Travesty into Treasure

The country is all of a twitter over the Conservative Government's move to change the sexist line in the National Anthem. Both Kevin and Gail have mentioned that it isn't set in stone in any case, when they were at school there were changes made, but no, those who think that The Feminists are out to chop their willies off if the slightest move towards gender equality were to be made are claiming that you can't change tradition.
Well duh.
As I've said many times before, slavery was a tradition once, as was the right to rape and even kill your wife (if you were a man), homophobia was traditional, sending small children up factory chimneys and being fined if you didn't go to church on Sunday.

And then some people, 'don't think it's necessary'. Of course not, they would like female emancipation to be at the individual grace and favour of men, rather that by right.
And to others, I ask this question, if the National Anthem, instead of excluding women by the sole use of the gendered word 'sons', instead excluded people of any skin colour other than white, by in some way saying, or implying that the Canadian norm was white, wouldn't they all be horrified? As well they should. Now tell me what the difference is.

There is an excellent blog post on Womanist Musings about it which is goes further than I have here, by hoping that the change is not just symbolic, and that other measures to close the gender gap will follow or accompany this move. That is, as ever, my hope too.
Sadly, Kevin has warned me that we shouldn't hold our breath even on the language change, it has been raised before in the House and ignored.

I'm not asking a question about this, because there is no question to be asked. The National Anthem has a line in it which is sexist. Sexism is and always has been unacceptable. It needs to change.
Do it.

Slush Puppy

The snow has mostly been cleared by the rain, although before it was, the intersection outside our house, where people at the best of times behave like idiots, was a skating rink. Kevin went out and threw some salt on it, and in my opinion, probably saved lives.
The trail behind the houses, clearly peat bog, which acts like a refrigerator, still has snow, so Whisky can still leap through it like a hare, the slush he likes not so much.

Black Friday. I can understand Canadians being more than familiar with this term, thousands cross the border to take advantage of bargains in the States that technically they can't bring back unless they pay the tax.
Last year, our local crossing had queues that had to wait six hours to cross. This year, when Kevin checked at seven, the border was clear.
Canadian stores have sales to try to keep dollars in Canada.
But today, I received an e-mail from a British firm advertising Black Friday sales. Bizarre and somehow quite wrong.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail forward from a relly, claiming that 75% of Canadians believe the word 'God' should stay in the National Anthem. I don't even vaguely believe this. I don't think that if you asked the members of my church you'd get 75% who think the National Anthem should mention God.
For Britain, of course, reasonable, the Queen is the head of the Church of England, for Canada, separation of Church and State, so wtf?

At the breakfast I went to yesterday, there was an 'invocation', carefully distanced from 'prayer'. Yet God was still mentioned. Well I'm sorry campers, but if God is mentioned, then it's a prayer. Oh yes, I know I've just mentioned God and it wasn't a prayer, just a sentence, but if you're all standing around being quiet and bowing your heads, and someone asks God for something, or thanks God for something, I remember not which, then it's a prayer.

I'm now waiting, just WAITING for some complete twonk, to tell me that when they say 'God' they don't mean God, they mean a neutral term for ....for what? A neutral term for some Being who may or may not be a Being and who may or may not exist. What? Do atheists ask or thank God for stuff, but not in an actual God-God way?

Some people need to sort themselves out and start thinking about what they say.

Small Print

At the end of this morning's field trip, I asked if there were any questions. One boy put his hand up and said, 'Why is there an ice-rink here?'
'Because we're in Canada,' said I.

Research in the British consumer magazine Which? has found that terms and conditions on some shopping websites are longer than Shakespeare's longest play. PayPal's are 36, 275 words, whilst Hamlet only runs to 30, 066. Hmmm...

A huge faux pas by Kuwait who accidentally played the spoof Kazakh national anthem from the film Borat when the Kazakh winner of a shooting event was standing on the podium. She had to listen to her country being described as having the cleanest prostitutes in the region. Not good - but accidental. Here in Canada, our athletes have to stand on the podium and listen to our ACTUAL national anthem call for true patriot love from all her sons. Officially sanctioned misogyny from a country that is constitutionally committed to gender equality.

Poppy Day

Remembrance Day.
In Britain it is difficult to avoid poppy sellers, here, I hadn't come across one at all. And yet people seemed to be wearing them.

At church we were bagpiped in.

The bagpiper always looks more impressive than the bagpipe sounds, but it did give the appropriate gravitas to the proceedings.
It was a very emotional service, never more so than when the Canadian National Anthem was sung. The hymn book had both the French and English words and I must say, the French managed to avoid the sexist '...in all thy sons command,' although on Remembrance Day, difficult to forget that the Québecois, unlike other Canadians, didn't step up to the plate in any significant numbers.

But Canadians can sing, and they filled the church with rich harmony. It was beautiful.

Afterwards, I had a luncheon appointment with Canadian Karen. I went to see her flat in one of the most breathtaking areas of Kitsilano. The building itself reminded me of a traditional theatre in Britain, the stairs that lead up to the separate flats like the stairs that lead to the seating areas. A building with character, but one that is also clearly well looked-after.

We drove downtown and went for brunch. Karen navigated us there very competently and I don't mean that to sound patronising, but I had, not so long ago, had a far less smooth, calm driving experience with someone else navigating. And I know Karen will be laughing reading this, since she doesn't think of herself as calm.

The main purpose of our afternoon was to visit the Circle Craft Christmas Fair. This was located as far downtown as you can go. You'd be in the sea if you went any further. We had complimentary tickets, which we were quite pleased about.
Parking wasn't easy - and that in spite of deciding to opt for the expensive underground car park.

When we reached the Fair, we walked around, looked at things, but not too closely, turned over a couple of price tags, $200 for a bag, $300 for a jacket, $80 for a rather flimsy top, and then left. It was all interesting to see, but neither of us felt we needed to spend more time there and we certainly didn't feel compelled to buy anything.
Some things are good to look at but you wouldn't want them in your home.
I think Karen thought I said that too loudly at one point.

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday for Remembrance Day. Gordon needs to get onto that one. Britain should have a similar day off and definitely needs one at this time of year. I'm looking forward to an extra lie-in.

Going Global

Remembrance Day is a day of rest out here in BC. This is odd, like working a really short week, then having a really short weekend, then having another really short week. I know Christmas can work out to being midweek, but you don't sort of notice because...well, it's Christmas, and you have been kind of working up to it for a month and a half, and then it goes on for another two weeks, then it continues a bit longer and so forth.

On Sunday, at church, all the seniors wore their uniforms and medals, and it was all very emotional. Well, I was emotional, as was the vicar, everyone else seemed to be more stalwart. They sang the Canadian national anthem, which I don't feel I should join in, because it isn't my native land, but I stand of course. Also, the version we have in the hymn books is outrageously sexist, they all sing, '...true patriot love of all thy sons command.' Apparently it's been fixed, just not in the hymn books.

The Global Gender Gap Report for 2009 has just been released. Fabulously, the UK is only 15th out of 134 countries surveyed. Wouldn't it be great to be up there in the top three alongside Scandinavian countries such as Finland, Norway and Ikea? Canada, sadly, is even further behind, at number 25 - Oh, Canada:( - and the US comes in at number 31 in the charts.
The country of Ikea btw, has just appointed a Bishop who is not only a woman, but is also married to one. Being women of course, there is so much that the bigotosphere can criticise, like the fact that one partner (the bish) is 55, and the couple have a three year-old child. No-one's beeswax but their own, but just wait....

Québec! I try so hard to support you. Sometimes you make it easy by doing amazingly planet and woman - friendly things, and then you go and ruin it by being totally out of order when the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall visit. Bunch of plonkers.

In Maine, where for some bizarre reason, the general population were allowed to vote on whether same sex couples should have the same rights as opposite gender couples to marry, a bunch of Catholics supported the same-sex rights, and yet the bigots won out. Why is this allowed to happen? There's a great post about it on the Gaytheist Gospel Hour blog.

The Online Shop Pharmacy have e-mailed me and offered 'tabs for doin' it nasty'. Tut tut, people really should learn to use adverbs when appropriate.

The Other Brown

No, I'm not. Sick of it that is. This snow, yesterday's snow, was perfect. It was coming down full on as I walked to work and it had already snowed during the night so that there was a lovely carpet and general blanket of it.

At the moment, we are running a 'Mammals' programme at work. At some point, I ask the children how many brothers and sisters they have, in order to compare human family sizes with those of some (other) urban mammals. Whenever I ask a kid who is a twin, they never count their twin. This happened again on Friday. Two sets of twins in the class, same thing for each.

Modern History. George Brown. Not Gordon, another legendary socialist, Harold Wilson's number two, and almost Prime Minister - were it not, according to Andrew Marr, for his inordinate drinking.
At an official function in Peru, Marr tells us, Brown, rather the worse for wear, approached, and was turned down by, 'a willowy figure in scarlet'. Brown informs same that he is, 'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,' and wondered why he couldn't have a dance?
'For three reasons Mr. Brown,' came the reply, 'firstly, because you are disgustingly drunk, secondly, that music is not a dance, but our National Anthem, and thirdly, because I am the cardinal-archbishop of Lima.'
I think he'd have been rather a good PM myself.

Pillocks

Whatever is occurring? Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, professional pillock and all round twonk, ballsed up already? Dear, oh dear, oh dear. No-one saw that coming. Much.

According to New Scientist, although they didn't mention us personally, have endorsed our choice of car last year. We couldn't cough up for a hybrid, nor did it tick the important 'hatchback' box for us, but it seems that the manual fuel-efficient small car is the best you can do for the environment - well, short of not having a car at all.

How green is green? Is applewhite as green as avocado? What does that even mean? No idea.
But...I have been agonising over whether to send physical Christmas cards, or should I go electronic?
I decided that I should aim for electronic, maybe for next year, but I am doing better than I was. Here, people don't seem to send cards to absolutely everyone they know the names of, so I am being MORE green than I was. Applewhite then.

In the season of the perpetual party, is it better to be an 'and guest' or a 'plus one'? Hmm? I'm thinking 'and guest' has more status. My friend, who wanted to attend a do and bring another friend, was annoyed at the 'and spouse' invite. I can't understand why she didn't just take the friend, but she had a point.

On the radio yesterday morning, they were playing that modern classic, 'Wonderwall'. Now, believe you me, I am no Oasis fan. I think they're barely human and not particularly talented, but when the DJ, let me say again, the DJ, whose job it is to...well, be a DJ and have a more extensive musical knowledge than the hoy palloy said to the other,'Wonderwall, that's what, by Oasis isn't it?' I had to just shake my head.

I'm so fed up of those fecking e-mails that keep coming round with some blethering old shite. Like, for example, the old 'Britain has dropped the Holocaust from the National Curriculum because the Muslims didn't believe it happened' crapola. Bullshit.
Another one keeps appearing, that we are supposed to send on to other Canadians, telling immigrants to feck off and go back home because some Hindus wanted to be able to sing the National Anthem in Hindu.
Well firstly, arseholes, the English language version is flagrantly sexist and needs to be updated, and secondly, don't send it to me, I am an immigrant.
Fuckwits.

Shivers

The face they wouldn't show.

Waiting for dogs to arrive and alcohol. Hmmm...waiting for alcohol and dogs to arrive. I'm expecting exuberance from our own poochie.

I have replayed the section of the opening ceremony with kd lang four times. Every time it sends shivers down my spine, especially that last intense 'Hallelujah' where her voice seems to chase the lights of birds away from the podium.
Reports have it that the NBC coverage didn't show her face at all. BUT...they didn't hang back from showing the full and uncut death of the Georgian athlete.

Our own TV coverage left a lot to be desired however. Oh the camera angles were good, but the commentator was embarrassing. He not only sounded like the Reverend Lovejoy from the Simpsons, but he wouldn't stop talking, and he what he said was largely just waffle. If you have a silly voice, best to keep it short I say.

And the Canadian National Anthem is a fecking national disgrace. Even the most dyed-in-the-wool retarded conservative can't justify the line, 'of all thy sons command,' how difficult would it be to simply replace it with, 'all of us command,'? or just sing the French at that point.
It's not even as though it's in some way sacrosanct. Kevin remembers that when he was at school, the words changed about three times.

I was amazed at the spectacle of the ceremony, it couldn't have been more Canadian. This place, right here, is one huge crucible of creativity and all was reflected in that staging.

So the dogs came and went. Whisky barked furiously at the intrusion. I was given about seven different points of view about what to do about this, including getting some kind of so-called dog experts in to deal with what? The one time he has other dogs in his house he barks. What actually worked, and worked consistently, was what I did intuitively, it seemed to me he was spooked, so when I sat on the floor with him and calmed him - he quietened down.

Lumberjack

I had a lot of interesting feedback from yesterday's awareness raising about the Kurds, much of it positive, people who know Turkish or Iraqi Kurds who have made a good life outside of Kurdistan, but not all. A friend sent me a story of two Iraqi Kurds that she knows, who sought asylum in Britain but who, in circumstances that remind one of Dickensian England, ended up in gaol.

Now here's the thing. There are over 60 million people living in Great Britain. It's very crowded. You literally could not accept everyone into the country who wants to live there. So you end up with the situation where people have to be treated as numbers, faceless, nameless, unless they are the people you know. But when people seek asylum, it's not just because they think they can earn more, it's because they face persecution in their own countries.
Between the western countries, why can't we pass on some of what we have?
It's difficult to share isn't it?
Let's face it, some don't want to share even with their own compatriots. Look at the fight Obama is having to give basic healthcare as a right to the neediest in his country. Look at the lengths the super rich go to to avoid taxes. Look at the salary and payment demands of the famous. Do we ever get to a point where we simply have enough?

Let's go back to Obambi. One of the stumbling blocks seems to be over reproductive rights. Why should public money be spent to fund abortions?
Ok, well, the U.S., like Canada, is very proud of their separation of Church and State. Fair enough, I think I can understand that. But the only logical objection to abortion on demand is a religious one. Even if you are an atheist and yet believe that no life should be taken, although I can't think of any philosophical reason for that stance, but let's say it is so, then the foetus must be able to survive unassisted outside of the mother's body to be considered as a separate life. And considerations of quality of life would also have to be taken into account.
SO why is a religious argument allowed to override a humanitarian one?

And going back to our lovely National Anthem, it seems we are an international laughing stock. Nothing we don't deserve, but I certainly like the suggestion to adopt Monty Python's 'Lumberjack Song' instead.

And a propos of nothing, just that I happened to be reminded of it on Tuesday, I invite you to revisit the classic Catherine Tate sketch, 'Our John's a Gay Man Now', mostly for the sheer brilliance of it, but if not, then just for the superb Northern Irish accents.