Stand up!

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I have a busy week coming up here, and I’m excited about it too!

This week is a week of action, to stand up against an issue that faces not only people around the world, but those of us closer to home as well, poverty. A lot of us will never know what it’s like to go hungry, or to want for something as basic as clothes and shelter. There are others out there that are faced with this crippling issue, who have no ability to feed and clothe themselves. Currently ten percent of Canadians find themselves UNDER the poverty line, which is the bare minimum the government believes necessary to survive.

I’m always very enraged to hear people call homeless ‘lazy’ and ‘welfare bums’. I do agree welfare can be taken advantage of, but I also think it’s necessary. Some people just can’t afford to live on minimum wage alone, and certain people are predisposed to living with incomes that fall below the Canadian poverty line. Groups such as single-parent mothers, autistics, aboriginals, the mentally ill, the physically handicapped, recent immigrants, and students. With such a disadvantage, effects as results of poverty may include poor health, substance abuse, homelessness, crime, and suicide. A lot of people find themselves trying to buy groceries and having their debit card bounce. This doesn’t mean that they spend their money unwisely, it could just mean that the costs of living are higher than their income rate. People tend to pass judgement on others too easily, dismissing them and their problems as someone else’s.

Students have to pay the costs of living, plus tuition, books and supplies. Student loans are there to help yes, but they only cover a part of living expenses and if you’re in a big city it’s very hard to cope. You can take a job, but that can effect the grades you achieve. Almost all campus’s have a Food Bank, and cities have local food banks as well. You’d be surprised how many people need these services to survive, young and old. Shelter is a big issue, and beds are becoming harder and harder to come by when people suddenly find themselves homeless and in need of a warm place to stay while they try and get back on their feet.

So who’s problem is this? Is it the people who are disadvantaged and at the bottom? Is it their fault they’re in these situations? Or is it really just the way the dice roll, and some people in life get shafted? Here’s a question…. If you could do something to let the government know that it’s not right that these people have to struggle so hard in a losing battle, would you?

I’m not going to sit here and tell you it’s your responsibility to do something about this, because I can’t change your mind if it’s a cause you don’t believe in… But for those of you out there who want to do something about it, Stand Up To Take Actions Against Poverty!

http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/


All around the world October 17th-19th, people will be arranging activists meets to ‘Stand up’ and send a message about poverty. Sometimes there will be bands, and activities based around the day of action to get more people involved. You can come out, meet up with people, and talk about the future and what you think needs to happen. We all have voices, and it’s time we started sharing them.

October 17th students from my University will be gathering together and standing up in the Atrium, to send a message. I’ll be there as their photographer for the event, and I hope that you’ll try and get in touch with the groups in your community, and do the same.

Find your local event
http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/en/events/map/954 Here!

See you there!

She's the bravest little girl you'll ever see,
holding her mothers hand while she sleeps.
She whispers quiet soul filled prayers,
telling her to have no fears.
There's three little girls and two boys to feed,
water to carry and a garden to seed.
Clothes need mending and meals must be made,
But clinics to far, and there's no money saved.
A day or two and time will come undone,
The sister will now become the mum.
She's the little bravest girl you'll ever see,
A mom to five and barely fourteen.

He's the bravest little boy you'll ever see,
Barefoot and hungry in an empty street.
His moms upstairs with a man he doesn't know,
But at least tonight they'll be food on the table.
He smiles and pretends that he can't hear,
When the men come knocking he just disappears.
He's no money for books, no uniform to wear,
A dirty face, and unkempt hair.
His dreams aren't of games, of sugar or treats,
They're of education, and a university seat.
He hopes and he dreams, with a heart filled with hope,
Tomorrow the missionaries come with toothpaste and soap.
They'll tell him stories and inspire his heart,
But he can never afford school, even if he is smart.
He's the bravest little boy you'll ever see,
A dirt smudged face and a silent plea.

It's the bravest little house you'll ever see,
One pair of shoes and sixteen feet.
The walls are a mixture of straw, mud, and reeds,
A roof of thatched palms from overhead trees.
A father of six and a grandchild afoot,
Crumbling walls are hard to stay put.
No electricity, plumbing, air conditioning or heat,
water is fetched from a mile away creek.
Sometimes there's laughter, sometimes there's tears,
but there's always hungry bellies and hearts filled with fear.
Food on the table is hard to come by,
with so many empty mouths sometimes they cry.
Blisters are plenty and hard work fills their days,
even the youngest helps till the last sun rays.
Coffee is grown with hands that take care,
What little they make is evenly shared.
It's the bravest little house you'll ever see,
With hopes of fairtrade and a loving family.


She's the bravest mom you'll ever see,
Walking the streets to bring home money.
Her body for business, her heart for her kids.
No where to turn without turning them in.
Minimum wage doesn't get you far,
theres bills to pay and she has needs a car.
She has no phone to call into work,
When Annie gets sick and needs a doctor.
Mistakes have been made, but there's no way to escape,
Superboy uses a towel for Halloween instead of a cape.
Kraft dinner again, tomorrow the same,
She needs to get help but there's so much shame.
If only the world could understand,
Without stigma and blame outstretch a hand.
They'll tell her she's no good, that the kids have to go,
They'll take away her heart, and they'll shatter her hope.
She's the bravest mom you'll ever see,
A better life in her dreams and her heels on the street.

You're the bravest student you'll ever see,
when you stand up and fight to stop poverty.

By Starsha Battrick
Starchild.art.creations@gmail.com

Avoid head trauma by following these helpful tips!

It’s that time of year again and a good deal of my circle of friends are busy bashing their heads against textbooks in a symphony of study frenzy.

Take it from someone who’s been there and done a lot of it. Studying can be one of most depressing and soul-sucking activities in your life. Without the proper preparation and approach, it can feel like an endless struggle against an insurmountable heap of information that refuses to stick in your brain.

There are a few things you can do to help yourself in the study process. The first and foremost? START EARLY! When you have half a semester’s worth of information to try and memorize, cramming it all in the night before is impossible. Inevitably, we never do leave enough study time for ourselves, so another important thing to do is prepare for what you’re going to study. Often professors give you a study guide. This is not a trick; it is one of the most key things you can use to limit yourself to only the necessary information. A tendency a lot of students have is to go over and over the same thing that they already know. We feel like we’re accomplishing more because we are affirming the things we’ve already learned so we don‘t feel so lost at sea, and we skip over the things we don’t quite understand. The things we don’t quite understand are the ones we should be spending time getting to know. Although this can be frustrating, it’s very important to fill in the blocks of knowledge we don’t have.

Another great study tip is to take breaks. Yes, breaks. They are very important and crucial to maintain your sanity. Study breaks will give your brain a chance to recharge for a few minutes and to refocus. If you stare at a page of information for endless hours, your brain starts to wander and sometimes you can read over the same sentence five times without actually reading a word it says. Study breaks help minimize the BBS (Busted Brain Syndrome) and let you come back after with fresh determination. There are a lot of things you can do during this downtime, but I’d suggest more active approaches to breaks than watching TV or a movie. If you go outside and really get moving, you can flush your body with a fresh burst of adrenaline that can really help wake you up when you’re about to fall asleep at the books.

If you’re in the opposite bind - which can happen when you realize how much you have to read still and suddenly panic - a more relaxing break with a cup of tea can be the right move. Soothe your stomach and your nerves. Cooking can also be a good way to relax, as it usually takes a little longer than short breaks and ends with eating - which is everyone’s favourite thing to do. A healthy home-cooked meal is good for your body, mind, and wallet.

Do you have any helpful study tips? Everyone studies different ways and has different needs. Do you have any creative or helpful tips for the fellow student? Please, feel free to share! The more, the merrier!

Make Love, Not War

We just helped a friend move and it took hours. But we entertained ourselves along the way. On one of the truck rides, all four of us beat out the rhythm to Gamma Ray’s music with drumsticks - some of us are musicians too, so we had plenty of drumsticks laying around in the truck - on the roof, seats, and each other’s legs! It was a blast and it made me think of how important they are.
I think friends are one of the most important things in the world.
They are that important… why? Because life would be boring and dull without them. Because they make me laugh so hard that I cry, sometimes for extended periods of time that make my insides cramp from giggling too hard. Because they make sure You live fully and completely, because a life without people to share it with is like playing Halo in single player mode: it loses its fun really quick. When you’re feeling down, they always have a way of picking you up and putting you back on your feet. Because they introduce you to new things - things that you might not have discovered without them! Like Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, how unlucky wearing matching socks is, or new types of music and new food like curry.

I think it’s unfortunate how high schools are so divided and classified; there’s a hierarchy that we all fit into while we’re there. You’ve got your outcasts, your geeks, your drama kids, your floaters, the popular kids, and the jocks. In high school, it was rare to traverse all classes. You might step up a category or down a category, but only the floaters had real movement between everyone. Guess what? You’re out of high school now, and those categories are GONE! It’s a lesson you learn quickly when you hit university and the real world.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious, it is the true source of art, science, and friendship."
- Albert Einstein

I was definitely a geek, but I learned in university how little that mattered. Once you’re out, you’re free, and if you accept that there aren’t limitations, then there won’t be. We make our own boxes and our own barriers. We self-regulate the people we hang out with and the people we think we can get along with. Throw everything you ever thought about who you can be friends with out the window. We are all drawn to certain people - we just get along with them easiest, but there are so many other types of people out there to get to know!

Put yourself out there all the way. It is key that you let them get to know you and that you try and let your defences down. Be easygoing. When weird things happen, learn to laugh in every situation! Sometimes life can deal you a rather weird dish - you end up in strange places, with strange people, faced with the unknown prospect of trying something you’ve never done before. DO IT ANYWAYS! You might be terrible at it? You might humiliate yourself? Perhaps it’s karaoke, or playing Dance Dance Revolution for the first time, or an instrument that you have no idea how to use. DO IT! Remember my motto - Never miss an opportunity to try something new! People love to laugh, and as long as you can laugh with them, they’re going to think that you’re great. Don’t be afraid to be embarrassed, because eventually you’ll become impervious to it and you’ll learn to laugh like there’s no tomorrow.

I find simply introducing myself and saying something really cheesy helps to ease tension and start easy conversations. Don’t be afraid to throw out funny comments or tell small jokes. I like to use, “Does anyone know how much a polar bear weighs? Enough to break the ice!” And then when people giggle uncomfortably, I ask if they’ve ever heard a worse line. It usually starts an interesting thread of discussion.

So make new friends, or at least cherish the ones that you have and let them know that they rock hardcore. Be genuine with them, if the opportunity arises, let them how much they rock and that they’re pretty awesome.

If you need some cheesy jokes to help ease yourself into a new situation, I’ve prepared a list of ridiculously bad jokes:

Did you hear about the boat full of burgundy paint that crashed into a deserted island?
The crew was completely marooned!

If you're too open-minded, your brains will fall out.
Don't worry about what people will think; they don't do it very often.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
The idea of housework is to sweep the house with a thorough glance.
No evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
If you look like your passport picture, you could probably do with the trip.
Bills travel through the post twice as fast as cheques.
Men are earth, women are from earth. Deal with it.
No man has ever been shot in the process of doing the dishes.
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three days before you need it.
Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognise a mistake when you make it again.
If you must choose between two evils, pick one you’ve never tried before.
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
A day without sunshine is like night.
A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.
Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

The power of choice

I have to admit something...

There's a little secret that I feel I should share...

I love coffee... There, I said it! I know everyone says it's bad for you, and that it can become an addiction, but I can't help it! If you shake a little cinnamon into your grounds before you brew it, it's wonderful. It gives it this little extra flavor that is both spicy and sweet… I also like those flavoured creamers, call me girly, but amaretto is the most beautiful experience. Right now, I’m sitting here with a cup of chilled amaretto coffee in hand and relishing about how awesome it tastes.

But do you know the truth about that cuppa brew in your hand? We live in Alberta, where a large part of our identity is that of prairie farmers. Here, our farmers can get crop insurance, and have a general guarantee of price of product. That doesn't mean that they have it easy, mind you. Farming is very hard and can be a struggle, especially when crops fail and droughts make watering large fields difficult.

Imagine what it's like in the communities that produce that cup of coffee that your drinking. I know the favourites are Colombian, Peruvian, and Guatemalan. These coffee farmers aren't guaranteed anything at all, and are actually at the mercy of international market demand curves. That means their pay rises and falls based around how much unroasted, green coffee beans that international companies are purchasing. Companies pay per pound, and prices have previously fallen below ten cents a pound. That's right, I said cents. Can you imagine labouring all day, for weeks, and receiving less than ten cents a pound for your product? This is often not enough to even cover the costs put into the beans, and doesn't come close to paying the workers, farmers, and people that have to handle and transport the goods.

With such low incomes, families are unable to send their children to school, provide medical services to them, and feed them wholesome meals. Did you know coffee is pushed on in developing countries as a 'golden opportunity'? If more people produce coffee, then the market is flooded with it, and the price they have to pay drops even further! People cut down their forests, clear cut, and uproot everything they know to try and make a better life for themselves, which in the end, often falls through. Before it reaches your cup, it often goes through between eight and fourteen different hands before it reaches the shelf. This is why it gets marked up, and up, and up going from ten cents, to that $6.00 pound of grounds.

Oh no, don't worry, there's hope! Lots of it! This isn't a blog about how destitute and devious the world is!

Let's jump to a little hut in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest, stretching along the Amazon. It smells fresh and clean, and you're walking along a small path to meet a community in Junin that produces Fair Trade coffee. Kids run around playing with a dirty basketball, and one chases a chicken across the path.

But what is Fair Trade coffee?

Fair Trade is social movement that guarantees the producer of a product is guaranteed a price for their goods that meets their needs for a sustainable future. It means they can pay their workers enough to feed, clothe, and send their families to school and provide proper health care. It also guarantees that the coffee being produced is grown under environmentally friendly conditions, and looks towards a greener future. It goes through fewer outside hands, sometimes being roasted and packaged right in the hands of the community that grew it!

So why doesn't everyone buy Fair Trade coffee? Well... It tends to cost a little more than your average brew. Not a whole lot, mind you, and I guarantee the quality of the product you're getting far exceeds anything you'd find in a tin canister on a shelf in a supermarket.

When you decide to buy Fair Trade, you're making a stand against the ways that big corporations take advantage of small producers. You're saying that you're not going to be taken advantage of as a consumer, and at the same time, sending a message that things need to change.

YOU HAVE A VOICE! Use it!

Every time you go to a coffee place to get a cup, ask them if they they're brewing Fair Trade.
I did it every time I went to Starbucks in the local Safeway, and guess what? Last time I was there, I got myself a freshly brewed cup of Fair Trade Peruvian coffee. People will listen, and if enough people take a stand, even big companies are going to have to take notice. In 1998, more than 21,500 kilograms of Fair Trade coffee was sold in Canada. By 2004, Canadians bought more than 940,000 kilograms! It's a movement that you should know about. Fair Trade is not limited to coffee; it spans to handicrafts, cocoa, tea, honey, cotton, fruit, all sorts of things!

So what do you think? Do you think Fair Trade is right for you? Do you think there's a place in the market for this type of product, especially if more people are informed about what Fair Trade is? I know it's not for everyone, it depends on the individual and their financial situation... but maybe now that you know what it is, because a lot of people don't, you'll ponder on it next time your grabbing a cup.

I dare you to try it...
(It’s delicious)


( For more Information...
Fair Trade Foundation - http://transfair.ca/
Fair Trade made simple! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade )

We're under assault!

Have you ever been attacked by an inanimate object before?

Maybe you were walking down the street, minding your own business and watching your feet to make sure you didn't trespass on one of those highly dangerous 'cracks', when something you least expected - like a large building, or a lamp post - jumped out of its way so that you walked right into it. Maybe you were walking across the lawn, looking to clean up those pesky autumn leaves, when that rake you couldn't find was suddenly caught under foot and snapped up and whacked you in the face. (Yes, I know it's from cartoons, but I've actually done it and I bet others have too! Right?) Or perhaps, unsuspectingly, you approached the cupboard, not knowing the dangers that lay within!

Just moments ago, I came home with a bag of groceries, having forgotten (as always) to bring along the many recyclable fabric bags that I've bought in the past to avoid having to use those little white ones. After putting my groceries away, I went to put the plastic bag up in the cupboard where we kept the others. I should have heard the eerie Hollywood music telling me a disaster was approaching, but as like happens in the movies, I was oblivious. When I opened it, I was rained upon by endless white plastic bags. I bet we have hundreds of them! I was covered with a mountain of bags that made it look like my kitchen was made of white plastic poofy clouds.
Plastic take hundreds - up to a thousand - years to degrade. (Although thanks to this kid, we may speed that up.) So in the meantime, what do we do with them? This endless plastic resource? Did you know that between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed each year? That means we all have a lot of plastic bags shoved in the random corners of our kitchens. Well, how about a few fun and funky suggestions for these nuisances?

HAVE A PARTY! I'm serious, I've done this one! Throw an -anything but clothes, recycle!- party! That means everyone has to show up in costumed made from recycled things they've found around the house. (A tip: if you put a piece of cloth over the bag seams and then iron them, you can bond them together! Below is a picture from our anything but clothes party earlier this year, it was a big hit!)

Need another one? With those bigger, more durable bags, you can make yourself a waterproof coat, which I think is wicked original and surprisingly stylish! This way, you're wearing a unique and sweet piece of gear that's sure to get you noticed.

Want some more? This website has tons of cool ideas - the wallets, for example, are pretty sweet. And we live in Alberta, right? What's better than a kite?
http://artontherun.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/5-things-to-do-with-plastic-bags/

And failing that, they are recycable if you take them to your local depot and toss them in with the plastics. But it's definately way sweeter to make them into something fun! Do it on a rainy day, or maybe as a fun and creative little project for your and your sweetheart. So what do you think? Think you'll give it a shot? Or maybe suggest it to someone you know that has a billion bags hanging around? Do -you- have any ideas that might be fun?