Monthly Archives: April 2004

Collective Amnesia? The Latest Animation from Mark Fiore

Politics

BUSHIRAQ

Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. Bush. Bush. Bush.
Sometimes, it seems that’s all we hear about in the news. More and more, the national media of Western countries seem unable to recall the world beyond Iraq’s borders.
When was the last time you saw published reports about the holocaust in the Sudan (and the involvement of the Canadian oil company, Talisman, in this largely unreported incidence of African genocide?), or the mass, forced eviction of thousands of families from their homes in Angola?
This morning, VanRamblings publishes Mark Fiore’s most recent animation, which provides needed insight into the current situation in the Sudan.

World’s Smallest Political Quiz
Take the Quiz now and find out where you fit on the political map!

Politics

Thanks to the folks at Talk Left for pointing us to the world’s smallest political quiz. As you can see below, VanRamblings came out as (and I’m sure this will surprise all of VanRamblings many readers) … “left liberal.”


According to the folks who put this quiz together, “left liberals” prefer self-government in personal matters and central decision-making on economics. They want government to serve the disadvantaged in the name of fairness. Leftists tolerate social diversity, but work for economic equality.
There’s a somewhat longer, more in-depth quiz here, for those who possess both the time and the inclination.

HOWARD STERN VS. OPRAH

Unbelievable Truth

the-unbelievable-truth.jpg


OPRAH

HOWARD STERN VS. OPRAH
All the while that the Federal Communications Commission is crying foul about disc jockey Howard Stern’s behaviour on American radio, notorious afternoon talk show time waster Oprah Winfrey has been dirtying the broadcast airways with sex talk that would curl your hair.
On a recent show, an Oprah magazine writer described in jawdropping, lewd detail, the latest fads in teen sex. Viewers learned that a “tossed salad,” had little to do with healthy eating, but instead referred to oral sex to the anus. The guest went on to describe “rainbow” parties — gatherings at which a gaggle of lipstick-wearing young girls provide oral sex to one or more males.
Robert Hilliard, co-author of Dirty Discourse: Sex and Indecency in American Radio, feels that shows like Oprah’s pass muster because they inform, not titillate. Shyeaah, right …


DENZEL

FIRE BURNS HOT !!!
The buzz on Denzel Washington’s new flick, Man on Fire, is hotter than a June bride on her wedding night. Action-packed with a great big dollop of heart right at its centre, Denzel’s work on screen is nothing less than superb, as combustible as we’ve ever seen him. And, don’t let 10-year-old co-star Dakota Fanning’s tender years fool you — she’s a professional through and through, matching Denzel’s work scene-for-scene in Tony Scott’s flammably intense production.

Continue reading HOWARD STERN VS. OPRAH →

Gordon Campbell: British Columbia’s Premier Hates Women
And: Children, Aboriginals, Seniors, the Disabled, and the Poor

BC Politics

NOHEART

Much like support by women across the U.S. for the Bush administration, support among women for Gordon Campbell’s Liberals is all but absent.
According to an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in March, only five percent of women “strongly approve” of Campbell’s performance as premier. Ten times more British Columbia women, 50 percent, “strongly disapprove” of the way the B.C. Liberal premier does his job.
In a cover story published in Vancouver’s alternative newspaper this week, Georgia Straight news editor Charlie Smith reports on the changes to the welfare system that have increased the health, social and other risks of, mostly female, single parents, and the increase in child apprehension that has followed; changes to employment standards that have had a disproportionately negative impact on women; a $12.7-million cut in child-care services that has all but eliminated funding for before-and after-school care for children in this province; deep cuts in programme funding for women’s services; and dramatic reductions in funding for a raft of other social programmes, including deep cuts to legal aid, and the virtual elimination of funding for school-based hot meal programmes.
In total, while introducing dramatic tax cuts for their rich friends — in the process eliminating some 50,000 goverment-related jobs to pay for the tax cuts (mostly affecting women, and the immigrant community) — the B.C. Liberals have cut $5 billion from the provincial budget, while making devastating cuts to programmes which have disproportionately affected women, aboriginals, children, seniors, the disabled, and the poor.
In 2003, a United Nations-sponsored coalition of women’s non-governmental organizations, The B.C. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (B.C. CEDAW), released a damning report (here available in pdf form) providing insight into “the wholesale withdrawal of programmes and protections” for women and children since the election of the Gordon Campbell lead Liberal government, on May 16, 2001.

Drastic and discriminatory changes to provincial legislation and programmes have been made since May 2001 … that have had an especially pernicious effect on women and girls who are most disadvantaged and most vulnerable. Specifically, elderly women, and women and girls who are Aboriginal, of colour, disabled, lesbian, recent immigrants or refugee claimants, living on low incomes, or living in rural areas experience the harms … in particular and intensified ways.

In an accompanying Georgia Straight article to this week’s cover story, titled “In Their Own Words”, contributing writer Gail Johnson not only provides information on cuts of $843 million from the three government Ministries with responsibilities for child care, children, women, and families: the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services; the Ministry of Human Resources; and the Ministry of Children and Family Development, through the personal stories of women across this province, she reports on the real-life impact of the government cuts to programmes for women and girls of all ages, ethnicities, abilities, and economic circumstance.