November 15, 1994, carnegie newsletter by Carnegie Newsletter

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NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 15,1994.

THE FIGHT FOR THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE Part 1

A Derelict on the Corner On September 25, 1968, at 5:00pm, Mayor Tom Campbell ofticially closed the Carnegie building on the southwest corner of Hastings and Main. In 1967 the Vancouver Museum had moved from Carnegie to Vanier: Park as part of the McMillan Museum/Planetarium complex. This move left the building empty, for the Vancouver Public Library had moved to Burrard and Robson in 1957. After Mayor Campbell's closing ceremony, the sixty-live year old building was boarded up, and it stood on the corner of Hastings and Main like an ancient derelict, full of stories that no one wanted to hear. When asked about the future of Carnegie, the Mayor replied that he could see no future for it. t le didn't consider the building an historic one, and thought it should be demolished to make room for a hghrise office building or hotel. "And besides, the land is too valuable," Mayor Campbell said, forgetting that the land on which the Carnegie stood was a gift to the City of Vancouver from the Freemasons' Society. Not everyone agreed with the Mayor. As early as February, 1968, the British Columbia Division of the Community Planning Association or Canada suggested that the Carnegie be turned into an urban centre for community organisations. In December, 1968, city officials urged that the building be used lor prosecutor and police clerk oflices, at least until the new magistrates' building was completed.

Time passed. Dust collected on Carnegie's spiral staircase, and mice raised families in the silent rooms. In 1971, City Council recogised the need to renovate the building to provide space for Health, Welfare and Probation Services, and on June 5, 1973, Council approved in principal renovation costs of $697,300 for the Carnegie in order to accommodate the space requirements of five government departments. In early 1974, however, Carnegie was again under the threat of demolition because welfare services had been taken over by the provincial government, and the province had no intention of using the building. In a memo from Maurice Egan, Director of the Vancouver Social Planning Department, to Councilor Mike Harcourt, dated February 12, 1974, Mr. Egan wrote, "The old museum (Carnegie) is at a standstill .... The reason is that Human Resources (provincial) doesn't appear interested in using the building to house Social Services staff. In a way, I am not too disappointed since I have always advocated demolition of the building and its replacement with a new structure. I am afraid the City has locked itself into a costly ... rehabilitation of an ugly building... l don't know what the next step is in regard to this building." In time, Mr. Egan would change his mind about the building, and would argue with passion and eloquence on behalf of the Carnegie Community Centre. By SANDY CAMERON To be continued.

M. Sigurgeirson, President CCCA Dear Muggs,

Thank you for your letter requesting assistance with the printing costs for "Help in the Downtown Eastside". I am pleased to advise you that my Ministry ~villprovide a grant in the amount of $1,000 to cover the cost of printing one edition of the pamphlet. A cheque for this amount will be forwarded to you shortly. The volunteer work which goes into this production, and the availability in three languages, is truly exemplary.

ALCOHOL AND DRUG PROGRAMS OUTPATIENT SERVICES AVALON WOMEN'S CENTRE 263-7177: Aims to facilitate initial and continuous contact with women in 12-step recovery programs by networking, necessary for the maintenance of comfortable, quality sobriety and well being. HEY'-WAY'-NOQU' 874-1831: For Aboriginals. Individual, family and group counselling; referrals. Do this by asking your doctor to refer you to this organization. NATIVE COURTWORKER & COUNSELLING ASSOCIATION OF B.C. 687-028 1 : Assessment. individual, couple and group counselling: referrals, intervention1 prevention and victim assistance programs. ODYSSEY 1 1 - Boys' & Girls' Clubs of Greater Vancouver. 879-8853: For children under 18. Individual, family and group counselling; lifeskills. SENIORS' WELL AWARE PROGRAM (SWAP) 687-7927: For seniors (55 and over) who are experiencing problems from misuse of alcohol, prescription drugs. andlor over-the-counter medication. Assessment; individual, family and group counselling; lifeskills. referrals; co-dependency programs for collaterals. ALCOHOL & DRUG DAY TREATMENT PROGRAM 875-9575: One month program; for adults 18 and over. Day programming; individual and group counnselling; group therapy; lifeskills.

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Smcerely, .Joy K. MacPhail -_. Minister

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Violence and Deaths There have been many women killed down in this area in the past 3 years or less. They have died violent deaths. We just had a march for all the women that were killed in the area. I've seen women come in the centre with their heads kicked in, or have black eyes, broken arms or legs. So we help these women by taking them to the police or to the hospital, or the doctors, or a Transition House. And comfort them. I thank God they have a Women's Centre. 1 got raped and beaten up pretty bad. 1 was almost dead. And the "f'ing jerk only got 1 year for that. When he got out he threatened to kill me. He also raped and beat another woman up, when he got out ofjail. He got 1 year for raping her, and 6 months for threatening me. And you call that justice! Charlotte Wong

lonesome monsters

tommy 15 years old dumped cold in July at a greyhound station by his father who handed him 60 dollars and said "niake it on your own, kid!" so far toinmy's made it to a government residence jaiiiiii2d ..w :*I:..-1.: I L I I J U I I ~ I Gwinos S hookers thieves '

hilling time

- .. . L U II liiiy ':,

Fiii bii J i-eiarded a; way:, asking y uestions "where ya goin? what ya doin? can I go? what's the weather tomorrow?"

he holds the burning match against her breast he laughs when she screams and says to him "if only you didn't love me so much you wouldn't bother me!"

we tell him "snow" tommy says "I don't have a coat! are ya sure it's gonna snow?" "tommy" said the drunk we dragged from the path of a senii-truck "if you had a fuckin brain in your head you'd know it doesn't snow in the summer for fuck's sake!"

the ex-con ex-hockey player is showing-off stabbing his newe-dead leg with a lit cigarette

but the staff's called a meeting to straighten us out

an old rummy tells toinmy his dad "oughta be shot with a ball of his own shit!"

the heavy metal kid shoves tommy and says to a supervisor "I wanna throw a Ilashbomb in your face!"

but compassion is scarce like the table scraps fed to the household pet

a young dopefiend says "don't ever call me a fag again!" to a tattooed teenage prostitute who asks the boy for a light

swimming alone in the diningroom fishbowl a pirhanna

Bud Osborn

in 6. C. were inevitable, so there was no noint fighting it. Here is some of the fallout that's been left behind by the supposedly dead watefront casino. ITEM I : All spring and summer, the people of Vancouver appealed to the city to oppose Steve Wynn's waterfront casino. And all spring and summer, the NPA council fudged and danced around the issue. They kept telling us they were studying it so they couldn't take a position just yet. Well, in the beginning of October, the NDP government axed the waterfront wonder as part of its new gambling policy. Lo and behold, right after that, Vancouver's citv council finallv took a stand against the casino. Once the provincial government did the dirty work of stopping the casino, the NPA went on record opposing it. ITEM 2: Even though the NPA are now on record opposing a ma-jor [or-profi t casino in Vancouver, they also called for city control over licencing of casinos and other forms or gambling in Vancouver. ITEM 3: What makes this interesting is the Liberal Parfy's position on for-profit gambling. Liberal hatchet-man Gary FarrellCollins told Vancouver city council that the Liberals would legalize for-profit gambling and leace it up to the municipalities to regulate. In other words, the Liberals will permit \vide-open gambling in B. C. It will be up to the cities and to~vnsto decide when, where and how much gambling there will be. ITEM 4: When the Mirage/VI~C/Vancouver Port Corporation waterfront casino first became public knowledge, Liberal leader Gordon Campbell said that for-profit casinos

ITEM 5: The NPA also went on record opposing most other aspects of the new provincial gaming policy. NPA councillor Gordon Price even said that he'd rather have the Mirage1VL.C waterfront casino than the policy the government brought in. 1 guess Price would also prerer all the other stuff that went along with the casino like more homelessness, crime and addictions. All or which would get dumped in the Downtown Eastside. ITEM 6: The Vancouver Port Corporation is still legally entitled to build a 2.5 million square foot development on the Central Waterfront Port lands, right in the hack yard of the Downtown Eastside and smack dab next to CRAB Park. ITEM 7: The chairman or the Vancouver Port, Ron Longstaffe dropped a big one at a public talk given recently by SFU professor Nick Blomley and the casino proposal and downtown redevelopment. Longstaffe said that it doesn't matter whether or not the development of the Central Waterfront lands (where the casino was supposed to go) is destructive for the Downtown Eastside. He claims that the neighbourhood will be gone in five or ten years. He didn't seem to be too worried about the people who live here.

ITEM 8: There will be a public workshop to put together a community plan for the Central Waterfront lands on Sundav, Nov. 20th fiom I pm to 4 pm in the 3rd floor gallery. This is sponsored by the Carnegie Community Action Projcct and somc pcoplc from thc UHC School of Planni rig. By .IM't*SOMMtiKS

It sccms that Vancouver Port Corporation chairperson Ron 1,ongstaffegot caught saying that he believed that the Downtown Eastside would likely disappear in 5-10 years. While attending a public event at SFU, this highpaid government appointee let slip that any worries that residents of the downtown eastside might have about the negative impacts ofa waterfront megaproject (Casino, convention centre, hotel, cruiseship facility, etc.) were meaningless and unimportant because these residents and their neighbourhood won't be there to worry about anyway. This is absolutely outrageous. Here is a man who over a year ago, along with the City of Vancouver, invited people from the downtown eastside to give their views and opinions about what they wanted to see on the waterfront lands. It is obvious that this whole pub-

lic exercise was a big lie. This was clearly revealed at SFU when Langstaffe basically imp1ied that he could care less what people in the neighbourhood thought because he has already written them off. This would be an excellent time to prove to Mr. Langstaffe that he is dead wrong. Now is the time for us to come together and produce a s t r o n ~and clear alternative plan for the central waterfront. While we are at it, let's demand Mr. Longstaffe's resignation. It is obvious that it will be impossible to have honest and legitimate discussions with a man who has been caught in public with his pants down. By JOHN SHAYLER

O n The Waterfront : News llpdate Neighbourhood Workshop Sunday, November 20th As mentioned in the last issue, there will be a community workshop about development on our waterfront on Sunday, November 20th at Carnegie, from 1 - 4 p.m. This event will give residents and others a chance to get together and come up with some ideas of what we would like to see on the waterfront just west or Crab Park. We worked hard to defeat the Mirage Casino, but what-s next? What do we think will be best on the waterfront? What does the community need? It is important that we came up with a neighbourhood plan. Also a group of UBC planning students want lo work and learn with us. They wish to better understand how planners can best work with people at the community level. The workshop will be an interesting and fun event at which an artist-architect will draw our ideas, alternatives and visions for the waterfront so we can see what they would look like. This is a community workshop put on by the Carnegie Community Action Project and everyone is welcome. Please come with your ideas and a friend or two. There will be refreshments. If you need more information call John at 689-0397.

quiet please

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I could not take it any more; the noise of thc city was driving me bananas. My nerves were strung so tight you could have played a tune on me like I was a musical instrument. It was time to 'Heal thyself - the mother nature's way - so 1 decided to start hiking in the beautiful woodlands of British Columbia,. the province that now-a-days I call my home, The only sounds in the forest were the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the leaves... like music on the wind. Once in a while you could hear angry squirrels arguing over ownership of some nuts buried in the groimd below the branches of their tree. But the sounds coming form the woods were like music to my ears. The forest and all its wonders was like therapy to my jangled nerves. 1 walked for hours in the forest and the trees until darkness fell upon me. I could see the moon's shining light filtering through the branches, losing itself in the darkness of the night. I did not feel so alone for very long: from the darkness came a long, lonely howling sound, deep within shadows, hidden among branches, moving leaves. I don't know what kind of animal this would be but a roubling thought has just come to me that naybe he is looking for his supper-to-be... By george that supper could very well be me!

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By HARVEY DIJCEDRE

Community Health Plan Hello again from the "Community Health Plan." We have been meeting since May and are the first neighbourhood in Vancouver to develop a community health plan under "New Directions." We have now con~pletedour listen and record survey of approximately 500 residents and the results are available at the 0'1 bank of Montreal, located on the comer of Main and Hastings. We are also in the process of gathering "Key Data" - deaths from addictions, amount of income spent on rent and the number of emergency calls in the local area. Participants of the community health plan have been working to develop the model for setting up the community health councils in Vancouver. Our group has also met with service providers in the area for their views and opinions of local health issues. The "community health plan" will be providing an update of work in the fall, bringing us to the task at hand. Here are some of the impressions and opinions from active participants. The first person I spoke to has been involved from the start. "I live in the neighbourhood and want to know where my tax dollars are going. I also get a free meal while learning what will be available to me in the future. The process so far is good but could do with more volunteers. I also think this government will listen." A challenge of the GAIN regulations was successful, and this may free up much needed financial resources for the hard working volunteers.

"The Community Health Plan is your health plan" and everyone is invited to drop in at 390 Main Street or phone 682-3088. Hours are 9-5 Tuesday through Thursday, 9-1 on Friday. The next meeting will be on Thursday, November 17, at I pm. By GARY THOMPSON

Crooked C a b @ivers I have been chiseled and taken for a ride by some cab drivers who prey on drunks. It's not always the drivers who get robbed or mugged. It's best if you don't handle big bills to pay your fare. They take one look at you and already the meter is twenty bucks ... by the time you're home, say from the Regent to Commercial and Napier, if could run fifty or sixty bucks. When you're drunk and in a blackout, you don't remember. The cab drivers who do this j know, but not all of them are crooks. ( Best to take a Transit bus. Good advice. Taken for a ride victim.

RELIGION OF FEAR The second tloor at Carnegie is the place to meet your friends ( & enem~es).Friends even turn into enemies right before your eyes sometimes... like a few weeks ago, a "friend" of mine accused me of being a "Nazi", or at least of sympathising with "Nazis". I think what she meant was "fascist", but maybe not. - anyway, her reason for calling me a Nazi was because I said I liked the ideas of Carl Sung, the German psychologist ... & I'd read a lot of his stuff. At the mention of his name she exclaimed "He's a Nazi ... his whole family is Nazis ... my family knew his family in Germany & they were all Nazis!" Thcn she started calling me a Nazi, implying that because I read him & liked what he wrote I must be one. I protested that in all the reading of his work I'd done, I'd never once come across a "Nazi" or "fascist" idea... she ipored this statement and continued to refer to me as a Nazi. In fact, as her reactions to my attempts to defend Sung continued, it began to unfold that her real underlying objections to Jung & people like me were that we were "mystics" and promoted a "simplistic" view of life. 1 pointed out to her that the right half of everybody's brain was mystically inclined, & mentioned that simplifying was the most scientific way to arrive at basic truths, using E=mc as an example of the simplest mathematics providing a key to vast storehouses of knowledge. She ignored this & continued to refer to me as a "Nazi'. ... At this point 1 left the second floor & the building, since I was beginning to want to smash my fist in her face... needless to say this person is no longer a friend.

As I was walking home my over-heated mind kept working away on all this morbid stuff. .. I just could not believe that someone would turn on me like that over the simple mention of a name. As I was thinking about it, I remembered 10 or 1 5 years ago in the back room of the Classical Joint; Andreas, the owner, flew into a rage when I mentioned the name "Jung". Andreas was German & he said the same thing: "My family knew his family; they were all Nazis." He absolutely would not tolerate a discussion of Jung's ideas in his presence. What could possibly be Nazi or Fascist about Jung's ideas? I started thinking back over all the stuff I'd read by him - alchemical symbolism... religious symbolism... introvertextrovert.. anima-animus... archetypes...... collective unconscious.. . Suddenly I remembered a biog-aphical introduction he'd written to one of his books; he described a childhood in which he'd hated his family & always felt out of place among them - that was it I guess. His family were probably fascist types, & now, after disowning them publicly & devoting a life-time to psychological research & becoming a recognised patri-

arch of psychological medicine, 50 years after his death, this stigma of his family's politics is still haunting him & anyone who reads him & appreciates his ideas. ,,,what kind of a curse is this? I also hated & rejected my family's attitudes. If someone thought my father was a fascist (which he wasn't) would that make me one too?..apparently. These are the kinds of minds we must deal with every day. The woman who accused me of being a Nazi is not stupid..quite the contrary, she is a creative writer & intellectually well developed. Some people think that education in itself will help us overcome prejudices & knee-jerk reactions but obviously this is not so. There's a persistent idea among many intellectuals that nothing changes - a person does not have the power, in their view, to completely break with past history - to change, & in the case of fascism, to heal one's self of an emotional & political disease. Also, this idea of hers that "mystics" & "simple ideas" are somehow fascist is probably more widespread than most people think I'd encountered that attitude in other places, too, & it seems that every time the media reports on mystically inspired ideas, the "cult" stigma is put upon them, the C-word is connected inevitably to "brain-washing techniques", & finally the suggestions of fascist, terrorist, money-laundering, drug-running madmen are introduced. At this point, it occurs to me that our society is absolutely terrified of anything that looks into the psyche or speculates on what is beyond birth & death. Worlds-within-worlds exist as states of consciousness that are functions of our brain; the least evolved & uneducated mind can confirm this by simply taking drugs. Others are blessed (or cursed?) by

spontaneous insights into these things whether they take drugs or not., Some can't escape from it all their lives & build enormous, interesting researches on it, like Jung. .. but then why should anyone want to escape from self-knowledge? Because this is ultimately what it turns out to be ... not fascism. Mystics who are exploring new areas of thought are the exact opposite of right-wing fascists & propagandists, who are usually connected with "fundamentalist" Christian values like those of Ollie North & Rosalie Skenk (the Ottawa MP who uses the bible to bash homosexuals). A friend of mine recently claimed he'd looked up "fascism" in a dictionary & it had defined it as "government by big business" ... it's an interesting idea but I've never seen such a definition mysel f... The Concise Oxford says it was a kind of politics invented by Mussolini, & that the "fasc" was a symbol of imperial Rome consisting of a bundle of sticks that were impossible to break as long as they stuck together... The Americans sometimes use this symbol to indicate the strength of the "united" states. TORA

I "See that 01' guy in the doorway; used to be an usher in Victoria some theatre, 'ti1 they caught him feeling up some kid" Ya, says Bill, a million stories in the Naked City this place needs some kind of reason to get up again maybe a miracle, a snowstorm only on Hastings maybe a good 01' fashioned cattle drive through Chinatown maybe like it could rain butterflies or money Jeez, Bill, how can you be a smartass when there's nothing here except death, desolation, drugs & pain, burned out shells of people he kicks a bottle of Ginseng Brandy into the gutter passes a guy out cold on the bus bench Well, Chunky, if I don't keep laughin' 1'11 start bawlin' how'd you like that? 200 Ibs of blubbering jello !;i: Hey, maybe a try at the Guinness World Record "5, line up all the hypes and see how many ODs we can have all in one day, one place ...whaddaya think? could turn it into a yearly thing just like the I could have people from all over to bite the bullet on the steps Maybe Naked Policeman Day I

:hairs Thru the World's largest Spaghetti Food Fight Day'? Come on let's grab a coffee, Sorry, Chunky, gotta go, 1'11 need to figure out how to stop all this rain before we can start the festivities Wouldn't want it to rain on our parade, now would we?

There is no object strong enough To pry my fingers from the throat of Society.

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Being the Statue that I am only wind and rain can corode me, for I am a Statue of God not Man.

Dead Poet

SOLE'S "United, we can!" Depot Project Picks Up After m m l yean of work, ! h e Our Ijving Emrironment (SOLE) will soon open a beverage umtainer Return Depot in dmtown Vancouver. While the r i a l developmental details are still being w h d out, the group hopes to begin operation early ned month.

mental issues,SOLE continues to encoumge the pmhcial &try of the envimnment to expand the @em to include all beverage amlainen. Almost hall of the more than 2 biim bottler and cum told every year in British Glumbia me still not included in the ryrtem

'Many of us supplement our incomes by 'binning' (a heal dang br dumpster diving) and trying to get money lor bottles d am,"ragr Ken Lyotier. Downtown h t s i d e recycler and founding member d SOLE. 'The depot will meet our needs much better than the preurat set up.'

In addition lo providing a much needed service, the depot will be a d-stration training project lor low1 people seeldng job -try. Many h e r city residents who have been out of the wark force for long periadr find the tmnsition from inassistanw to emphyment di8icdt. The project will offer a stepping stone in training and work experience geared bwurds new employment opportunities expected in the downtown area aver the next seveml yeas.

While current Litter Act regulations require mtailen b d e c t deposits and pay out refunds on certain b m d name soft drink and beer containen, m n y consumers and street level collecton have had problems with the system. Retailen are only required to take back containen sold to their own c u s t o m and can b i t the number of containersa customer rehuar on any me day. Retailen also have problems with the sysiem Opemting the deposiVrefund service takes time, money, and spa@ and recyclers' report numerous instances of paar service Imm stare ckb, who complain that the system is an unprofitable nuitanca lor Lhem. Grocery store operaton cite potential health risks frmn rlorIng anptiec in the same mea as food products. SOLE'S new depot hopes to offer refunds on a full w g e of containers and as a group that has focused public attention on urban envimn-

Funding cammitmenb from the fedeml ministry of human resourcez development and the provincial ministry ol employment and investment are being negotiated to finance the depot start up and the employmeat development component.

SOLE is a registered non-profit society.

Its board ol directon meet

w d y on Thlurdays d 700 EM. in the old bank building at 390 Maia Street. Ib meefings are open to the public and anyone inter-

ested is~selcometo attend.

For mom inlonmtion about the 'United, R Can!' project m about other activities being planned bg SO= contact Ken Lyotiez the development mrdinator ai 77!i-2323.

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WHEN STCIDENTS DON'T CINDERSTAND

A Short History of the World According to

Student Bloopers Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert, and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline. Eventually the Romans conquered the Greeks. History called people Romans because they never staved in one place for very long. Rome came to have too many luxuries and baths. At Roman banquets the guests wore garlic in their hair. Thev took two baths in two days and that's the cause of the fall of Rome. Rome was invaded by Rallbearings, and is full of fallen arches today. Then came the Middle Ages when everyone was middle-aged. During this time people put on morality plays about ghosts, goblins, virgins, and other mythical creatures. Another story is about William Tell who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head. The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter.

Johann Bach wrote many musical compositions, and had a large number of children. In between, he practiced on an old spinster that he kept in the attic. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf, he wrote loud music. The 19th century was a time of many inventions. People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Madman Curie discovered radio, and Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers. The First World War, caused by the assibvation of the Arch-Duck by an anahist, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history. [Thanks to Anguished English, 1989, Wyrick,Dell]

ELEVES WEAIRS L A T E I L

This portrait is a collage/creation/seat-oj clue about anything that's happened in the last 1 realised at the Open Forum on the h t u r e of the very interesting places to be in the coming mont -

f-the-pants work of art now gracing Carnegie's third floor. Anyone and everyone having the slightest I1 years was asked,. Even encouraged, to add whatever little tidbit they had to the scroll. As was Learning Centre held on November 2nd - the third floor and the education committee are going to be ths as the blossoming of this endeavour continues!

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ropics for Discussion

I) Neighhowhood Safety Committee - structure, services, storefront office, volunteers.

2 ) Cbntntlrr~itySafety Iss~ies(status) - prostitution, drugs, b&e's, assaults, sexual assaults, And what to do. 3 ) Fear of Crime and what to do about it. I ) Hot Spots - Pigeon Park, 100 E. Hastings, 300 Princess Street, kids and drugs, others. .. what do we do?

The World Around Me I see a statue in front of a building put there by the Municipality... It probably cost them one hundred thousand or so, and it looks warped and distortedThe Child next door is hungry and hasn't had a proper meal for more than a week. They call this beauty! The corporation across the street is painted beautiful colours. 1 saw into one of their executive offices and their floors are carpeted with finesse while the furnishings are beautiful, elaborate antiques. They tell us they are running on a deficit and that the public must give them more money to cover their operating costs. They call this fair! Businesses boast of their new technology. As I go to work every day I notice offices equipping themselves with bigger and better machines. They tell us with pride that one machine can do the work of scores of peopleWhile I see around me more and more people being laid-off from their jobs. Because they have families and others who depend on them to be taken care of. I watch their frustration, anger and violence mount because of their inability to make ends meet. Thev call this progress!

New equipment, discoveries, life saving techniques for a myriad of grave illnesses. Yet, I notice cutbacks in funding, closing and ridding of wards and beds, delayed surgery and unnecessary death. Medical professionals battling with politicians to prevent these things. Our politicians say - we need the money elsewhere. We need to send our political representatives here, there and everywhere. We need to cover our deficit. They call it healing and compassion! Those in key positions in supplying financing for new subsidy housing keep telling us of their efforts to build and provide housing for the poor. They tell us that they are working on taking care of those who cannot afford a place to live. Yet, I read the other day of how an elderly person with nowhere to live froze to death sleeping on the street - there was no place to call home. They call this hope!

Our educators tell us how wonderful the school system is. How they are upgrading and adding to the beauty of their buildings. installing up-to-date technology so that graduating students will be current when they finally join the real world. Yet, I see cutbacks in school funding, freezes in teachers' salaries. battling over union negotiationsTeachers on strike, and students wondering if they will pass the year when the feuding is over. They call this education! Will we ever learn to live in peace, with hope and compassion for everyone? 1 like to think we could say yes ... Deborah L. Kelly (First published in (?ff'lhe Ctirll#6)

Cify Streets Vancouver is often a scenic parody of . j necromantic scape from some Hieronymous Bosch painting. When walking down Granville, Pender and Seymour streets I see all kinds of basketcases absorbed in their ostentatious psychodramas. Most are the benibm disenfranchised artists but a few can be as deadly as the trio of Pete and the Droogs in the Clockwork Orange. The other day I was just soliloquizing on Seymour and this angry creature yells "Hey! You got a problem? Quit talking to me!!!" (Talk of wishful thinking; I wasn't talking to him.) Then I grumble, "What an idiot.'. He says, "Hey you! Quit even talking to yourself." I just dismissed him with a curt wave. Why dib-ify those schizophrenic comments with a response? I refuse to entertain any of these kind of strange challenges that are typical of the dispossessed. Yet I'd rather deal with street level psychos than bourgeois administrative types in public institutions that come on like they're real progressive yet wind up selling you down the river! All in all there is a distinct feeling of euphoria felt within my chest pulsing all through this urban reality! By DEAN KO

Each individual, having one personal life & one personal death to experience as hislher own in this world, will soon feel blessed & cursed by such a fate. We are all like this. The first split of one into two creates an infinite possibility of splitting into multiple arrangements of greater & ever-increasing complexity with no end in sight. When you discover you have two different identitys, or even two different halfs of the same identity instead of the single one you innocently thought you were, a door appears in a solid wall, opening on an infinite number of possibilities of identity - yet we are only talking about one single solitary being - you, yourself, me, myself, or any other person we happen to meet as single in themselves. Noticing I am double instead of single pushes me, you, us, them, into a new & much more difficult experience. Bad & good come into existence. The changes of a rainbow reach between hot & cold, big & little, young & old, strong & weak, happy & sad, male & female, night & day, ... an infinite spectrum of events set free by the number two to create an impact on our senses. & what an impact they create! Half dead shadows dance with happy laughing children! Vigorous clown warriors engage wits with brooding wise old grouches who trust no one & test everything in fire & poison ... "double, double, toil & trouble" the weird sisters would say. Thanks to the number two it's not just possible to tell the truth, but now we may also lie. One person can be situated at the surface to take care of social responsibilities & the other can wander like an invisible cat in jungles that no other animal has seen. We are double-.jointed in our brains. Flip the

coin of identity & it comes up heads or tails ... is one as good as the other? Usually we're not so detached or disinterested. Hot is sometimes too hot, & cold is too cold - we look for that perfect warm-cool medium, that nest in between, where with a little patience & concentration this tough little clutch of mental eggs may hatch into a whole new flock of pigeons! ... it's called equi-librium, balance.. . librium means to liberate, to set free, so liberty or freedom is equal at the point of balance. At the centre between the extremes there is a place where one has equal freedom between two (" two Br. two, of course)... having taken one away from us, the number two must now return it to us. This new one is situated between two, or any infinite number of possibility~created by two - itTscalled equal freedom, the point of balance, the centre of gravitv, Chi, Mahat, the crux, Buddha nature, lotus centre, third eye, or any number of high & mighty titles tangled in the twisted pomposities of our historical/herstorical dilemma or whatever. The point is, it's there & it's no accident it's there, & whatever you call it, it's about time we all got to know how to use it & be used by it ... hooray for the number two'

steele no heat, no electricity, no bottles to bleed, nothing in the refrigerator but empty pots and pans, no tobacco, not a cent. everybody else anywhere else except for me and steele, sitting in his room, in our low-down rooming-house, steeele, with his silver hair and ragged red sweater, was still staring at the floor,, hunched on the edge of his bed, his faced in his hands. I thought of that statue "the thinker" and I laughed and said "well, it's never got down this far before. we ain't even got half a lousy match" in the months I'd known him, I'd never seen steele so paralyzed by a situation. so 1 just sat there. cold wind rattling the walls. our last candle stub sputtering, flickering faster and faster. suddenly steele stood up and said "let's go!" I was shocked. steele hated leaving his room during the best of times. we stumbled down dark alleys, crossed side streets, plowed through fields of snow and frozen bricks, skidded through playgrounds covered with ice, and ran through backyards where dogs barked. steele never said where we were going, he never said a word. we emerged onto well-lit streets where people with money were moving between shops,, restaurants, movies and taverns. steele was ahead of me, passing a fashionably-dressed young couple. when 1 got to them, I said "excuse me" and wrenched a death rattle cough through my lungs. I gagged on it. they were staring at me. I looked for steele and yelled the first thing that came into my head "hey dad, wait up will ya?" "I'm sorry for bothering you" I told them "but my father hasn't eaten in a couple of days. he's getting sick. I was wondering if you could spare a nickel or a dime so we could get some soup or a sandwich?" I don't know if they heard a word I said, transfixed as they were, by steele, walking slowly towards us, glaring at me. steele removed his hat, pulled a handkerchief, wiped his brow, looked at me with a face turned very gray and weary, sighed and said "son, how many times have 1 told you not to go up to people on the street and ask them for money?" though he never once looked at them, the 2 young people never took their eyes off steele; replacing his hat, walking away hunched over, shaking his head sadly.

I don't know how many people laughed at us, or how many believed us, but when I followcd steele into the wine store just before closing - quarters, dimes and nickels were literally spilling out of my pockets. 3 bottles of wine, tobacco, rolling papers, matches, shit paper, candles. then steele vanished. he had the bags in his arms, we were back on the street, and he disappeared around a corner. I climbed into a taxi and rode back to the darkened rooming-house. I walked up the stairs, through the hallway, towards the glow, coming from steele's room. he had a glass of wine already poured for me. I sat down in his battered armchair and stared at him. finally steele looked up. he grinned and said "that's not something you can do everyday, you know?" Bud Osborn

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE YOUTH ACTIVITIES SOCIETY

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So, Mo, Whaddaya Know?

...so it get sick

...so I do the things I shouldn't do

am I not like the world? Human existence makes me sick and I do it myself I sicken myself poison small portions mixed with different ingredienits in a state of mind a moc a setting & I'm off the toxic traveller mind-surfs in the traffic of today the World is no fool It knows how bad it is how good it is where It's going

Mo knows all the regular crap about life being a big fire sale and just before you get a hold of the one thing you always wanted you get stampeded by a mess of people with the same idea. Mo knows the sweet smile of a 3 year-old girl who's just found her big brother's Hallowe'en candv stash the look of love after hitting paydirt with the most beautiful woman in the world. Mo knows how you feel when she walks away for the last time Mo knows thunder and summer, winter and rain the joy of loving somebody and the pain the complete surprise when in one lifetime life and love starts all over again. Mo knows that even tho' you may go thru a real shit kickin' you'll dust off your hat and keep on tickin' Mo knows.

you see death on my face two days stubble I'm really trying to heal myself & survive the flood when I clear my senses when I clear my senses all is well all is well see, I'm really trying to heal myself.. please don't make me "healthy"

little metaphysical poem

you didn't bring yourself here you won't take yourself away even if you stop your own heart something remains to be disposed

~eders do c i d Policy ReMew (Cheap Labour Strategy)

Improving ('trnudul.sSoc~ulI'rogrunzs is the

name of the 'discussion paper' put out by the Liberal government. The title is phony. There is so much information, so many reports and articles from every part of Canada. Each gives the word "lie" to the federal government's reasons for cutting, slashing and burning our social programs. There are five areas that have been targeted by the Action Canada Network unemployment insurance, welfare, education, training and immigration -

to respond to in the context of the Social Security Review. Context - Between the Lines

This is the result of intense pressure from the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), the 'club' of the 150 largest corporations in the country and one of the farm teams (read 'local interest group') of the true transnational elite last known as the Trilateral Con~mission. Some of their 'projects' include the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), thc Gcncral Agrcemcnts on Tariffs & Trade (GATT), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Organization for Economlc & Cooperatwe Development (OECD); underway right now are a couple of local projects, the first spewed from the mouth of George Bush (before he was fired) called the "Enterprise of the Americas7'to get the wealthy in all the countries south of

Mexico to start drooling over the prospect of their own "free" trade deals, and the second just made public but implicitly implied since the Canada-US "Free" Trade Agreement was signed against the will of the majority of the people - the WHFTA: the Western Hemispheric Free Trade Agreement. "Free" Trade resurfaced as the driving force for the New World Order in the early 70's when one of the Rockefeller's (John, I think), chairman of the Chase-Manhattan Bank, got heads of transnationals and heads of political parties and heads of international financial institutions and heads of global media and various heads with at least a billion or two in tow...to get together and decide what was next in getting the world in order. They agreed that government was a pain, that regulations were annoying, that taxes and country-by-country restrictions were constantly getting in the way of their rights to make as much profit and turn that into as much power (and back into more money and into more power ...) as possible. The WE3 and IMF started with a little idea that came to be called Structural Adjustment Programs, making virtually every nation with a debtldeficit change the way it operated in order to get any more loans. A nutshell sketch has loans being made in the first place because of a glut of money in the transnational financial institutions due to OPEC quadrupling the price of oil back in the early 70's.

RlCH RIPPING OFF Social The figures show: H Five hundred people earnPrograms ing more than $1 million a year together collected $2.1 million in old-age pensions in 1992. H Two hundred and fifty people with a combined gross income of $438 million claimed p; childcare tax breaks designed E to help people on low incomes g pay for daycare. W Ten millionaires together collected $38,000 in unemployment insurance benefits. "We're allowing millionaires u.?% $ a to take advantage of social 2 2 2 programs and - an even more 2 fC serious problem we're allow0 1 fl o h- ing them to pay very little E 3 5 2 % income tax," Baker said.

Countries had to make their markets exportoriented, slash social programs, devalue currency, and remove any legal barriers to the freedom of transnational capital to invest in (steamroll over) local business. This worked so well for Trilateral interests that the GATT, FTA and NAFTA all became vehicles for getting the underlying principles entrenched. There seem to be a few principles behind all this activitv: Wealth and power are the natural rights of those who have it. Democracy is an ideal that has to be used carefully to cover what's done under its name Business must be free to govern itself. Those without wealth or power are to serve the interests of business. Those without wealth and power are to be considered expendable.

Unemployment Insurance The incentive to work under the new order means the choice between taking any job at anv wage under any conditions or nothing.

The OECD, in a report called The .lobs Study, advises its member nations to pass legislation "giving more weight to the market-clearing role of wages" by limiting the extension of collective agreements, modifying minimum wage laws and removing "disincentives to hiring" that result from social programs. In plain language, it calls for laws to break unions, to make the lowest wages the factor for job creation and cutting 111 and welfare to the bone. The day that the OECD Jobs Study was released, Human Resources Minister Lloyd Axworthy endorsed its recommendations. He is interested in "keeping Canada competitive" in a global marketplace, like his funders in the BCNI, IMF and WB. The facts as they all present them include 'competing' with wages of $5 a day in Mexico. The Liberals' emphasis is on getting people into the labour force at any level, not on providing secure jobs at decent wages. The ideas promoted include punishing those who claim UI 3 times or more in 5 years, it deemed irrelevant that such claims are almost all due to seasonal work, lay-offs caused by companies going to the southern States or Mexico, or the downsizing of workforces (the "leaner & meaner" approach). Such loss of jobs are not the choice of those affected, but the idea behind this trend is clearly blame the victim. An interesting bit - the UI program is in a surplus. It received $2 1 -$22 billion in premiums this year while paying out only $16 billion in benefits. Still, employers scream that it is a burden and they want it cut completely with only employees paying anything into it. They say this will encourage them to hire more workers but that's part of the lie. Statistics show that less taxes mean more profits, not more investments.

Welfare The stereotyping of the "welfare bum" goes on with screaming headlines over isolated cases, while the real welfare bums, big corporations and the wealthy, keep getting their dole with no questions asked. Buzz Hargrove, in the Action Canada Dossier #30, lays it out clearly: "The argument goes like this: The unemployed have an incentive problem. Social programs are too generous. Why should people work in a real job when it's so easy to qualify for high-paying UI or welfare? The public can no longer afford these handouts. Therefore the federal government guts the UI program. The provinces crack down on welfare cheats. And New Brunswick sets up workfare for 60 year-olds. But the key problem facing the unemployed is a lack of jobs, not a lack of incentives. ...there is something drastically wrong with one welfare program that destroys the incentive for real economic activity, increases unemployment and costs the public treasury billions. It's the welfare system for investors. In May, the Bank of Canada rate reached a 14-monthhigh of 6.6 1%. With almost no inflation, investors reached a real, after intlation annual return of about 6% for doing '

nothing. There was, no "entrepreneurship", n o

risk, no jobs created. Investors receive this income whether their wealth is employed in something constructive or not, just like welfare but much better paying."

TORONTO The Royal Bank may have an unusual problem: How to put the best light on more than $1 billion in profits in 1994. While bank officials won't comment on income figures until they're released in December, they're not disputing recent media reports suggesting the bank will make about $1.2 billion this year. ' It would be the first time any Canadian bank has racked up $1 billion in net income in a single year.

Analysts say officials should not apologize. British and U.S. banks are also churning out record profits, said Hugh Brown, financial institutions analyst with Nesbitt Burns Corp. But the Royal Bank may have reason to be shy about its profits. When it nearly reached the $1 billion mark in 1991, critics loudly wondered how a bank could make s o much money during an economic recession.

The financial welfare system produces unemployment and economic standstill. There is no 'incentive' for the wealthy to invest in real projects, production, to take risks in business, when manipulation of financial instruments pays so well. Investors plowed barely 4 percent of Canada's GNP back into new projects last year - a post-war low. It takes billions of dollars out of consumers' pockets as the tools of these people - the government, the BCNI - all promote the fabricated hysteria of the deficit, the need to review, the necessity to cut, slash and bum. Interest rates in the last 12 months alone ultimately cost the federal government over $12 billion in new debt charges - more than 5 times what will be saved from Finance Minister Paul Martin's vicious cuts to UI. When the rhetoric starts in, hot & heavy, on "reforming" welfare to give incentives for people to "stop watching TV & guzzling beer all day", think of the $34 billion in unpaid taxes of these same corporations and wealthy individuals

Education Options given consideration include reducing transfers, eliminating federal investment and reforming the entirr funding program for post-secondary education. In short it means that the tuition fees for colleges and universities will double; low income students will have their access to higher education terminated.

Education that is not almost exclusively designed to lead to a specific job or placement in the market will become unacceptable. S~ecificsinclude vouchers for students and corporations designing courses and training. The number of jobless Canadians with a university degree is on the rise. They made up 4.4% of the unemployed in I98O77.7&in 1989 and in January of this year 8.3. This reflects a general increase in the proportion of unemployed who are highly educated, with 42.4% of them having some post-secondary experience in 1994, compared with 19% in 1980 and 29% in 1989. Bernie Froese-Germain, with The Canadian Federation of Students, states: "All these changes will result in further shifting the financial burden of post-secondary education from the federal government onto the shoulders of students. They will lead to an erosion of federal& provincial governments' financial and political responsibility for higher education and open the door to the privatisations of the post-secondary system. "The losers in all this will be students who will be faced with much higher tuition fees, massive student debt loads, and major barriers to accessibility."

Training This has become the panacea, the magic bullet for solving all problems. The proposal to link getting welfare to getting training assumes there are an endless number of training programs out there just waiting to be filled. Workfare projects in various provinces revolve around the need to keep people involved in the labour force, training them in as many ways as possible, then providing up

to 6 months 'placement with subsidies to employers. There is "encouragement" for such employers to hire trainees, but no guarantee. The problem here is that such employers are specifically excluded from labour codes governing working conditions, minimum wages and workers' rights to leaves or sick benefits or compensation if injured. There is no employerlemployee relationship so UI is not accessible for the vast majority of trainees who do not get work after the 6 months are up. All that has happened is that scores of private training schools are cashing in on the government money being put into training, with poor training and meaningless "certificates7'the norm.

Immigration Throughout all review is the implied kneejerk reaction that jobs are scarce or programs are being abused because of immigrants who come to Canada just to milk the system or work at a job that a "Canadian" should have. The recent policy announced by the minister reduces immigration numbers overall but more specifically discourages anyone from entering Canada who is not already independent financially. At the same time, all "openings and opportunities" that are supposed to materialise from this review are restricted in ways that exclude many people who are not Canadian citizens. The most obvious are domestic workers who, while 'good enough' to work in homes as nannies or maids or house servants, are no longer 'good enough' to be granted landed immigrant status. This is causing cxtrcmc exploitation of many young

women, both economic and sexual, as they must continuously battle immigration authorities for their right to decent work under decent conditions.

Poverty The big business lobby groups have been asking for social programs that will benefit them. That is exactly what turning welfare into wage-subsidies will do. Thanks to the TLC, the IMF & WB, the OECD & BCNI with their NAFTA and their push for a WHFTA, there are approximately 800 million people who are now their 'customers'. This leaves about 7 out of every 8 people in the world impoverished, destitute, struggling to survive.

Other Areas Under Review Pensions The level at which the 'clawback' starts is being forced down, from $53,000 a year to $30,000 a year. The age of 70 is being considered as the new starting point.

Child Care This is being held out as the great saving grace of this review. Current numbers show that women account for 60% of new entries into the workforce, while childcare is virtually non-existent for many. With 2 out of 3 single parent families living in poverty and provinces continuing to blame women for being poor, quality childcare is essential. Martha Friendly writes - "to promote equality, a child care system should be: a accessible to all families and children 3 comprehensive 2 high quality =substantially publicly funded 3 inclusive 3 culturally sensitive and appropriate 2 supplemented by supportive family policy

Lesbians, bisexuals and gay men bear witness to problems with social policy. An example is the denial of all spousal benefits for people involved in same sex relationships, while individuals can be and are denied social assistance because they live with someone of the same sex. "Government benefits should not be a 'moral reward' for being in a relationship of which the State approves - a heterosexual marriage - but should be tailored to the needs of all members of sociely.

We a re now caught in a spiral of cornpet itive impoverishment as each ... ~.. t nelgmours . give . the ., country vies wnn s . to lowest wages, the most lax environmental regulations, the most tax breaks, and the most opportunities for exploitation.

On November 16 and 17 the federal government's' touring troupe is supposedly giving Canadians a chance for meaningful input. Over 500 applications were made to speak, but of course this is (by design) impossible. Come to the rally at noon on Wednesday. Let's shut half the city down!

WHERE ARE THE JOBS? Rally at 12 noon at the SheratonILandmark 1400 Robson Street Wednesday, November 16

By PAULR TAYLOR (Excerpts from Action Cirnadu fhssicr 1/40, the CCPA M o n ~ f oand r lXII;,:J 1:'conoinrcJuslrce Report.)

Where are the jobs! Come out to remind .............................-...-.-..--.-..-.---..---...---. -....-..- - ...... the Liberals they ;Be there NOVEMBER 16 promised to create i WLal? JOBS, not "Ax" rams. RALLY FOR SOCIAL PROGRAM ,

SheratonLandmark, 1400 Robson Wednesday, 12 noon.

ACTION CANADA NETWORK