Moving - Being Homeless

Homeless - sort of....... I, of course, am not really homeless. I have a nice place to live in Duncan BC. Within a week the floors there will be all done, the windows will have new moldings and other bits and pieces will be done to make the place quite functional. But I am not there and I won't be there for another few weeks. In the meantime almost all of my possessions are in some sort of trucker limbo as they sit in a depot waiting for other stuff to make a full truck load.

It was a strange feeling watching my stuff being taken away by strangers. They were nice strangers - the three of them worked hard and efficiently. Other than a few comments about how I had more stuff than I had estimated, they were gracious and kind. They were very careful about my furniture as they wrapped up everything. I kept on saying that a few more scratches on my two dining room chairs that we bought 35-40 years at an auction or a few more dings on lamps equally as old would not matter but they insisted that every bit of furniture needed to be protected.

I was worried about some of the boxes and totes being too heavy. I need not have. For the most part they carried two, three and even sometimes four boxes at a time. One of the guys in particular had an unusual technique for carrying the boxes. He stacked up a few boxes and then turned his back to the pile, reached behind, grabbed the lowest box and walked away. In other words he was carrying them on his back as opposed to carrying them on his front - which makes sense as I can carry far more weight in my backpack than I can in my arms in front of me. Certainly carrying boxes that way would save back pain.

There were three movers....which was unusual but when I mentioned this to the driver he said it was because he had had a quad bypass just nine weeks ago and needed to be careful. His doctor had not yet cleared him to go back to work. He made sure that everything was given a sticker with a number on it and that number was recorded on a sheet with a description of the item. He did carry some boxes but we all nagged at him when he tried to do too much. One guy stayed in the truck. Hs job was to stack the stuff. I won't know until the other end and see if anything got broken if he did a good job or not - but he clearly knew what he was doing. The third guy did most of the carrying ( although I did move some of the lighter stuff). He was not very big but he certainly had a lot of energy and was surprisingly strong.

The movers left, I swept the floors, made a run to the recycling centre, came back and loaded up my car, some neighbours said good bye, (they also gave me some shortbread for my trip),  and I was off.

After all my work in the past month or so getting ready - three hours of loading a truck and it was if I had never been there. One of my neighbours said a few weeks ago that the street won't be the same if I am not there. I think she was just being nice. But I was a renter for five or so years which is longer than most, I did do a lot of walking so even if we didn't talk people saw me up and about, and at least once of year some of them visited me when I had a sale.

But now I don't live there - I don't live anywhere.................

Welcome to Canada - Sorry it Took So Long

 For the last week or so, Canadian media have flooded the market with wonderful pictures and stories of refugees being greeted by dignitaries including the Prime Minister, in Ontario, by the Premier and a host of well meaning individuals who are doing their bit to help. There are lots of stories being circulated about how wonderful the Canadian public are in their almost overwhelming generosity. According the latest polls, it would appear that even those who just a few weeks ago were at best lukewarm about Syrian refugees coming to Canada have gotten if not on the bandwagon - at least they are no longer trying to stop it. Some politicians who before the election were questioning whether or not it was wise to allow refugees in, are now expressing concern that the process is taking too long or that it is not well organized.

How sad. If this out pouring of support and generosity had happened 18 -24 months ago when a few people including me started to write about the almost non-response of the Canadian government to the crisis, it would have been rather exciting. Canadians could have, with some justification, patted themselves on their collective backs. We could have been proud that we were doing something that only a few countries were doing. But we didn't do anything in spite of the daily news of the refugee crisis in the Middle East and in Europe. . And while it is convenient to blame the previous government for not doing more (or in fact doing anything), that is a cop-out. We didn't demand that they do anything. It was far too easy for us to sit back and muse about the dangers of terrorism in some other part of the world. It was easier to watch our soup operas, reality shows or hockey or baseball games than it was to do anything about help those who were suffering. We were happy to believe what the government said.

While I am delighted that the present government wants to be proactive in all kinds of international issues, I am some concern about how easy it is for us to be led. If a different party had been elected in November, and if they had had a different view of refugees, would we have gone along with it? If Mr. Harper had eked out another majority government (if one looks at the popular votes numbers he was not that far away from doing so), would we have continued to blithely accept his view that Muslims were potentially too dangerous to be allowed to come to Canada in any numbers? As we pat ourselves on the back for being such nice people (and isn't it grand that other countries now like us), it would be perhaps useful to remind ourselves that not that long ago we were patting ourselves because of how pragmatic we were.

Yesterday afternoon while doing some banking at the largest shopping mall in Peterborough, I noticed a  lady talking to two women wearing the

Refugees

 For the last week or so, Canadian media have flooded the market with wonderful pictures and stories of refugees being greeted by dignitaries including the Prime Minister, in Ontario, by the Premier and a host of well meaning individuals who are doing their bit to help. There are lots of stories being circulated about how wonderful the Canadian public are in their almost overwhelming generosity. According the latest polls, it would appear that even those who just a few weeks ago were at best lukewarm about Syrian refugees coming to Canada have gotten if not on the bandwagon - at least they are no longer trying to stop it. Some politicians who before the election were questioning whether or not it was wise to allow refugees in, are now expressing concern that the process is taking too long or that it is not well organized.

How sad. If this out pouring of support and generosity had happened 18 -24 months ago when a few people including me started to write about the almost non-response of the Canadian government to the crisis, it would have been rather exciting. Canadians could have, with some justification, patted themselves on their collective backs. We could have been proud that we were doing something that only a few countries were doing. But we didn't do anything in spite of the daily news of the refugee crisis in the Middle East and in Europe. . And while it is convenient to blame the previous government for not doing more (or in fact doing anything), that is a cop-out. We didn't demand that they do anything. It was far too easy for us to sit back and muse about the dangers of terrorism in some other part of the world. It was easier to watch our soup operas, reality shows or hockey or baseball games than it was to do anything about help those who were suffering. We were happy to believe what the government said.

While I am delighted that the present government wants to be proactive in all kinds of international issues, I am some concern about how easy it is for us to be led. If a different party had been elected in November, and if they had had a different view of refugees, would we have gone along with it? If Mr. Harper had eked out another majority government (if one looks at the popular votes numbers he was not that far away from doing so), would we have continued to blithely accept his view that Muslims were potentially too dangerous to be allowed to come to Canada in any numbers? As we pat ourselves on the back for being such nice people (and isn't it grand that other countries now like us), it would be perhaps useful to remind ourselves that not that long ago we were patting ourselves because of how pragmatic we were.

Yesterday afternoon while doing some banking at the largest shopping mall in Peterborough, I noticed a lady talking to two women wearing a hijab and a man. They had clearly been shopping as both of the women were carrying shopping bags. The woman doing the talking stopped for a minute to allow the man to translate what she had said to the other women. While they could have been from anywhere, and one should not assume that because they did not speak English and were wearing a hijab that they were refugees - I did wonder. I also wondered if I should say something to them - like "welcome".

I didn't do that -in part because what I really wanted to say was "I am sorry. I am sorry it took us so long to act like human beings who share the planet with you. I am sorry that it took so long to get off our collective rear ends to invite you to share what we have."

Inviting 25,000 refugees is a good start. But the larger issue needs to be not forgotten. It is well past time that Canadians, outside of the House of Commons, start to impose our values upon politicians - not the other way around.