Meet The Elders

There are some initiatives which are so cool that you have to take a moment to truly appreciate them. Let me introduce you to The Elders.

Sounds very mythical or medieval-ish, correct? There was once a time a village, town or tribe would turn to its elders for wisdom and possible solutions.

Well, The Elders are real and they consist of some of our leading spiritual and intrepid minds. They are an independent group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela who pool their collective influence and experience to support peace building and address issues facing humanity worldwide.

The names are a who’s-who of leadership on our planet, from popular household names like Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter to leaders such as Muhammad Yunus and Ela Bhatt.

The idea of The Elders started in a conversation between the entrepreneur Richard Branson and the musician Peter Gabriel, reports the organization. They wondered how, in an increasingly interdependent world, could a small, dedicated group of independent “elders” help to resolve global issues.

“The Elders can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes. They will reach out to those who most need their help. They will support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair,” – Nelson Mandela.

The Elders’ agenda of issues are truly mountains, from humanitarian tragedies in the Sudan or Zimbabwe to achieving equality for women which are discriminated against through religious and traditional practices used to justify inequality.

If there was one group of people who can lead us to achieve fair solutions in these areas, I have to believe it is The Elders…if not them, then who?

Toronto now stinks…

The CUPE strike rolls on here in Toronto and all I can think of is how I am disappointed in my hometown, my stomping grounds, my Toronto.

Our city is starting to stink and the sights at the garbage dumping areas makes my heart sink. Hard to believe we end up having to take up parking lots and spaces in parks to take our garbage.

Sad to see a union striking during such dire economic times. Yes, the union is in a legal position to strike but does that really mean they have to? There are thousands of people out of work and suffering due to this recession who would enjoy just a quarter of the benefits of the 24,000 CUPE 416and 79 workers now striking.

Garbage stacked neatly at Ted Reeve Arena drop off.

I am also disappointed in my city that all we seem to focus on is our trash. How about our kids and young children who are dependant on city daycares and summer programming. They truly are the ones being robbed of something, being robbed of their summers and their parents are left in major binds. The thought that hard working parents could be incurring extra debt, whether by working less or finding private daycare, in order to care for their children, is incredibly infuriating and disappointing.

The disappointment I have heads straight to the top municipally, straight to our mayor David Miller. Our city has lost its way under his watch, I have felt it since returning and now after two years of being back I am convinced, new blood and invigorated leadership is needed.

Miller’s recent failed gamble with the federal government to try and secure stimulus funding for “shovel ready” projects was a farce. Here we have the feds willing to give away free money, much needed funds in fact, for infrastructure work and our fearless leader decides to make the city’s lone application be geared to the purchase of 204 new streetcars, to be built in Thunder Bay. Which part of “shovel ready” and infrastructure did our mayor not understand?

Toronto will survive all of this and rest assured, all of us taxpayers will be footing the bill for the overtime it will take to clean up these new dumping areas.

We have not been “Toronto the Good” for some time now and there definitely is something rotting in this city.

The garbage piles are merely symbols of it all.

Long live the King of Pop

The King of Pop is dead.

A quick scan of my cds and iTunes reveals not a single Michael Jackson tune in my collection, however, his talent was undeniable and we are lucky he graced us all with it.

Who has never rocked to an MJ tune or tapped a toe it? I’ve ripped up dance floors in Montreal, New York and recently in Hiroshima to Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough. I know I can’t dance but  that Jackson tune  oozes cool and you just need to trust the beat and his voice and it guarantees fun.

With every hockey or baseball player that retires or enters a hall of fame, it is a subtle reminder that people my age are getting older. You end up watching an entire career, from fresh-faced rookie to grizzled veteran and you do not notice the time pass. The same goes with hearing the death of someone like Jackson.

He was a talent who already was a big deal when I discovered him in the mid-1980s. His death is a touchstone moment, one of those, “where were you when…”, well, I was in my car and my sister informed me via text. Where were you?

The Thriller video is still incredible. Songs like ABC 123 always raise a smile and the grooves in Billie Jean, Bad and Beat It still stand the test of time. How about “the jacket” and “the glove”? What was your favourite thing about Jackson?

It is a shame he became freakish and was mired and muddied by molestation allegations and bizarre behaviour but his cultural impact cannot be ignored. He changed pop music and launched many careers by inspiring artists, from Justin Timberlake to Weird Al Yankovic.

Forget the tabloid stories and celebrate the artist.

The King of Pop is dead but his music will reign for generations to come.

Beautiful sketch of a young Michael by artist CarinaT.

Iran: Tweeting for free expression

The value of social media is gaining with every Tweet, Facebook update, YouTube video and blog post both from and about the escalating situation in Iran.

With the heavy-handed Iranian government cracking down on foreign journalists as protests grew over a questionable election in that country, social media and its varied weapons have helped keep up the good fight marching forward.

Updates via Twitter breaking news as it happens. Blog posts collecting various news threads about Iran have become invaluable. YouTube videos have been gripping and have driven home the plight of the protesters, labelled as “anarchists” by the government.

If you have not been paying no mind, what in the world are you waiting for? There are peaceful protesters, just citizens trying to express their personal freedoms and rights, being beaten down, crushed and killed in Iran. Thanks to social media and the will of those reporting, the news is there for you to engage in.

Screw when your garbage will get picked up in Toronto. The union is fighting to keep sweetheart clauses while 350,000 Canadians have lost their jobs since last October. I laughed when I saw the union pickets considering what true protest and fighting is unfolding in Iran.

This movement in Iran is now not so much about the results of the corrupt elections and having them overturned. The fight and movement is about the basic principle of free speech and expression, the least we can do is listen to these voices, straining, crying and proudly sounding off on the ground in the Iran and streamed right to the computer in front of you.

On Monday, June 29,  a  Bloggers Unite event will explore the crisis further, provide updates and most importantly, be the conduit for those voices fighting for a fundamental right of freedom of expression.

The following two videos from among the hundreds that have come out of Iran. They are gripping for varied reasons. Be warned, the first video captures the death of peaceful protester Neda Agha Soltan who was born in 1982 and died after being shot by a sniper, as she reportedly stood beside her father, as they watched protests. This video is graphic. On Deadline chooses to run this video of Soltan’s cruel death because she is becoming the symbol for the fight in Iran and drives home that what is happening there is real and not just a bunch of images without context.

People are dying there for the simple right and freedom you are enjoying right now.

The Death of an Iranian Protester

Poem for the Rooftops of Iran

Click to help lift the darkness

It is time to make this blog earn its keep.

Yes, I know, you are too busy to help or listen to or read a pitch about another worthy cause. Well, if you are one of our constant readers you know we tend to not bludgeon you too much on what you “should” or “need” to do…well…we do not do it that often…I think?

Thanks to WordPress and SocialVibe, this blog and any blog on WordPress has a new tool to help make some kind of difference, to help a non-profit group somewhere with their monumental task to help those in need.

You’ll notice a fancy new budge appear on the sidebar on your right hand side. It is here where you can make a difference. It is here, with a simple click of your mouse, you can indeed help. No dollars out of your pocket and none into ours either.

We have chosen to help raise funds for To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) which is  a not-for-profit movement dedicated to giving hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.

“TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery,” the group’s mandate states.

“You were created to love and be loved. You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you’re part of a bigger story. You need to know that your life matters,” – TWLOHA

We have teamed up with Power Bar to help sponsor our blog’s efforts to raise some funds for TWLOHA. The new partnership between WordPress and SocialVibe gave us some different causes and sponsors to choose between.

Why Power Bar? It about being healthy and training and easily applicable and available here in Canada.

Why TWLOHA? According to the World Health Organization there are 121 million who suffer from depression worldwide. Thanks to both my professional and personal experiences, I am intimately familiar with depression, self-injury, addiction, suicide and how far the veil of darkness stretches from depression.

This fundraising effort will be ongoing here at On Deadline. This effort is not about this blog or me, it really is about how we all can use  this “web-social networking” for some good.

It will just take a second to help. Move that mouse over and click on the badge there.

Click it to help lift the darkness.

Click it to help give some hope.

Mr. Harper, that is 100 per cent BULL!

A screen capture of the Harper government’s chest-thumbing website that claims 80 per cent of their economic action plan to tackle the recession has been implemented. 80 per cent you say? That is 100 per cent bull we say.

Pardon any typos or fragments instead of sentences in this blog post. It is tough to type as you pick yourself up off the floor, partly from shock, partly from laughing hysterically at the Tory government’s recent update on their stimulus efforts.

What in the world does 80 per cent implemented mean in the Stephen Harper world of politics? Considering municipalities and a handful of industries have been wondering about when exactly funding for projects will actually flow, the pretty map with shovels on the Tory’s Canadian Economic Action Plan website is just that…pretty with all those shovels in Tory blue circles.

Does re-announcing and recasting funding already committed in the budget or better yet, the cash which is late in flowing from the $33 billion Building Canada Fund, help constitute “80 per cent implemented”?

Between the ridiculous Ignatieff attack ads and the snazzy website, it is clear, the Tory’s are becoming a lot of flash and little substance.

I never supported the opposition party power move earlier this year to remove them but this latest proclamation of progress is a pipe dream and signal that Harper and his Tory’s need to go. Why? Because they are trying to play the rest of us for fools. Money has not flowed. Infrastructure dollars have not resulted in a wealth of shovels hitting the ground.

They are taking us for granted and the fact we bailed out our auto industry to the tune we did is reason enough to give these guys the boot. Media and the public is partly to blame as well in this. Everyone gets up-in- arms, including the opposition, over a minister calling cancer a sexy issue (which it is to a politician and in the realm of politics and that is the cold hard truth) but throwing good public money to a privately created problem hardly got people up-in-arms with the same outrage.

An election during a recession is a tough sell. Put that election in the summer and it even gets worse but the plug needs to get pulled.

However, here is what I fear, most Canadians and people are superficial when it comes to their news, especially in the multimedia age, so the Tory’s strategy might just save their bacon.

A nifty website, funny and attention-getting tv ads might deflect enough attention away from their bull which is 100 per cent implemented.

Kidnapped Canadian reporter speaks to AFP

Agence France – Presse has made contact with kidnapped Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout. Dedicated readers of On Deadline know we have written about Amanda’s plight since we learned about it and have tried to follow it as tactfully as possible.

The seemingly forgotten Canadian freelance journalist, who has been held captive in Somalia for the last nine months, says she has been sick for months. She also says in recent the AFP piece that she is sure she will die among her captors if Canada does not save her.

The frustration her family and friends must sense is unfathomable for me to understand at this end of the keyboard.

No matter the the outrage we have seen, from other journalism associations, on Facebook, on YouTube and among a small contingent of bloggers who try and stay on top of Amanda’s circumstances, I do not think we can really understand what her immediate family and friends are feeling from this latest report.

Once again, it is a delicate situation, how much attention should we draw to all this but this latest report begs the question, “How much is our country doing to free our fellow Canadian held hostage?”

Here is a video on YouTube about Amanda:

Here is a petition someone has started you can sign to help add to pressure to help free Amanda and her colleague Nigel Brennan.

Remember Tiananmen

Remember Tiananmen.

This week was the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. That event, that struggle for freedom 20 years ago has left us with the above image which beautifully depicts the struggle for democracy some people face.

Students, intellectuals, regular citizens, protesting in a public square, were too much for the communist Chinese government. They had protested for seven weeks, seeking government reform, seeking a new freedom of political will, not just in Beijing but in other centres in China. However, when enough was enough, military muscle was brought in to clear out the protesters and a massacre ensued, claiming up to 3,ooo people (depending whose figures you believe).

Here is a drum I have slammed at before, we have so  good here in North America that it is truly a blessing. Yes, we have poverty, racism,corruption, financial woes and hate but we have never had to fight for our democratic freedom on our own soil. We have never had to wrestle it away from a communist government, from ruthless hands that willingly crush their own to enforce compliance. Think of this lone, non-violent protester in the following video who is also pictured above, do you think you would ever have to show such courage and determination, in your life, in your time?

If you are a student, or were a student back in 1989, as I was, the majority of those killed or wounded in Tiananmen were your global brothers and sisters, your brethren. Think of the resolve, the bravery and faith it took for them to stand and protest for a better life, protest for change and protest for freedom.

Think Tiananmen is just a moment history? The Chinese government this week banned foreign journalists from Tiananmen Square. They ramped security as well. They are haunted by the dark shadow of that day. I also believe, they are haunted by the ray of hope it created as well.

Luke Sneyd & The Deed to Rock Lee’s Palace

No poseur rock here! Luke Sneyd and The Deed (LSD) are the real deal.

Smart lyrics. Straight ahead, honest rock. Real music not aspiring to be anything else but good music.

With their EP Salvo now out, LSD are beginning to hit the road and deliver their refreshing take on rock to a bar near you. The summer tour kicks off at the venerable rock n’ roll grail of Toronto – Lee’s Palace on Thursday, June 4.

Want a taste of LSD and what they have to offer? Check out their recent video for their new single called Fightsong :

Here is the video for The Prisoner, their first award winning single off the band’s first album:

Rock out this Thursday, come on out and watch Luke Sneyd & The Deed at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on Thursday, June 4.

Wednesdays with Jesse: 27-05-09

A DICTATOR BOY AND HIS TOY