Stilettos for babies - are those the Gates of Hell up ahead?

Stilettos for babies? So hey there Beelzebub, when exactly are those Gates of Hell opening and can you fit us all in at the same time? Will you give special consideration to the moronic, self-absorbed and tasteless creators of baby stilettos and anyone who buys them? Do they get the especially hot seats simply based on being colossally stupid and robbing the innocence of their babies?

 

If you have not read about them yet, here is the baby stiletto story which has confirmed to me that people should require a license to breed. In fact, this story now has me thinking people should need a license just to continue breathing. Anyone who comes up with this idea and even considers purchasing these stilettos, let alone buys them should be ashamed of themselves. It is called buy a doll next time and do not have a baby.

 

Yes, parents dress up babies in cute little suits and dresses. We all marvel and says “look at the little man” or “what a princess, look at the big girl”. Here is a newsflash for you stiletto-for-baby creators; they are babies and not there for your amusement. If you need something living to dress up like a trollop or similar to your Friday night cougar outfit, buy a damn Chihuahua. This is all about the voyeuristic pleasure of the parents looking for accolades for themselves about how “hip” or “cool” they are for putting heels on their babies. What’s next? Lipstick? Mascara? A bra?

 

I realize I have departed from my usual professional approach and prose for this entry but I cannot help it. I think the creators of these shoes need to sit through a child pornography or pedophile trial. I have had the unfortunate experience of sitting through both in my time as a reporter. Some of the evidence I have seen during those trials has made grown men, policemen and even a judge look sick to their stomach. I have seen the burliest cops cry outside of courtrooms for the images of babies and young children which have been twisted by sick minds.

 

To this day I am still haunted by some of the things I saw as I did my job. Those trials drove home one message to me:

 

Our children are truly a gift. Children are to be treasured and nurtured. Children are not meant to be play things for a parent’s amusement, there are enough sickos out there doing that. Parents are supposed to protect them from these monsters, not give them new candy for them to wet their appetite with.

 

Will saying sorry ever be enough?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to deliver an apology today to all Canadian Aboriginals for the horrific and disgusting treatment of young Aboriginals in former residential schools.

We quickly puff out our chests as Canadians about how tolerant and accepting our society is. However, you do not have to look too far back into our history to see the monsters we once were. It may have been policies of Canadian governments of long ago but the complicit nature in which the pain and abuse suffered by the students was hidden by subsequent governments may mean saying “sorry” will never be enough.

The aim of residential schools was simple, it was about assimilation. It was about taking the “Indian” out of young Indian children. They were taken from their families and homes and forced to go to schools for retraining.

United and Anglican churches in Canada have apologized in the past for their roles in the attempted assimilation of Aboriginals. The Catholic Church has yet to step up and formally apologize, what they are waiting for may be only God knows.

The stories of what happened to these students are raw and stomach turning for our society, the “just society” Pierre Elliot Trudeau believed Canada could be. Students had their long hair chopped, were scrubbed raw in baths and told they were dirty, uncivilized and their culture and religion worthless. Sexual and physical abuse at those schools scarred a generation.

The Canadian government has paid out $1.3 billion of an expected total of $4 billion in compensation to former students already. Money surely is not the answer for the damage done but is saying “sorry” enough? I am not sure it is but what else can Canada do?

Visit Where Are the Children? for more information on the dark legacy of Canadian residential schools.

Chop the Gardiner

Toronto needs to chop a portion of the Gardiner. Toronto needs to find the will and vision to take on such project before it falls even further behind other world class cities.

After nearly two years the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation recently released its report which provided a number of options for the aging roadway which snakes along the southern part of Toronto, effectively cutting it off from our waterfront.

To build a better city the report calls for the city to dismantle a 4.5 kilometre stretch of the elevated expressway from the Don Valley Parkway to Spadina Avenue and expand Lake Shore Boulevard to 10 lanes. That project carries a projected cost of more than $758 million.

The new expanded boulevard could like look University Avenue and that is a massive improvement over the concrete dragon tail that exists there now.

Our city has fallen into paralysis when it comes to massive infrastructure and urbanization projects. Too much NIMBYism, too much special interest group lobbying and not enough political will to better the physical footprint of Toronto has left us aging badly.

Our transit needs desperate expansion to improve commuter and reduce congestion. Compare our TTC to other “world class” cities such as New York, Paris, London and Barcelona. Yes, those cities have more critical mass which use their systems but expanding those systems also helped them build critical mass too! The lack of maintenance and expansion has hurt the TTC, leaving it in a financial crunch and raising fares to help keep their fleet running. Lack of vision has created this mess.

Connecting back to Toronto’s waterfront has been a lofty goal for decades but here is a report which does not try and tear down the whole highway but just a portion. The will required to make just a 4.5 km tear-down happen will help Toronto move that much closer to actually being world class. Let’s see if council gets it right this time.

Writer’s Block

It was creeping in slowly and now has settled in. I have hit my first-ever stretch of “writer’s block” on my blog.

At first, I thought it was just a migraine which was slowing me down. Then after a few days I thought it was a result of writing at work and not letting those stories go when I got home.

Of late, even laziness was considered but I cannot be that lazy to write if I am still doing it a work.

Some ideas roll to the forefront of my mind, like the steady Pacific surf pounding the coastline but they also recede to the back of my mind just as quick.

May be it is the calm before the storm? I just need to catch the big wave and ride it out.

Africentric school gets go-ahead

Toronto public school trustees have voted to give the go-ahead for an Africentric curriculum to begin fall 2009.

The program will offered to students from JK to Grade Five and will be open to students of all ethnicity. The program will be housed in an unused wing of Sheppard Public School on Sheppard Avenue West near Keele Street in Toronto. Some supporters of the concept have reportedly expressed disappointment that the program will apply to early stage elementary students and not high school students.

An additional grade will be added to the program every year. Black community leaders have pointed to the 40 per cent drop out rate of black high school students as a crisis which needs to be addressed and unfortunately the currently accepted program will not help.

Some trustees who voted against the proposal pointed to the variety of ethnic groups represented in Toronto schools who require help as well.

 

 

Stand Up for Mandaeans - Blogging for an ancient religion

 A religion thousands of year old is being systematically wiped out in Iraq and I dare you to guess which one it is. 

Have you ever heard of Mandaeans? Well, take a minute to read about the approximately 70,000 followers of this ancient religious sect now spread across the globe away from their historic home.

 

During Saddam Hussein’s reign in Iraq, Mandaean places of worship, called Mendis, numbered 4,000 and now there are only four. Go figure but Mandaeans had a better life with the dictator in place. Yes, they did suffer like others under the tyrant but now the lawlessness, native power struggles and religious extremism rampant in Iraq has made the peaceful Mandaeans an endangered race.

 

“We are a pacifists and it all boils down to being human - we are flesh and blood and no different,” Nabil Farhan, a Mandaean now living in Canada, told me last year in an interview. “We are facing a genocide, a systematic elimination and the international community is lacking in their response.”

 

Approximately 80 per cent of Mandaeans are now displaced, living in Australia, Europe and North America. The Mandaean Union reports that every day hundreds of Mandaeans migrate to nearby countries like Syria, Jordan and Yemen to join other families in exile.

 

“These immigrants live in inhumane conditions, mostly on charity. Their children are forced to leave school. They fled to the unknown for fear of murder, robbery, looting and rape,” states the Mandaean Union.

 

Since Mandaeans do not follow the Muslim faith, they have become easy targets for extremists, both Shiite and Sunni, in Iraq. What gives them away? They do not go to local mosques to worship. Mandaean followers are given ultimatums, either convert to Islam or move. If they do not move, wishing to stay where their heritage is rooted, they are simply killed.

 

The Mandaean Associations Union recently denounced the murder of nine Mandaeans in Al-Kut City in Iraq on the March 26, 2008. The victims were women and children of two families residing in the city. Their crime? Being Mandaean.

 

Mandaeans around the world are now trying to pressure their local governments to help speed up the entry of fleeing Mandaeans. How sad that an ancient religion now must live divided, torn from its roots in order to survive.

 

The Mandaean religion is a proto-religion which believes Adam was the first Mandaean and that he received religious instructions directly from God, explained Mr. Farhan. The Mandaeans last great teacher and healer was John the Baptist.

 

The Mandaean believe only God can take a life and they have an elaborate baptism ritual system in which water is held in very high regard. When Portuguese monks observed this baptism ritual in 1555 and the monks heard the stories the Mandaeans spoke of John the Baptist, the monks called the Mandaeans ‘Christians of St. John’ or ‘Christian di San Giovanni’. The Mandaeans have no symbols, no idols, and no images that can be used to pray to.

 

For more information about Mandaeans and how to help visit www.mandaeanunion.org

 

 

I figured out why you are slow

After eight months now of being back on Toronto roads and highways daily- I have figured out one tiny portion of the madness on the 401.

 

Drivers in the “collector” lanes must think “collector” means: you are now allowed to go slow, proceed at 80 kilometres an hour. Do not worry about the fact you are still in the left hand lane- THE PASSING LANE. Since it is the left hand lane in the collectors, you are allowed to go slow. In fact, you should just roll up alongside the cars in the middle and far right lanes and all cruise at the same speed, which is below the speed limit, and proceed to create a rolling road block, kind of like the Argos offensive line.

 

Let us also not forget the privileges with getting to drive slow in the collectors. You can catch up on your reading, phone calls and putting on your makeup

 

Express means fast, collectors means slow. Gotchya, thanks for the lesson.

 

What “mother” means to me

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there surfing along, blogging and may be even treating themselves to some internet shopping- go for it- spoil yourselves today!

To all the mother’s I know in my life, you are all fabulous women, enjoy your day!

For me, this is what the term “mother” means:

- sitting on the back step of my family’s downtown Toronto home with my mother when I was 5 as she feeds me peanut butter by the spoonful straight from the jar

- watching ma joyfully make her world’s best lasagna just because she feels like it not because it is a special occassion

- listening to me whine about work, cars, politics, girls etc. over the years during one of our many post-dinner talks over the years

- peeling the skin from apples and cutting it in half and giving me my piece. We both know  the skin is healthy but when I was kid I thought it was gross- and the peeling tradition continues to this day

- ripping the broom from my hands whenever  I try to sweep- even this morning!

- being told I am being too stubborn or thick-headed to just make a point even though it is not necessary

- learning about humility, taking the high-road but also not being afraid to bop someone on the nose when the time is right, were all lessons I learned from good ole mom

Thanks for everything ma.

Sexy Canadian politicians-when did this happen?

What do you get when you combine a French Canadian, a tall Maritimer, a homosexual, a raven haired Westerner, a blonde Ontarian and a visible minority? All these elements represent the wide-ranging and very Canadian turnout for the sexiest members of Canadian parliament according to a Parliament Hill staffer survey conducted by The Hill Times. Who would have thought it possible, we have sexy politicians. Our politics may be drab and dry to some but taxpayers at least have eye-candy in the House of Commons.

The Hill Times does a great job all the time reporting “the happenings on The Hill” and this survey brings some life to politics for those who need a dose of fun and entertainment with their daily news. Check out the results for best and worst dresser, best hair, and worst sense of humour in the survey. I can just see The Hill Times Survey party held in Ottawa somewhere as people waited for the results.

Here is a quick scorecard for the Sexiest Male and Female MPs. Did the staffers get it right or wrong?

SEXIEST MALE MP:

1. Maxime Bernier = Canada’s foreign affairs minister, a Conservative representing Beauce, Quebec.

 
 2. Peter MacKay = Canada’s defence minister, a Conservative representing Central Nova, Nova Scotia

 

3. Scott Brison = Liberal MP who announced in 2002 he was gay.

 

 SEXIEST FEMALE MP:

1. Rona Ambrose = Canada’s intergovernmental affairs minister, a Conservative representing Edmonton Spruce Grove, Alberta.

 

2. Helena Guergis = A Conservative MP representing Simcoe Grey in Ontario, first elected in 2004.

 

 

3. Ruby Dhalla = A Liberal MP, one of the first two Sikh women on Parliament Hill, and represents Brampton-Springdale, Ontario.

 

Calling all bloggers, time to unite for human rights

The time has come to put my blogging powers to use for the greater good.

Sure I could rant about traffic, analyze Canadian politics or cry about high gas prices anytime I want but on May 15 I will blogging for human rights. My fingers will be dancing along the keyboard that day as I participate in Bloggers Unite for Human Rights.

What’s the point? Why blog about human rights when you can show off how funny you are writing about the different shapes your belly button can make? Will anyone read your thoughtful, pensive human rights prose and blog? Will anyone care?

If every blogger participating can raise the awareness of just one person about a human rights issue, it is worth the tip-tapping symphony at the keyboard. Readers and bloggers alike, engage in this event, read a post or blog on May 15 about an issue which may only seem like a nightmare for most of us in North America.

I believe something like blogging for human rights will make more of a difference and have a longer lasting effect than the recent Earth Hour festivities. Flipping off a switch is pretty easy and brainless. Reading a blog requires engagement and attention and by accident some retention of facts can occur, which is why blogging about human rights is worth it- the belly button bloggin’  be damned on May 15.