We’ll be back next week! See you in 2012! In the meantime…catch up on past posts and write something of your own!!
Posted in December 2011 …
Providing Opportunity for Women in Sport
by Jesse Nelson
My friend and I manage a brand new non-profit indoor soccer league on the North Shore. When we first sat down to map out how we wanted the league to look, we knew that one of our primary objectives was to run an all-women’s indoor league, in addition to a men’s and co-ed league. As our league is a subsidiary of the North Shore Girls Soccer Club (NSGSC), one of the largest girls and women’s outdoor soccer leagues in Canada, we wanted to carry on their mandate of providing opportunity for women in sport.
North Shore Indoor Turf Bubble
Fasting: The Hunger Cure
by Kyle Estes
When the majority of people think of fasting, the first thing that comes to mind is religious fasting or holiday fasting. In actuality, fasting is the most ancient and successful form of treatment for any sort of disease, whether it is physical or mental. It all boils down to common sense really. Every animal on our planet will perform a fast in order to cure itself when it becomes ill. There is a reason that you have a decreased appetite when you become sick. This is your body is telling you that your stomach needs a break so it can work on fixing what needs to be fixed. When you keep forcing food down your throat; you keep feeding the disease or whatever illness you may be suffering from. Food is the most addictive substance known to the human species. This is often overlooked, but it is the truth. For many of us, when we become sick, although we might not be hungry, we still force ourselves to eat because eating provides us with a familiar feeling of comfort. Fasting is the quickest, cheapest, easiest, and most effective way to cleanse your body of any toxins or disease you want to get rid of.
Drinkin’ Bassnectar
by Justin Shoub
Throughout the history of struggles for social change, music has always played an important role in linking political action and desire for a new direction with the forces of culture and community; The strength of collective action grows immensely when those participating in it have been linked through a shared sense of identity.
Music and other forms of art have been able to act as agents of culture in this respect; an aesthetic and a message come together to create a culture of resistance and progression to move social forces in a new direction. Jazz, Rock, and Hip Hop all have proudly been part of efforts to reformulate culture and community, and have helped solidify collective desires and actions for social progress by linking them with a cohesive cultural aesthetic.
DJ Mayor – Gregor Robertson warms up the Biltmore!!
by Sarah Allan
We don’t usually post on Sundays, as Sunday is a day reserved for sleeping in, long brunches, laundry and at my house, football, but last night something happened that I feel must be shared, because if I wasn’t there to see it for myself I might not believe it actually happened. Gregor Robertson, Vancouver’s 39th Mayor who was just recently re-elected for a second term, DJ’d an almost hour long set at the Bilmore Cabaret for the third anniversary of their ever-popular Saturday night dance party, Glory Days alongside DJ’s Rico Uno and Sincerely Hana. That’s right, the Mayor of Vancouver did a DJ set…and it was actually awesome!
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers – And the Every Day Fight
by Sarah Allan
Today is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This day of observance and action was created to call attention to crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. While atrocities like the murders of dozens of survival sex workers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) by Robert Pickton and the serial murders of sex workers in Seattle, Washington by the Green River Killer drew the attention of the popular media for their salacious details, many sex workers continue to routinely experience physical and sexual violence, as well as discrimination and marginalization. While women in general experience disproportionate amounts of violence in this world, and in Canada, for sex workers, their exposure to violence and their stigmatization is exasperated and their ability to protect themselves is hindered by the current legal framework and the ideologies espoused about sex work and women, in support of these laws.
Vancouver, 1984
http://blip.tv/first-coalition/sex-worker-rights-a-public-service-announcement-from-first-4153124
Military Adventurism is No Path to Peace
With power as the obvious incentive, we’ve seen a horrendous amount of military adventurism in Afghanistan – a country of strategic location, exploitable resources and an increasingly fragile society. From the Soviet invasion of the 1980’s to the US occupation in the early 2000’s, followed quickly by Canada and NATO today, history proves these desperate attempts at a grab for control by belligerent, hegemonic countries has never done a thing to bring the lofty goal of so-called ‘stability’ to the land or it’s population.
If you take a country where, for much of it’s history, every ounce of it’s soul has been committed to the relentless battle of trying to fight out a foreign imperialist presence, well, it seems too obvious that it’s politics are going to be corrupt, it’s cities are crumbling, it’s women and children face massive neglect or abuse and it’s main export is an illegal substance. When you create a warzone and continue for years to solidify a military presence rather than let a society implement the structures required for peace, you instill within minds that the only way to address a problem is by force, violence and corruption.
Love is Intuitive
by Kyle Estes
Being in Love is a beautiful thing. I’m not talking about the conditional, romantic kind of love though. I’m talking about being in Love, with everything, unconditionally. If you live your life truly in Love with yourself and everything else, you will soon realize that Love rules everything around you. In fact, it’s the only rule that the universe knows.
Recently I’ve discovered that if I do not judge anything and I accept everything for what it truly is, especially myself, I do not have any conflict in my life whatsoever. When you spend just a second in your heart, acknowledging the truth, your earthly experience becomes much clearer. And easier for that matter! It’s like you’ve removed the sunshades from your eyes and you can see the light. We all have the capability of finding pure joy and excitement within every moment of our lives. You just have to give in to the almighty truth and everything will begin to make sense. I know things are looking pretty strange on our planet right now, but nothing is wrong. There is no evil. These judgmental perceptions are an inorganic manifestation of the human psyche. The truth is, everything is just right. Things just happen to get a little weird here on earth, which I consider to be the Vegas of the universe.
Inclusion not Exclusion: The Best Form of Activism
Political and Social Justice activism is an important democratic duty we must never cast aside no matter what type of scrutiny is faced. We all know there is a division between protestors and non-protestors: those who physically take a stand, and those who think you must either ‘get into the system’ or simply vote if you want to change society, (and who therefore view protests, whether peaceful or forceful, as a nuisance.) This is an age old divide that is closely aligned with classism and right vs. left wing philosophies. It is something that one would think would unite everyone who is on the same ‘side’: the ones for democratic protest vs. those against it. But if you take a closer look, nothing is black and white.
It’s clear that those who engage in activism are also sometimes divided amongst themselves. Some are adamant that, for many of the world’s problems that have been ignored for years by the higher-ups, force is necessary to bring about change. That anger is the only way forward and the only way to start getting people in positions of power to realize the real threat of the majority who their policies affect. And this is not hard to understand. I’m sure everyone who has seen any documentary about the concentration of wealth, power and control of the media (and therefore much of public opinion) begins to feel the heat of rage overcome them. You begin to want to scream ‘Do something!’ to your peers as well as the officials at fault. This method of activism is surely effective in bringing attention to issues that matter, but the question comes when you start to look at the effectiveness of the way we carry out our message. How will people – from those in the streets to those in office towers – respond in an open and supportive manner? Is anger and sometimes the exclusion that come with this anger the best way to be heard and promote change? Does it turn people off and make them want to ignore your issue? Well yes, sometimes it does.
