After the oil spill

In my area of the world, grandparents, elders, and all those who hold by their tradition to watch nature's cycles closely- as if our lives depend on them- have mostly noticed the departure of migratory birds South for the winter. South into the waiting arms of one of the 21st centuries greatest environmental disasters. Where will the birds land and what will they eat while the sea (back to normal according to BP) still contains tons of oil beneath its inviting and deceiving surface?

Scientists and those who have lived in coastal areas all their life fear that because of this spill, the sea is dying from the bottom up. As oil sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it kills the microplankton, bacterial cultures, and endless and diverse forms of life which sustain the ocean as we know it-- and the ocean sustains human life as we know it. Even before this disaster, the ocean was in terrible trouble. When the fish are so polluted they can barely even survive living in these water I wonder what the people of the coasts will eat? When the plankton and seaweed affected by this spill die and stop breathing oxygen into our planet I wonder if people will breathe as clearly as they once did? And what of the polluted waters, the rashes, the toxins already found in Americans' blood who are unfortunate enough to live in what was once paradise?

When are we as a society going to get serious about not just stopping the damage we are causing to the sustainer of our lives and very existance, our mother Earth, and actually begin to repair the damage we have already done?

Haiti Fundraiser

Well like so many Canadians myself and my community are trying to do so much to help Haiti!

Brighton Yards Housing Cooperative has invited me to help them organise a multicultural fundraiser for Haiti, the Spirit has moved and the artists who have generously donated their time are incredible rising stars!

Up and coming hip-hop artist Little Shane is bringing years of indie experience to performing and MCing the event, while the shining new talent of Air Blaq and Far from Rich joining us means our audience will meet the new rising stars of such diverse genres as hip hop and folk. With such talented artists donating their time, this is not an event to miss! Multicultural diversity is the theme of this fundraiser, with Aboriginal dancers and singers also joining us in the mix with folk bands and reggae artists to round the day out. With food and vendors, there’s something for everyone at this event.

Come join us this Saturday February 27th, at First United Church in uptown Waterloo, 16 William Street from 1PM until 9PM and meet the new rising stars Kitchener Waterloo and the surrounding area has nurtured.

Tickets are only $5 per family and no one who is unable to pay will be turned away! Additional giving opportunities will be available at the event to support established non profits of World Vision, the Red Cross, Rooftops Canada, and King’s Kids orphanage.

So come out, meet all the talent K.W. has to offer and show your support to the people of Haiti!

Haiti disaster

I've actually been unable to write about the disaster in Haiti thus far.

It's too personal, too excrutiating, too deeply painful to write about.

I lived in a small rural community Haiti for a year when I was just out of high school, volunteering in a youth service and learning opportunity with Mennonite Central Committee. It is difficult to describe the impact that this had on me as a young adult, confronted with both the challenges and the resilience of the Haitian people. It gave me an opportunity to see with my own eyes what it meant to live in a failed state; inadequate police protection, overuse of force when the police were present, and terrible human rights violations because of these two things.

It also gave me a first-hand view into why the pursuit of human security is so essential; pursuing human security is the recognition that true peace is more than the absence of war. Without adequate food, without clean water, wihtout basic freedom from arbitrary arrest-- the population lives in fear and disruption that threatens at any moment to erupt into civil unrest.

This is the context for the disaster in Haiti. Already, people did not have enough to eat. Already, the majority of the population did not have access to clean drinking water. Already, the health care system was straining and threatening to crumble. And then- this. This disaster that left more than a million people homeless and more than two hundred thousand dead.

Why so many deaths? Why so many homeless in such a small country? Surely the Asian Tsunami of 2004 was, according to scientific analysis, a larger-scale natural disaster?

These are the questions in Haitians minds, and in the minds of Canadians as well.

Unfortunately, this question has an answer.

The disaster in Haiti was so wide spread percisely because of those pre-existing conditions I described. And especially, it was so wide-spread because of the inadequate, crumbling, and dilapitated homes (if people were lucky enough to have a home and not a shack built out of scraps).

I honestly saw houses that were built out of cardboard and not even taped together. The different pieces of the scraps of materials people found simply leaned together.

There was no way Haiti was equipped to deal with this earthquake.

Let's continue to respond in every way we can.