It's a mad mad world

This weekend marks the G20 conference here in Toronto. As highly anticipated as the Olympics in Vancouver with as much controversy. But guess what it's not ending in an all time Canadian Gold Medal/Olympic History win and people hugging police/each other in the streets. This is most definitely a fail.

And let's not blame Toronto- I'm pretty sure not ONE person that lives in this city wanted the G20 here. Who could blame them? These sort of "meetings" (let's face it- glad handing and back slapping of global fat cats) haven't ended well since the "Battle in Seattle".

I believe in social justice, I believe in our right to peaceful assembly and our freedom of speech. It's a basic human right after all. But I didn't get up and march today, instead I stayed home and seethed in anger, with bouts of worry about friends protesting, at the destruction that was laid forth.

There is a dissident group of douchey f*cks who come protest at large events like this to incite chaos. I'm not naming them on purpose because they don't deserve one iota of air time. Today, there was a 10 thousand strong protest in Toronto against SO many issues- and this is the time, the world leaders are here, they should be made to listen.

My friend and her daughter wore shirts that said "we will NOT shut the fuck up"- loosely this is a comment on Stephen Harper's refusal to give aid to developing countries that allow legal abortion. Last I checked, I'm a woman- Stephan Harper is a man- he can NEVER be raped and forced to carry the child of something so horrific as rape, what gives him the right? And to say that is how our whole country feels? (and anyone that wants to challenge this statement- we ALL know someone who has been the victim of rape- imagine if they had to have a child of it?)


I agree with these protests, the PEACEFUL protests, that did happen. But we all knew what was going to happen- the carnage and wreckage, the taunting of the police until they broke. The world leaders knew this, but they didn't really care. Frankly a more suitable protest would have been for all of us to chip in $5 and pay off their staff at the various hotels and conference centres to stop working/not show up. THAT would have thrown things into disarray far more than ten thousand people marching.

Since Seattle there has been precedent of destroying things to "damn the man". I was on the subway today and heard some terrible little youngins talking about - going to protest. What did they say- what was their spiel? They wanted to get "TO THE WALL, man" like this WHOLE thing is just some terrible Pink Floyd spin off. Here they are trying to damn the man in their Dickies cargoes and Doc Marten boots and who, I am very very sure, will be hitting up a McDonalds to satisfy their hunger on their way home.

I must be getting old because the hypocrisy of youth makes me want to punch them in the face.

And what bothers me is that these people don't have any idea, I don't even have any real idea about the G20, so I stayed away, because I can't protest something I don't totally understand.

But let's think on this- the people destroying American Apparel (and while it outfits hipsters and should be burned/the guy who owns it is a lech/pedophile) thinking it's "big business" don't have any idea that the owner of American Apparel fights in his own way against illegal immigrant laws in California that are meant to keep Hispanic people down.

People throwing bricks at a Starbucks, while I agree- their coffee is pretty bad (unless you are in Australia and then it's kind of a North American manna)-they were a SMALL business, who were able to thrive and rise to the top.

And did anyone think about all the people who are being called right now saying, "don't come into work", or "sorry you don't have a job anymore" because their work place is destroyed? While you think you are "hurting" the big wigs of these corporations- all you are doing is hurting the struggling masses and forcing them into the social system because you destroyed their workplace so now they can't make rent.

So again the acts of a few will screw over the many- so THANK YOU anarchists, you just diverted money from social programs to the police in a city that most of you don't live in or care about. Are you sure you aren't working for them? 

And THANK YOU G20, because you knew this would happen, and you let it happen- why is that? Because here we spend so much time talking about the protest to really understand what is happening behind closed doors. Your tactics are despicable.

I feel hurt; as a citizen of this city that I LOVE, that represents so much of what can be good in the world and it could be treated so disrespectfully by both the big and little guy.

Violence is NEVER the answer, if you have to resort to it- you are a small small person.

*UPDATE*

This is the Globe and Mail's link to the full statement released by the G20. READ IT, this is what we need to be protesting and holding them accountable for. http://tgam.ca/8BV

And thank you to the Globe and Mail and CBC for reporting on what is going on and keeping sensationalist journalism to a minimum.  

The Examined Life

It's an interesting thing being single and living alone. I've been at it for a few years now. Just tonight as I was compulsively tidying up the kitchen and marveling at the way I placed my pear for morning (just to the left of my Hokusai poster- I like asymmetry) I started to wonder if it is good for humans to live alone.

I'm not sure I could live with a flatmate anymore, I'm selfish about my privacy(which reminds me of my favourite Tom Waits song-Better Off Without A Wife) and in Toronto it costs probably about the same as what I'm paying, or more to live in a swish place with a flatmate. (And I use the term flatmate because it's more appropriate- we share a flat/apartment/rooms, not a room) I could conceivably and would be probably pretty happy to live with someone again. heh- but I might need to learn how not to be the one date wonder first.

But living alone, it's a delicious ode to solitude. Everything has a place and everything in its place. Now that I'm spending most of my waking life in the apartment, it's becoming highly organized. I scoffed at my brother when he told me he vacuums every night, but am I that far behind? Tonight after placing my pear- just so- I also took out a coffee mug and placed it riiiight where it needed to be for first thing in the morning.

I know in myself I have a tendency towards a bit of compulsiveness, is living alone an environment where this can thrive? Will I become more and more set in my ways and more and more neurotic the longer I co-habitate with just me?

When you live alone, a sense of order rings out over everything you do- to others it can look like total chaos, but it's a well orchestrated dance of one.

But if you live with others, or even a pet there are aspects of your universe that you cannot control. There is a modicum of spontaneity enforced upon you. And this of course lends itself to being flexible and adaptable in the face of change and circumstance.

It's not easy being alone, you have a lot of time on your hands. Time with which to think, and think over and think over again. It's a magnifying glass on your life. The petri dish that is your apartment is under the microscope.  And sometimes I feel that if I make my apartment perfect enough, then the rest of my life will be perfect too. Except there are outside circumstances outside of my apartment, things beyond my control which contribute to the non-perfectness of life.

Sometimes I wish little gnomes would come in and a)make shoes in the night (I mean come on, shoes! in the night? I need shoe gnomes-we allll do.) and b) move that pear to under the middle of the poster, just so I'll have to deal with a bit of a unexpected circumstance and keep me flexible.