On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Listening to this tonight:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/can-a-good-enough-life-fix-what-ails-us-1.6312282

Norway adds trans people to the "protected" list in their hate-crime laws.

https://www.reuters.com/article/norway-lgbt-lawmaking/norway-outlaws-hate-speech-against-trans-people-idUSKBN2852DL

CBC reporter Anthony Germain learns lessons about addiction.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/germain-pointofview-brothers-1.5852908

Baltimore Sun reporter David Zurawik on the need for a proper post-mortem among journalists in the wake of the Trump "Administration":

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bs-ed-zontv-trump-media-no-mercy-20201222-twriwoeftncvtc7vy7u6pldqj4-story.html

A boon of sorts for some of the bookstores I deal with:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/bookstore-business-rises-during-lockdown-1.5837661

As I said in the comments:

YES. This is exactly the point. Transit preserves civil society. Therefore it must be protected and defended, even as we defend funding for police, firefighting, public broadcasting, etc..

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2020/04/coronavirus-public-transit-subway-bus-ridership-revenue/609556/

Some musings from Vicki Mochama for Ottawa Metro on the state of racism amongst and within Canadians' hearts.

I have benefitted from white privilege. I know that. I acknowledge that. I want a more just world because I too will benefit from the consequences of its being brought about. One more of the things I fear is that I will succumb to the temptation to fear for that privilege.

Leaving this public, knowing the range of consequences...

PS: Adding a link to Saada Branker's opinion essay at CBC on the situation. Because it's also too relevant to ignore. Fatigue (and anxiety) responses to stories about intolerance should never be equated by bigots with having license to pull this crap. Anywhere. Ever.

Filed an application for a different job before I left the day-job office today. Seemed like the thing to do when I came across that particular ad on the website this morning. Especially after having to turn down another offer from a place where I'd really like to be working even in the face of a slight pay cut because of transit logistics and sleep issue aggravation resulting therefrom.

"Transit logistics"...a polite way of saying that buses can't handle everywhere I'd like to go in the region, for reasons of physics, budgets and physical safety of staff and passengers alike. And our light rail component isn't yet as far-reaching as the most ambitious of us in such matters would like yet. Ottawa-Gatineau has one line right now, with a second under construction. That second needs two more years before they'll certify it as safe enough for passengers to use on a daily basis. Track is still in the process of being delivered and laid down. Since the winter hasn't completely freed us from its grip yet, there's a lot of preparations yet to be made to resume the process.

And that's just for the Ottawa side's "Phase One" projects. Never mind our "Phase Two" still on the drawing boards. Gatineau is still playing catch-up on the "bus-rapid-transit" front. Their STO service just opened up a dedicated "Rapibus" roadway a year or two ago, and while there's a way to connect the O-Train network to the Rapibus line, there's a lot of paperwork and haggling between city halls, and the feds and provinces, before it can be done.

We're making progress and people can see that progress as it happens. But it's still not as fast as a lot of people need it to become. Employment, commerce, governmental logistics, recreation, family connections, a lot of stuff could become easier...but we have to wait. And persist in pushing for things to move.    

Some stuff I need to look at further:

Neuroskeptic: Can Science Work Without Trust? Personally, I'd rather that the trust within science can continue, but we know of those who think it supremely important to end all that. So we're going to need a backup plan.

Ta-Nehisi Coates gives us "Reparations for Ferguson". In which we see once more that the past isn't even past yet. I see more evidence for the arguments of some - including David Brin - that the First American Civil War still isn't over yet, despite the events of 1865.

Now here's one I wasn't expecting to see, from Jonathan Kay, on the subject of the stresses on the lives of retail and hospitality workers. I've known they exist for some time, but wasn't expecting this reaction from Mr. Kay.

More later...

Some of you already know about CBC Radio's show on technology and society, Spark, hosted by Nora Young. They've got a blog on Tumblr, but I decided to get the RSS feed sent to Livejournal. If you're interested:

cbcspark

Personally, I recommend listening to the actual show. Over the air or via podcast, take your pick.

The paranoid in me keeps saying that you can't have a dictatorship - never mind which nation(s) - without a Depression first.

And there's Professor Krugman over there trying to remind the powers that be that austerity is THE worst thing for avoiding a Depression...and being ignored.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/opinion/krugman-death-of-a-fairy-tale.html

(And the New York Times is shrinking their paywall-free article access from 20 articles/month to 10. This is going to have to be Dealt With by the Net at large some day, yes?)

I'll say it again: this was not the ideal ending to this particular encampment:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/11/23/occupy-ottawa-cleared.html

To be fair, it was far from the worst that could have happened, and I'm grateful that we avoided some of the messes heard about from Oakland, Portland, New York and other points.

The work of getting our society into saner shape (again, or for the first time, depending on your POV) remains unfinished, though. I'm convinced that the Occupy Movement can and should still be part of the solutions mix. I'm not entirely sure of the particulars of "how?" yet. That's something for the weeks and months to come.

Like improving our health care system, continuing the process of space exploration, and a lot of other things, this is still a work in progress. The editorial writers at the Globe and Mail, National Post and the Quebecor/Sun Media newspaper chain (English and Français newspapers alike) will continue write what they see fit to the contrary, of course, but cannot obscure the truth of this.

More on other topics later on. I'd be interested in your own thoughts in the meantime.

Gentrification and its fallout are on my mind a bit of late. Or perhaps it's more about the evolution of towns and cities over time in general that's been doing that preying. Whichever it is, I thought I'd ramble a bit. I hope you'll forgive me if it doesn't make complete sense.

Over at ottawa, there was some discussion that delved into the creeping gentrification in the back streets of Vanier, and the acquisition of several apartment complexes there and along St. Laurent Boulevard that seemed a bit suspicious to some. I can't say for certain if any of the commentary - including my own on that thread - was or is on the money. Not yet. And yet it still bothers me.

I have friendly acquaintances who consider Vanier a good place to run a business and raise a family. I'm not entirely sure they're wrong, based on the evidence of my own eyes and travels through that part of town in recent months and years. If ever I move out of Orléans, it might be a good place for me to move to. Or perhaps New Edinburgh next door, if the income situation works out just right. You see, I don't need a mansion. Just a place to hang my hat at night and stow my library and studio at any old hour at all. If it's convenient to a good tea house and art supply shop, that's even better.

Along comes Justin Beach with a new section added onto publicbroadcasting.ca devoted to the Casualties of Gentrification. He starts with a specific memorial to a particular building in Toronto that just fell to the wrecking ball to make room for something else, hopefully better than what was there...at least for those who hired out the wrecking ball.

And it occurs to me that a lot of honest people in Vanier see things in that part of town worth saving for the future of their neighbourhood and of the city forced upon them by Mike Harris' "shotgun marriage" bringing their homes into the borders of Ottawa, whether they liked it or not.

And if the improvements to the neighbourhood are done in just the wrong way, a lot of honest people who have little else in the way of alternatives are going to find it that much harder to get by. Or those who liked something they found there before it went "upscale" might find the "upscaling" has rendered the place no longer the joy it was.

And I worry.

And I don't even live there right now.