Over the past two days I have been facilitating a conference of First Nations health directors from around British Columbia. Every year or so, these folks gather to share ideas, learn about emerging trends and participate in policy development with government. When they go back home, these guys run health care systems in small First Nations communities, battling against many issues that affect First Nations health resulting in higher than average rates of diabetes, suicide, abuse, accidents, HIV/AIDS, communcable diseases and many other preventable causes of death and illness. At times I think the pressure of applying band-aids to the …
Viktor Yuschenko Here are the voices of protest from Kiev: “I don’t realize I’m freezing and exhausted until I get home every night and collapse,” said Alexander Kmet, his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders hunched and shuddering as he spoke. “But this is an inspiring moment in the history of our country. We have to be here.” “The truth makes us warm,” said Ala Babich, 38, a management student, before breaking into the protest song We Shall Overcome in English. “At first we watched it on television because we’re not so young anymore, and we live on …
When 200,000 people simply don’t believe it, look what can happen. The Ukraine may yet reverse the trend of many former Soviet republics and join Georgia in turning back creeping authoritarianism. How can this be happening around the world and the 2000 election get stolen so easily in the USA? Where were the protests in the streets if people believed so strongly that George W. Bush stole the White House? Can you imagine 500,000 people gathered everyday outside the US Supreme Court to state their opposition to the fraud they believed was committed? Look around. Masses of people who know …
From a fantastic essay in the November issue of Harpers magazine called Quitting the Paint Factory: On the virtues of idleness: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req�uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the …