indian has learned to speak, think and dream in Whiteman ways; she/he opens her/his mouth and says:

"It doesn't belong to anybody, but we are sharing the use of it, and anyone else who wanders along can have a share, too. We're sharing with the sun, moon and stars, with the blue sky and the clouds, and the rain falling down, and the rivers, lakes and oceans, with the birds flying overhead, and the animals walking, hopping, and crawling around, with the insects and all of the even tinier creatures, including the ones way too small to see, and the grass, and trees, and all of the plants, as well as the earth, and the rock below…none of it belongs to us, or to any one of the entire list of beings just identified….but we all have a share. That share belongs to us, but we can't go take it. Our share is a gift to us, and comes with a responsibility. It's a reciprocal relationship; we can lose our share if we fail to reciprocate.

"Our personal share is not a commodity. It cannot be bought, sold or traded. Our share ceases to exist when separated from each one of us. The potential for our share comes into existence at the exact moment of our conception, and continues to exist until the exact moment that we slip away from this world. Our personal share is determined by the laws of harmony and balance, to each according to their need, from each according to their ability, in an interconnected web."

This four-part introduction to an Indigenous perspective was undertaken in an attempt to look for allies from amongst the general Canadian population, and, as Delegate Zero, the Zapatista subcommandante formerly known as Marcos, has pointed out, the place to look is below and to the left. Boy, nothing down here but anarchists and Marxists, and you're downright unfriendly towards the notion of spirituality, for the very good reason pointed out by Ellen Meiksins Wood, above. That makes for quite a gap between the position I am trying to articulate, and the place where you Canadians below and to the left are.

As if messing around with anarchy isn't bad enough, now I'm going to ruffle some Marxist feathers. Panarchism challenges Marx's concept of historical materialism, not to deny it, but to point out that, as anyone studying quantum mechanics will be quick to confirm, there is more to the material world than meets the eye. In fact, scientists complain that sub-atomic particle physics is completely mysterious. In order to understand the stuff of the universe, western scientists whack things apart and then watch and record what happens. Indigenous epistemology proceeds by creating a space in which we can engage directly in dialogue with so-called "things," in order to understand. We call the creation this research space "ceremony." To the western scientific mind developed by of thousands of years of a specific set of traditions, this method of research is absolutely mysterious.

Perhaps Western Civilization's insatiable lust for material objects stems from this delusionary positioning of self as objective observer, a Descartean talking head, while the indigenous methodology brings deep satisfaction from the experience of being directly involved right in the mysterious, without any need to de-construct or rationalize the experience. Indigenous ways of knowing calm fears of scarcity, like a fresh newborn human at mother's breast. More spiritual understanding brings less material need. Archeological records show that indigenous technology in my homelands was in a stable steady state for at least twelve thousand years. The recordings of the first missionaries onto the northern plains show that the folks they met living here had most of the day free to play, sing, laugh, visit, tell stories, engage in ceremony, contemplate, recreate and celebrate. Going all the way back to the 16th century, missionary writings show the Black Robes' frustration with this state of affairs, widely encountered across the territory now called Canada.

In pre-colonial Nehiyaw ceremony, we opened spiritual invocations with "mamotowsit," "the Mystery." The Black Robes convinced us to use "mamoway ohtawimaw," literally "Our Father," instead, but, no matter what words are used, indigenous Elders regularly hear the inaudible and see the invisible. Physicists' superstring theory, with its seven additional coiled up dimensions and at least two flows of time, is an acceptable explanation for the question: "Where do our spiritual grandmothers and grandfathers, whom we encounter in ceremony, come from and go back to?"

Panarchism's challenge to the notion of "rationalism," a philosophy that could be summed up as "the view that the world consists of phenomena that can be understood, reduced to basic principles, and manipulated," comes from the fact that our "grandmothers" are not rooted in human concepts of time and matter, but in Mother Earth and the mysterious universe beyond. Indigenous Peoples are not lefties in a Marxist or any other sense; perhaps Karl Marx was an incipient indigenist who had the great misfortune of being born in Europe in the 19th century.

Yes, I am typing these words on a computer. Yes, they may be broadcast on the Internet. Yes, this instantaneous capacity to exchange ideas globally is an example of historical materialism in action. However, consider this: As well as the computer and the Internet, I have the sweatlodge. In the sweatlodge I meet with my grandmothers and grandfathers. These ideas I'm trying to communicate via computers and the Internet are not my ideas. These ideas are not shaped by computers and the Internet. Rationalism meets panarchism. As one insignificant individual Indigenous being, I welcome Western Civilization's Peoples to Turtle Island.

One of the Real Indians, a little man named Gandhi, who somehow reminds me of a little Cree-Ojibwe man named the Big Bear, was asked what he thought of Western Civilization. His response was: "It might help." Now, if you'll just stop trying to destroy us, we may be able to help you with Gandhi's suggestion.

Stewart Steinhauer sets readers straight on the meaning of anarchy and how 'panarchy' offers some hope for the future.

Le destin des Bushmen est en suspens

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 22:20:02 +0000

Les bushmen luttent pour leur survie dans un procès intenté contre le gouvernement du Botswana

Roy Sesana, aussi connu sous le nom de Tobee Tcori, porte-parole et chef de file de l'organisation First People of Kalahari

« Je me demande de quel développement il s'agit lorsque les gens vivent moins longtemps qu'avant ? Le sida fait des ravages parmi nous. Nos enfants sont maltraités dans les écoles et ne veulent plus y aller. Certains d'entre nous se prostituent. Nous n'avons pas l'autorisation de chasser. Les gens se battent entre eux par ennui et parce qu'ils boivent. On commence à constater des suicides. Nous n'avions jamais vu cela. Cela fait mal à dire. Est-ce cela le développement ? »

Voici le triste constat dressé par Roy Sesana, le porte-parole de First people of Kalahari (FPK), une organisation qui regroupe les Bushmen Gana et Gwi du Botswana, des populations de chasseurs-cueilleurs vivant dans le désert du Kalahari depuis 20 000 ans. Lors d'une visite de sensibilisation en Europe, R. Sesana a reçu à Stockholm le Right Livelihood Award 2005, plus connu sous le nom de Prix Nobel Alternatif, pour sa « détermination à résister à l'expulsion de leurs terres ancestrales ».

Une oppression qui date
« La question de notre terre est depuis longtemps un enjeu de taille et les problèmes ont commencé dans les années 80. Le gouvernement du Botswana a tenté de nous expulser de notre terre ancestrale, la réserve du Kalahari, et ses attaques se sont faites à répétition », rappelle le leader de FPK.

Le combat des Bushmen s'est intensifié en 1997 lorsque le gouvernement botswanais a délogé 2 000 habitants de la Réserve du Kalahari Centrale (CKGR) pour les installer dans les camps de Kaudwane, New Xade et Xere. La dernière expulsion massive s'est produite en 2002, la même année où le nombre de licences d'exploration diamantifère a plus que triplé dans la région. Quelques 700 personnes vivant encore dans la réserve ont été envoyées de force vers ces camps de relocalisation, baptisés « lieux de la mort » par ses occupants.

Selon l'organisation internationale Survival, très engagée dans la défense des peuples autochtones, Gana et Gwi « ont été arrêtés, battus, torturés et interdits de chasse et de cueillette ». Le 24 septembre dernier, les membres du FPK ont été emmenés et brutalisés par les forces de l'ordre au moment même où ils apprenaient l'attribution du Prix Nobel Alternatif.

L'organisation First People of the Kalahari (FPK) a été crée en 1991 pour défendre les droits de l'homme et spécialement le droit à la terre

Le gouvernement pris en défaut Ce sont alors 248 expulsés qui ont plaidé leur cause devant la Haute Cour de justice du Botswana à partir de juillet 2004. Le gouvernement du président Festus Mogae s'est alors retrouvé en position de défense dans un son propre pays.

Malgré les interruptions et les reports d'audience, les témoignages et contre-interrogatoires ont tourné en faveur des Bushmen, démontrant que la défense de l'accusé se basait sur de nombreux mensonges, contradictions, rapports fallacieux et attestations d'experts corrompus.

Conséquence tangible de cette attitude mystificatrice, le principal avocat de la défense et conseiller spécial du président Festus Mogae s'est vu ordonné sa propre arrestation et incarcération pour outrage à la Cour. Celui-ci, refusant qu'un officier de police porte la main sur lui, s'est enfui à l'aide d'un témoin cité par le gouvernement.

Dans la Réserve du Kalahari Central, au Botswana

Un rapport de force inégal Le gouvernement, ne voulant épargner aucun moyen pour parvenir à ses fins, a cherché à déstabiliser ses accusateurs en employant des moyens de pression souvent ignobles et allant à l'encontre de la justice. Ainsi, le périmètre de la réserve a été bouclé, empêchant toute communication, apport de soin et de nourriture. L'approvisionnement en eau des derniers opposants à la déportation a également été coupé. Malgré l'autorisation de la Haute Cour, les avocats n'ont pas pu consulter leurs clients restés dans la réserve.

Enfreignant la loi en vigueur, les autorités locales ont supprimé les permis de chasse qui permettaient aux habitants des camps d'échapper à une famine cruellement orchestrée par le gouvernement. De nombreuses personnes sont régulièrement arrêtées pour avoir outrepassé cet ordre inique. En Juin dernier, sur le même motif, sept personnes ont été torturées par des fonctionnaires du Département de la faune et la flore dans le camp de relocalisation de Kaudwane. L'un d'entre eux, Selelo Tshiamo, a succombé à ses blessures.

Sentant cependant le vent de la justice tourné en sa défaveur, le gouvernement a décidé de redéfinir les cartes du jeu en changeant, ni plus ni moins, la Constitution du pays. Le Parlement a alors voté un amendement supprimant une clause qui offrait une protection attentive de la Réserve et de ses habitants et sur laquelle les Bushmen appuyaient leur cause.

Selon Stephen Corry, directeur de Survival International, « le gouvernement affirme vouloir changer la Constitution afin de la rendre « ethniquement neutre ». En fait, supprimer cette clause revient à retirer la seule protection constitutionnelle accordée à un peuple déjà très vulnérable au moment où il en a le plus besoin. (…) Tout cela confirme la tendance du gouvernement à faire plier la loi et même la Constitution pour arriver à ses fins ».

En attente de justice
La tournure des évènements semble de mauvais augure pour les populations Bushmen du Kalahari d'autant plus que les agressions et les menaces de mort à leur encontre se sont intensifiées ces derniers mois. Les lenteurs et les égarements de la Cour prolongeant le procès le plus coûteux de l'histoire du pays ne font qu'ajouter à leur interminable souffrance.

« Si le gouvernement du Botswana ne revient pas rapidement à la raison et (…) si la Cour fléchit, ce procès mettra un terme définitif à l'existence des Bushmen gana et gwi. Leur dernier espoir repose probablement sur l'opinion internationale, la plus Haute Cour qui soit », avertit S. Corry avec un pessimisme relatif.

Toutefois, les juges semblent faire preuve d'impartialité en n'écartant aucun témoignage et en refusant l'attitude autoritaire de la défense. Une récente décision de la Haute Cour allant dans le sens du retour des déplacés offre une lueur d'espoir quant à la suite du procès. Un éleveur et sa famille ont reçu l'autorisation de rejoindre la Réserve, de récupérer leur troupeau de chèvres tout en ayant accès à l'eau potable.

Le procès intenté par les Bushmen au gouvernement du Botswana a été ajourné le 15 septembre jusqu'en février 2006 pour permettre aux Bushmen de réunir les fonds nécessaires à la poursuite de leur action.
A paraître, le second volet de l'article.

La lutte des Bushmen du Botswana pour leur terre et mode de vie arrive à son point critique. Le Dominion tente de cerner les évolutions de ce cas flagrant de non-respect des Droits fondamentaux des peuples autochtones.

13 sentenced from Kanehsatake raid

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 03:00:37 +0000

On Jan 20th, 13 Mohawks from Kanehsatake were sentenced to 3-15 months in prison for their part in resisting an attempted takeover of the Kanehsatake police force in 2004 by then Grand Chief James Gabriel. The takeover, linked to the Indian Affairs Department and the Solicitor General, involved almost $1,000,000 in government funds and 60 hired mercenairies.

Allegations over the past 2 years from anti-poverty and anti-colonial organizations, as well as former Quebec Public Security Minister Jaques Chagnon, have claimed that the raid was illegal and targeted against opponents of Gabriel in the Kanehsatake police commission. Gabriel has also been accused of secretly negotiating Bill S-24 targeting Mohawk tax exemptions and autonomy in 2000 and secretly signing a policing agreement with RCMP and Surété du Quebec (SQ) without band support in 2003 and misusing millions in band funds.

Although senior government officials have repeatedly claimed the raid was illegal and the RCMP and SQ stated publicly that they argued against it, Judge Nicole Duval-Hesler sentenced 13 Mohawks, in some cases with higher prison tenures than the prosecutor had asked for. Repeated demands for a new trial for the convicted, a judicial inquiry into the raid and a financial audit of band funds have not been met.

Geordie Dent

» CBC: Robert Gabriel sentenced to 12 months for Kanesatake riot

» Globe and Mail: Mohawks put police under siege

» Justin Podur: Mohawk Warriors face Canadian-style colonialism

» CTV: Outburst forces judge to halt Mohawk hearing

» OCAP: Kanehsatake news

Toronto clinic violates Canada Health Act: Coalition

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 02:26:58 +0000

Plans by a Toronto health clinic to allow quick access to medical expertise and more time with doctors for a fee is a violation of the Canada Health Act, according to the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC).

According to a legal opinion prepared for the OHC by a Toronto law firm, doctors who accept fees for "queue jumping" and patients who pay them could be fined as much as $10,000. The planned clinics, run by Vancouver-based Copeman Healthcare Inc., will charge patients a $3,500 registration fee.

In a letter to Health Minister George Smitherman, the OHC called on the Ontario government to "curb the growth of boutique medicine and private for-profit clinics." According to the OHC -- which represents over 400 organizations including womens' groups, trade unions and antipoverty groups -- the government has the power to close loopholes, but has not.

According to a Canadian Press report, Smitherman has warned Copeman Healthcare that it could be fined, saying that "any attempt to extricate from an Ontarian a certain financial sum in advance of the provision of a medically insured service is not on." He did not comment on the request to "close loopholes".

» Canadian Press: Proposed private health clinics violate law

» Official Site: Ontario Health Coalition

Job growth, pay shrinkage last year in Canada

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 01:51:56 +0000

Low paying and part time work is growing faster than other kinds of employment, according to a new report from CIBC World Markets.

"Not all full-time jobs are created equal - some of them are low-paying and
low-stability jobs," Senior Economist Benjamin Tal said in a release.

The CIBC report found that the number of jobs in low-paying sectors like the service industry and retail grew by 7.9 per cent, while jobs in high-paying sectors like manufacturing and electronics grew by 4.8 per cent.

According to the report, "A direct consequence of the declining job quality is the relatively slow growth in labour income, which averaged only 0.5 per cent annual real growth per worker since 2002."

Dru Oja Jay

» CIBC: Unemployment Rate Hits 30-Year Low But Job Quality Lags, According to CIBC World Markets Report

February Books

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:28:12 +0000

Trout Stanley
Claudia Dey
Coach House: Toronto, 2005.

Dey, known primarily for her reimagining of the life of poet Gwendolyn MacEwan in The Gwendolyn Poems, leaps to poetic heights in this play, with language as fluid as the Pacific Ocean. Trout Stanley, a mysterious drifter and the play's title character, seems to repeat Dey's mantra when he states, "God, it feels good to talk". After two acts of situational hi-jinks, however, the reader begins to feel slightly tempest-tossed. Trout Stanley is Dey's third play, and despite the verbal pyrotechnics, there is a certain stale smell to it, not unlike the odour emitting from day-old tuna. Dey's clever puns and snappy dialogue aside, this tragicomic tale of twin sisters living in the district of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., complete with Scrabble-champ strippers and Egyptian soap operas, occasionally drowns in its own absurdity. Hopefully her next production will include a little more plausible plot and a little less wordplay. This first edition contains thought-provoking artwork by Jason Logan, whose sketches resonate well with the play's core themes of family, love, and the nature of truth.
-- Thomas Bryce

Goodness
Michael Redhill
Coach House: Toronto, 2005.

Goodness takes metatheatre in a fruitful direction. Redhill uses the author- within-the-play as a tool to investigate, not the usual questions of where life and art intersect, but the way that memory and event interfere with one another. The characters-- a female prison guard, a war-criminal charged with a single murder, the prosecutor, and the prisoner's daughter-- are matched up with an author whose wife has betrayed him, and their country's recent genocide is set against the Holocaust, as the author travels to Poland to visit the village where his mother's family was exterminated. Although this play takes perhaps too long to get started, and initially banks too much on the hope that the Michael Redhill character's schlocky self-analysis will keep the audience entertained, there are also genuine questions being asked. When the Redhill character, on having the atrocities committed by the prisoner described to him, turns to the prisoner and says, shocked, "How could you do that?" the question's very innocence is heartbreaking. Goodness is about the frightening simplicity of the answer to this question, and the complex way that innocence and guilt mirror each other in any search for someone to blame. --Linda Besner

Ladies of the Night
Althea Prince
Insomniac: Toronto, 2005.

This recently re-released collection of short stories depicts the small, hard choices we make when building or breaking our intimate connections. Prince's clear and descriptive prose moves to the heart of her characters' homes and families, and to the chores and relationships that contain them. The collection is set in Antigua and Toronto, and is rich in quotidian details of food, landscape, and expression. Undistracted by ideals of how life "should" be, Prince's sometimes brutal realism shows catalytic moments in the lives of girls and women; some very young, "just thirteen years old, a girl dipping into big people's story", and some like Miss Peggy who "had been whoring ever since she could remember, and she felt no shame about it." These tales cunningly present women's relationships to their work and to the men and children they do it for, revealing vast gaps of understanding between people who share their daily lives. Ladies of the Night is of memorable and disarming simplicity, and Prince's insights and plot twists make for compelling, compassionate portraits of both mistrust and reconciliation.
--Jane Henderson

There, There
Patrick Warner
Signal Editions: Montreal, 2005.

Warner shows considerable breadth in this collection, moving between light and dark subject matter, and from almost prosaic language to stanzas dense with auditory texture. "Tick, goes the metal gun against the teeth/" he writes, "the sheep mandhandled unsheepishly bleat". Many of these poems treat the relationship between the animal and human spheres, as Warner guides us through a slaughterhouse in "The Bacon Company of Ireland", or composes a poem of colloquialisms revolving around the word "pig" in "Pig Lyric". His use of occasional rhyme to emphasize the pairing of two concepts is faultless, and, in the best poems, he uses metrical regularity as a score to support the complex notes of his sound-play. Some opening poems lack the punch of those placed further on in the book, and Warner occasionally allows overly formal language to overtake poetic good sense, sewing up his observations in tediously slow-moving grammatical formulations. Once past this awkward stage, however, Warner comes through with stunners like "Watching the Ocean", which keeps the reader dog- paddling in the space between the title and the poem until, in the last two lines, Warner laconically throws us the rope. Hear, hear for There, There.
--Linda Besner

Besner, Henderson and Bryce review new work by Warner, Prince, Redhill, and Dey.

Evo Morales, president-elect of Bolivia, inaugurated.

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:09:16 +0000

On January 22, Evo Morales, leader of MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo, or, "Movement Toward Socialism"), and Bolivia's president-elect was inaugurated, and his cabinet sworn in. Morales won 53.7% of the vote in the December 18 2005 election, in which an unprecedented 84% of the electorate participated. Morales' unambiguous victory represents the largest show of popular support for a presidential candidate in the last 30 years, and came despite the strong opposition of Bolivia's mainstream press and despite allegations of electoral fraud in areas where MAS' platform has currency. One such area is the city of El Alto, where the vast majority of residents are indigenous people, and which has been an epicenter of popular resistance to 15 years of neoliberal privatization (1985-2000). Morales is riding the country's latest wave of broad-based struggle against what they call imperialist exploitation. Bolivia's Indigenous previously made headlines with the Cochacamba "Water War" in 2000, in which a popular uprising ousted the Bechtel corporation and decisively halted the IMF-sponsored plan to privatize water in Bolivia. The plan included a ban on collecting rainwater without a permit and drastic price increases.

Morales, a militant cocalero (coca-leaf farmer) of the Aymara nation, campaigned on a platform emphasizing nationalization of Bolivia's natural resources. In particular, gas reserves and reform – or, as Morales calls it, "decolonization" – of the constitution. These strategies are aspects of a broader program of indigenous self-determination: "[t]he moment has come for the original nations to take power in our own hands," Morales declares on his website. In Bolivia the Aymara and Quechua nations constitute the majority of the population, but only now, for the first time since the Spanish colonial invasion in 1532, are they being politically represented by an indigenous President. Despite the Bolivia's abundance of valuable natural resources like copper, tin, and silver, 64% of Bolivians live under the poverty line. Morales has promised to transform this state of affairs, but some observers have reservations about his intent to make good on these promises.

Morales has been criticized for having no clear plan to completely nationalize Bolivia's natural resources. Writer Jorge Martin quoted Morales as saying that "We will nationalize the natural resources, gas and hydrocarbons…We are not going to nationalize the assets of the multinationals. Any state has the right to use its natural resources. We must establish new contracts with the oil companies based on equilibrium. We are going to guarantee the returns on their investment and their profits, but not looting and stealing." According to some critics, this distinction – and the economic policy it implies – is a tenuous one.

Under intense pressure from private interests, the U.S. government and the IMF, many say Morales will be hard-pressed to follow through even with moderate nationalization plans. Arguing that Bolivia will not ready to transition into socialism for at least another half-century, vice-president Álvaro García Linera has characterized MAS' economic policy as promoting what he calls "Andean capitalism," the backbone of which is a combination of "community-based," "family-based," and "'modern industrial'" modes of production.

It remains to be seen whether, now that it has won the mandate, MAS will forget its left-indigenous origins and its popular foundations in social movements. Morales' administration faces a difficult choice: it can submit to pressure from the U.S., private interests, and the IMF, and lose popular support and the mandate; or it can nationalize hydrocarbons and risk losing IMF loans and promised debt relief, or being deposed through U.S. military intervention.

Reading:

» Monthly Review: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Bolivia: Searching for Revolutionary Democracy

» UpsideDownWorld.org: Bolivia's Trial by Fire

» Green Left Weekly: Bolivia: Bush's new nightmare?

» International Viewpoint The MAS is of the Centre-Left

» In Defense of Marxism: Bolivia after the election victory of the MAS - Morales cannot serve two masters

» Official site: Evo Morales