comments of social movents and social media

In the past two or so years there has been, within the popular press, frequent discussion of social movements and social media. In general the talking heads have suggested that such activities as the Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement or the Idle No More Movement are in fact social movements that have utilized the connecting power of social media. I don't doubt that all of those  movements have been enhanced by Facebook and Twitter. In fact it could be argued that some of the events would not have happened if there had not been broad access to social media. However, I am just not sure if those activities fit the definition of a social movement. More importantly I think there could be an argument made that social media not only is limited in its capacity to organize the people, but that it could in fact be damaging in the long term.

Social media has proven to be incredibly effective at getting people out on the streets. Thousands of people have become involved in specific acts of protest and civil disobedience because they have read, on various social media, of what is to happen. But social media does not keep people involved once the event is over. Let me give you an example.

A month or so I walked/danced with a hundred or so other people, in the middle of what is claimed to be the busiest intersecting in Peterborough. Our goal was to block traffic just for a quarter of a hour to remind our fellow citizens that the Indigenous people of Canada had legitimate and long standing grievances against the government and that it was time to start to negotiate in good faith. It is well past time.

I did my thing, talked to the one person I knew and when it was over I went home. No one knows I was there or who I was. No one has ever contacted me to come out to the next such civil action. My reading of that Facebook page, in spite of my participating in an activity has done nothing to either get me more engaged in the movement or better educated about the issues. For a social movement to have any longevity it would seem to me that a critical function must be to educate the people who are participating in the activity and to make them want to be more involved. While social media is great at getting people out on the streets, it does nothing to help create within those people any sense of belonging; it does not give those participants a sense engagement or ownership in the outcome. Furthermore it does not provide any information as to what to do next. The consequence of this strategy is that people do it once or perhaps twice and then move on to the next issue.

It has been argued that we live in an age of instant gratification and I wonder if that is part of the problem. Somehow we expect things to get solved quickly without a long term commitment to create change. If one looks at the civil rights movement in the USA, it was a 30 year process just to get it recognized as an issue worthy of a national discussion. And part of that process was the education of both the people who were being oppressed and those who believed that change needed to happen. There is a lovely bit with Pete Seeger talking about Rosa Parks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbpBh6Ts6Mw) and how she was trained to be an activists.

I think  there is a lesson to be learned in that story. Let's use social media to get people out on the streets. We need to use any device or technology available to gather the people. But we need to refine and enhance their commitment, their frustrations and yes even their anger so that they want to remain engaged in the process for the long term. It is not enough that they walk the streets or block some traffic until the TV cameras come, we need to educate and mobilize ourselves. It will be a long fight and we had better get ready for it.

Haircut

I now have short hair - or at least what passes as short hair for me. My hair is in fact the shortest it has been in well over 12-13 years. My only hope is that it will grow - quickly. To say that I am grieving would be an exaggeration, but not by much.

I miss my hair, I miss knowing that it is there, I miss being identified, at least in part, as the teacher with the really long hair. Just a few minutes before I went to the student lounge at Fleming College to get it cut, I heard a student as we passed in the hall say to his mates - "That dudes got some sick hair!" or at something like that. I will miss those comments as I walk thought life.

I have known Wally - my barber for quite awhile. Not that we see each other very often. In fact it has been, by my rough calculations,  about 10 years since we last talked. I use to go to Wally's to get my hair trimmed every moth or so. People seeing me go in would wonder why I, after being in his shop for 10-15 minutes came out with nothing cut off. In fact people use to ask me if Wally had refused to cut my hair.

What most folks didn't know was that Wally had for a few years been helping me let my hair grow long while still looking respectable. It was an almost impossible task but he did the best he could. When I decided to get my hair cut to raise money for the Save The Net Campaign there was no one I could think of to cut my hair except for Wally. I felt as if I owed him that much.

It was great to see him and to know that we could still enjoy sharing a few stories as he "trimmed " my hair.

Getting my haircut in front of a handful of students, in a very public place was weird, uncomfortable and almost unpleasant. I think I like to have a bit more control over things than I did. But I gave my word; I had collected somewhere $400; it was too late to say no.

There is a plus side to all of this............. I can comb my hair! For the past eight years I could only use a brush - a comb could never get through the tangled hair - at least  not without ripping out chunks of hair. I had a shower this morning and it was fast. I am sure I saved at least 5 minutes of hot water. I should be able to retire a few months earlier just on the savings from the reduction in shampoo and conditioner alone.

The reality is that in spite of the fact that it is 1-2 inches shorter than I had envisioned, my hair is freer now than at anytime in the past 5-6 years. Because it got so easily tangled, it was almost always braided or tied behind my head. I seldom got to feel the freedom of it blowing in the wind..... it was just too much work to comb/brush afterwards. So as short as it is - it now does move in the wind and that feels good.

And it will grow - won't it?

On the Road Again (almost) 2013)

I had the strangest dream last night. I was hitchhiking somewhere between Cambray and Woodville (just north of Lindsay, Ontario) in a T-shirt and shorts. I had left my black suitcase with wheels (like the one that I use when I fly) and I kept on having to go back and get it. And then through the magic that can only exist in dreams I was quickly transported to just outside of Ottawa and quickly got the perfect ride to the west.

While I don't very often remember details of my dreams, I was not surprised that I did this one. For the past week or so I have been aware  that thinking/day dreaming about traveling has gradually been moving from my sub-conscious  into my conscious mind. The other day  I was looking for a new dress shirt at Mark's Warehouse and before I knew it, I was looking at new light weight quick dry pants for traveling. On another day I started to look for new hiking boots. And while I am not yet at the point where I think about parking my car on the side of the road and flagging down a big truck I know that the obsession is starting.

It is only the middle of February and given the amount of snow on the ground, there is at least another seven to eight weeks of winter. I have another ten weeks of teaching. But I can feel the pull of the road upon my soul. That restless energy that starts to build within me until it is almost touchable. My thumb is getting itchy. It is time to start traveling again.

I have lots of potential places to go. I would love to go back to Yellowknife and spend some more time there getting to know the area, but I have yet to go to the Yukon, the last of the of the province/territory left for me to see. There is also a National Gathering in Montana and it would be great go and to see folks I have not seen for a year or two. There are so many places, little towns or valleys that one can see from the highway that I ache to visit at least just once.  

It is only February. I have lots of time to dream and to plan and to trace the miles on the map that I carry in my head. As I lay in bed I can see the routes, the good places to get a ride, the places to sleep and already the rides that I will get. At least for a while I just need to make sure that my dreams stay in my head during the quiet times. It is so hard to teach when I lose track of the conversation in the classroom and drift into thinking about being on the road again

Remarkable Happenings

There is something rather remarkable happening in provincial politics in Canada. 

At present, out of the thirteen Canadian provinces and territories, six of them are lead by women. A decade ago that would have been inconceivable for most Canadians.  A decade ago the vast majority of the  rank and file of the various provincial parties would not have ever thought that a woman would be electable as a leader in a provincial election.  Clearly the membership of the parties have realized ( a few generations too late) that their assumptions as to whom would make a good leader were wrong.

What makes this somewhat (if welcome) surprising turnaround even more remarkable is that women are still under represented in terms of actual seats in the various legislatures.  In Ontario, out of 107 seats - just 30 are filled by women. Ontario's abysmal rate of representation is about the same as Canada's. According to the Canadian Parliamentary Review in 2007 (http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=180&art=1231), Canada was 47th of the democratic countries in terms of female representation in Canada. Countries such as Mauritania, Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq all have a higher rate of female representation in their Parliaments than does Canada (Canadian Parliamentary Review  2007). So what gives? How is it possible that only 27- 30% of Provincial legislators are women but just under 50% of the leaders are?

I am sure there are some remarkably bright political science students who are examining this issue with great interest and that there will be a flood (I probably over exaggerate) of papers published in small obscure academic journals that are not available to the public discussing why now. I think it is a worthy topic of for people to think about

However what I find really interesting about the whole thing is that no one is talking about it. While leaders such as the newly elected Ontario Provincial Premier  Kathleen Wynne get asked about what they will bring to the office as a woman, for the most part no one seems to care whether or not our leaders are males or females.

And that is the way it should be. Maybe we are growing up - finally.

Shingles

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a painful, blistering skin rash due to the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox (U.S. National Library of Medicine - The World's Largest Medical Library http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001861/). It is a condition that is more likely to affect those over the age of 60 and from all accounts it is rather painful. 

There is a vaccine that apparently reduces the possibility of getting this virus. Obtaining the vaccine is somewhat complicated  in that
1) doctor needs to do a perscription
2) because it is a live vaccine - one needs to go to the drugstore who give it to you and then you need to rush back to the doctor.
3) doctor gives the needle.

It sounds as if it would take an hour or two to make it all happen. A bit of a nuisance but certainly it is manageable especially if the pharmacy in the clinic can obtain the vaccine. The only problem is the cost.

$150.00 per needle!!!!

The cost is not covered by any provincial or private medical plan.

I can afford it, but what about the 1000s of Canadians over the age of 60 who can not? It would seem to be outrageous that one's health is directly connected to one's wealth. If one can not afford to buy the vaccine  you run the risk of getting this preventable and painful condition. If you can - then you don't.

This is at the very least is unfair and unjust. It is the antithesis of what our public health system is suppose to be. It is wrong!!

 

Cutting My Hair

I would think that almost everyone who has met me in the last 10-15 years would, if asked to describe me, probably say "he has long hair". And it is true I do have long hair. In fact it is long enough that I can almost sit on it. And that is becoming too long.

I love the feeling of the wind blowing through my hair and how it feels on my bare back. I enjoy the looks I get from people and I especially like it when women complain that it is not fair that I have nicer hair than them! Having long hair has been fun.

But it is a nuisance. I seldom go out with my hair "free" (upbraided) because the slightest winds turns it into  a snarling mess of tangled hair; only on occasion do I walk around shirtless and therefore I almost never feel it against my bare back. It takes far too long at both bedtime and when I get up to brush it. I am tired of spending too much on conditioner, having to have a shower in the evening as I won't have time in the morning and of cleaning long hair out the sink and bathtub drains. It is time to get it cut.

In the fall as I was coming to terms with the psychological trauma cutting my "claim to fame", my identity etc, some students from the Lindsay Campus of the college announced that they were going to raise money for Rick Mercer's Spread the Net campaign. What a perfect opportunity! I like both the concept of the program and the fact that Mercer has created a charity that young people want to become involved in. So I contacted one of the organizers and made the commitment.

It is happening in 10 days time on January 30th. There are pictures up all over the school, people who I don't know are approaching me and asking questions. Some folks have even offered money to me to not to cut my hair. It seems as if people like my identity as much as I like it. Which is nice to know.

I suspect people are seeing me getting my haircut as a somewhat noble or "good" thing to do. But it is not really that noble. While it will be traumatic, I am not getting it all shaved off (12-13 inches still leaves near my shoulders). However I do think it is useful and important for people who label themselves teachers to sometimes set an example. To every once in awhile to go to the edge and rather than just talking about being actively engaged in the community, to do something.

People my age sometimes start to assume the mantle of being an elder within their community. If that is the case - then we need to lead by doing - not by telling others what to do.