Thursday, July 28, 2016

Confused.

Death and absolution of all. All I heard was of a selfish man. And everything so WHITE. 

Monday, July 25, 2016

Murder of Disabled People in Japan

The killer said he wanted disabled people to cease to exist. My children are disabled. I am disabled.

He has stabbed 35 people. 19 have died.

Those people had a right to be alive. Disabled lives matter.

This scares me. I know we are deemed inferior and sub-human. Murder? That's worse than the eugenics we have been subjected to, as a group.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/japan-deadly-knife-attack-1.3694642

My heart bleeds.

STOP THE HATE. STOP THE VIOLENCE.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Black Lives Matter.

I cannot comprehend the people who argue that the movements #BlackLivesMatter, #DisabledLivesMatter, #LGBTQLivesMatter, as well as other marginalized demographics whose lives matter, mean all lives don't matter.

All lives SHOULD matter. The whole point is that certain lives are treated as if they do not. It does NOT mean other lives don't matter.

People who cannot comprehend that discrimination happens and thereby devalues lives of entire demographics of people are part of the problem.

Yes, all lives matter. But if you're hung up on that to the extent that you can't understand why marginalized people are asking to have the value of their lives acknowledged, you are living in blind privilege.

Racism exists. Sexism exists. Heteronormativity exists. Ableism exists. Classism exists. Religious intolerance exists. Elitism exists. Gendernormativity exists.

Please stop saying all lives matter. It shows your ignorance of the struggles marginalized people face. Everyone ought to know that all lives matter by default.

Out society does not treat all lives as if they matter though. THAT is the point of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, a movement that black and African-American people have generously allowed other marginalized groups to borrow (some of which I noted above.)


CBC Story on Black Lives Matter


Saturday, July 23, 2016

Are you fucking kidding me???

http://edmontonjournal.com/storyline/patio-killer-sues-legal-aid-lawyers-alleging-bad-advice

Richard Suter got away with murder, literally, after killing a TWO YEAR OLD and taking the advice to not blow a breathalyzer. 

He killed a TWO YEAR OLD.

Everyone present said he was drunk, smelled of alcohol, but he refused to blow on the advice of a lawyer, bad advice, because it's illegal not to... But it meant he was not convicted of murdering Geo. He got a conviction for not blowing (infinitely less significant, obviously) and now he stands to make $600,000???

This is beyond outrageous. Our judicial system is fucked.

This man is human shit. He's never expressed so much as regret for killings toddler. He should be in jail for life and in work detail cleaning prison bathrooms with his tongue.

Give me audience, media.

(Writer taps on microphone repeatedly.)

Me: Is this thing on? Hello media outlets of Canada and the US! I'd like to address a major problem in your reporting.

(Writer steps to front of imaginary stage, addressing audience.)

Me: Friends, North Americans, and global citizens, lend me your ears.

Our media, our North American media, does not report what happens in the world without bias. The news outlets ignore what happens to people in countries that are not dominated by white people. Our news is racist and religiously prejudiced. Huge focus stays on events in countries deemed "like ours" as if Canada and the US (and the countries whose news gets reported here) are free of the scandal and government corruption making other countries deemed "not like us."

Not everyone in North America is white. Shock. Not everyone in North America has European heritage. Shock. In fact, Canada has the highest percentage of foreign born citizens in the world, one of the highest immigration rates, and immigrants from Asia account for more new immigrants than any other demographic region.

Yet the news we receive is weighted heavily towards domestic events (excluding news about FNMI people, whose abuse, murder, racist attacks are vastly under-reported) and European events to the exclusion of the rest of the world. Unless, of course, the news event affects "people like us" (ie. white people of European descent.)

Right now, CBC has as its World News headline:
Police say Munich gunman who killed 9 had no apparent links to militants

Right now, the BBC has as its World News headline:
Death toll in China floods passes 150

Through the BBC, news of an attack in Kabul has killed at least 80 people and injured more than 200.

Neither of these stories are present on CBC AT ALL. Why?

O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And humans have lost their reason.

Racism and prejudice are fundamentally unreasonable. Yet why else are we not told about events unless white Westerners are involved or "can relate"?

I am outraged at the blatant disregard for news assumed of no interest to an assumed white readership. I am outraged by the systemic racism in Canada and the US. I am outraged at the lack of outrage.

I have a million more things to say; I could fill a book with my reasons for anger at the lack of news coverage of people dismissed by the media, people "not newsworthy." This is just a blog post. A fast, angry, blog post. 

My heart is in the coffins there with the dead, unacknowledged by this continent
And I must pause till it come back to me.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

From USA Today.

On point. Exactly.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/07/20/turkey-coup-islam-erdogan-sharia-sultan-caliphate-crackdown-democracy-column/87344676/

Turkey's new sultan: Glenn Reynolds-- READ IT!!!


Turkish Dystopia. Take: Lost Count.


Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed that "all the viruses within the armed forces will be cleansed."
"This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms," said Erdoğan Beyefendi.

Oh, and remember, the Armenian Genocide didn't happen. There was no State of Emergency then, when 1 million Armenians were not ethnically cleansed. Atatürk  said it didn't happen. And so it did not. It's a crime against Turkishness to say otherwise.

How many millions will Erdoğan not kill as he cleanses viruses? 

THESE ARE FUCKING HUMAN LIVES!!! 

Why, why, WHY is no one asking why the President in a Republic calling the shots??? He leads the executive branch, not the Government. The leader of the nation in Turkey is the Prime Minister. Their political system is modelled on the French Republic-- a replica of structure.

The President in this structure is equivalent to the Queen in the UK and in nations like Canada that have a constitutional monarchy. It is a nominal position.

So how the hell is this happening?!?!?
Why is that not being asked???
Erdoğan hasn't been Prime Minister since 2014.

Or was it 1984, DoubleSpeak-Beyefendi?

I propose the bullshit honorific "Beyefendi" be changed to "Acımasız Diktatör" (Ruthless Dictator.)

Acımasız Diktatör Tayyip Erdoğan, Allah İslam'ı istismar edenlere nefret. Dürzü. Hain.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

I lived in Turkey

I have friends in danger. I am afraid. My son was born there. It took 14 months for Canada to grant him citizenship; he has rights to no other. 
I have friends who cannot leave. 
I don't want to compromise the safety of any who have been able to get emails through. Things are FAR worse than reported in the media. There a few safe havens; my friends may even be saying those places are safe to avoid suspicion. 
Turkey was scary when I lived there. Erdoğan is not the leader of the country. He was when I lived there. He is not now. Yet he has taken charge. This is precisely the reason a coup was attempted. The military is supposed to prevent politicians from straying from the tenets of the Republic. The last coup involved criminalizing Erdoğan's Islamist, non-secular party. He was banned from politics. He weaselled his way back in. AKP is all the same people of the party deemed criminal in the past.

How long before he starts slaughtering students as at METU (Middle Eastern Technical University) again? 

This is what a ruthless dictator looks like. He ignores the rules. He puts the death penalty back. He gets the US to get on board. (John Kerry is processing the extradition order of a man repeatedly found not guilty of Erdoğan's accusations (always Erdoğan, always.)

The US won't compromise their military bases or nuclear facilities. Complicit in the purge of more people than in Galveston, Texas (entire population plus) Kerry is offering lives in exchange for military access to the Middle East. As if Turkey isn't a corrupt regime in the Middle East. 

Obama made his first international visit as President to Turkey. He's been on the phone with Erdoğan today, ensuring maintained diplomacy. 

Is there ANY place that isn't power hungry?!? ANY nation that will stop Erdoğan?!? Will ANYONE put lives first????

I'm horrified and terrified.

Erdoğan has fired 24,000 teachers, 9000 police officers, 3000 judges, every Dean at every university, 1577, 15,000 academics... He's revoked the right to broadcast from 24 television stations in the country.

Freedom of speech? Nope. Freedom of expression? Nope. All the academics in the West wiping their brows ought to be fighting for their peers in Turkey. 

Meanwhile, my friends who live where I lived, friends with state universities, friends unaffiliated with education but who cannot leave the country (only tourists can) and the non-Erdoğan supporters live in fear for their lives, their children's lives.

Türkiye bozuk. Hiçbir cumhuriyet var.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Impactful: NOT A WORD!

In the last year, I've heard the word (not-word) "impactful" used, mostly by social workers. Lately I've noticed it's use becoming more prevalent in other areas. I've seen it in PUBLICATIONS.

Impactful is NOT a word!!! It may have become the "orientated" (I still cringe) of the last decade, but at present it is not in the OED. As a language purist who enjoys coinage, I cannot get on board with "impactful." Why? It ignores the logic of suffixes. The addition of "-ful" to "impact" does not create the meaning that "impactful" has developed colloquially.

As noted by Grammarist, an online resource for simple English language grammar, spelling, idioms, and linguistic paraphernalia, "the suffix –ful means full of, and impact is not a quantity and hence can’t fill anything." Grammarist mistakenly argues "ful also means having the quality of,"and "impact bears the secondary sense the power to make an impression, [sic] and such power can be a quantity." This argument falls flat because the suffix "-ful" is not, as asserted, limited to quantity or quality. In fairness, Grammarist is attempting to counter arguments against the use of "impactful" on the basis of the meaning of "-ful;" however, the argument fails to examine the breadth of meanings of "-ful." The argument is not fully formed and therefore an insufficient dismissal of "impactful" on the basis of the meaning of the added suffix. (A quick Google search offers many more meanings for "-ful," all of which ought to be explored before dismissing the dismissal of "impactful" as a word on the grounds of suffix.)

Grammarist resigns itself to "impactful" entering our cultural lexicon, like it or not, without offering an argument of its own against the improper construction and use of the word. Though implicitly agreeing with detractors like myself, arguments against "impactful" are reviewed and debunked, albeit poorly, landing, as previously mentioned, with a shoulder shrug, an acquiescence.

As I mentioned, I enjoy coinage. New words delight me. They must, though, adhere to the rules of  the language in which they appear, notwithstanding the adoption of words from other languages- a murkier area into which I will not wade right now.

Impact is a noun. Impacted is an adjective. Impact is not a verb; colloquially it is used as one, yet that usage seems less offensive to many than "impactful" as an adjective.

Impact, the noun, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: 

a. The act of impinging; the striking of one body against another; collision. Chiefly in Dynamics, in reference to momentum.
b. fig. Now commonly the effective action of one thing or person upon another; the effect of such action; influence; impression. Esp. in phr. to make an impact (on).

Impacted, the adjective, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:
1. a. Pressed closely in, firmly fixed.
 b. Applied spec. to fæces lodged in the intestine (cf. impaction n. 2); also transf., applied to (a part of) the intestine when so blocked.
c. Applied to a bone fracture in which the broken parts are driven together so as to become locked.
d. Applied to a tooth which, owing to obstruction by another tooth or by bone, fails to erupt properly and remains partly or wholly within the jaw-bone.
2. a. That has impinged upon or struck something.
b. That has been struck by an impacting body; also fig. (U.S.) of an area: affected by a larger demand than usual on public services, esp. schools.

Impactful is not an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, a living, breathing dictionary that adds new words regularly, purporting to be descriptive not prescriptive. Yet "impactful" is not an addition.

Impactful, the sometimes adjective, sometimes adverb, as used colloquially and as defined by online sources (not appearing in legitimate dictionaries,) is defined as: having a lot of power and influence.

The word does not adhere to the meaning of its root. Why does this matter?

In a nutshell, "impactful" is not an acceptable coinage because it defies the rules of English.

For anyone who prefers pop culture answers to those more snootily studious (I don't deny the snobbery of my objection to "impactful," "orientated," "irregardless"; I do assert the correctness of my objections,) the fabulous Urban Dictionary offers these top two excellent anti-definitions:

impactful
A non-existent word coined by corporate advertising, marketing and business drones to make their work sound far more useful, exciting and beneficial to humanity than it really is. This term is most frequently used in "team building" seminars and conferences in which said drones discuss the most effective ways to convince consumer zombies to purchase crap they clearly do not need or even want.

impactful
Something that conveys significance. 
I.e. utter marketing gash, its [sic] words like this that make society bad and help meaningless marketing plebians [sic] ascend the rungs of their pointless evil careers and step on anyone creative in their path. For shame marketing ... for shame.

Oh, Urban Dictionary, I want to kiss you hard on the mouth for the exquisite impact of your definitions!

Friday, July 15, 2016

CORRUPT

Erdoğan is the President of Turkey. This is NOT like being President of the United States. It is a nominal title. He is illegally running the country. The Prime Minister is the country's political leader.

Erdoğan is corrupt. He was party of the Islamist Welfare Party, declared illegal, because Turkey is supposed to be secular; the party espoused openly religious, conservative views and laws. It was declared illegal and he was BANNED FROM POLITICS.

He created a new party, AKP, same shit, different name, and same agenda.

He will and has killed so many people. At the same time as the attacks on 
İstanbul Atatürk Havalimanı, he banned Pride celebrations for the 2nd year in a row and imprisoned 47 people for speaking against the ban.

He tear gases non-violent protesters.

And he, a nominal figurehead, declares a coup failed and the world accepts it.

Don't be complicit. Demand he be removed for HIS crimes against Turkishness, real crimes, the murder of political opponents (helicopters being shot down is far from a new occurrence,) the bribing of desperately poverty-stricken people, the institutional abuse of people with disabilities (abuse beyond what a Westerner who has not been beyond North America, Western Europe, tourist Asia-- locking up in orphanages, no medical assistance, no education, prisoners.) I've seen people crawl the streets of Istanbul missing limbs, invisible to the general public who've been informed of the sub-human status of the disabled.
He kills. He will do anything for power. He has taken a nominal position and removed the Prime Minister, the actual leader...

This man is evil. Question anything that is reported via Turkish media. He controls it. He shuts down the internet if he thinks he can't. 

Anıtkabir


Scary. Shit. This. World. France. Turkey.

24 hours.

One country in which I lived has had another mass casualty attack. (France)

One country, in which I lived many more years, is undergoing a coup. (Turkey)

I can't say much more. I'm near tears.

Starving people everywhere, all over the planet. Dying people everywhere.

The blood. The pain. The hate.


Here, the rain just fell so hard we could barely see across the street. The thunder shook the house; the lightning forked in unison.

The tears I am crying are heavier. This world. This world.

I want the world to stop. ~ Belle & Sebastian

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Wrong Response

As people of colour grapple with increasing fatal violence directed at them, we have an MLA, a person of colour, who said on the radio, "I'm not an American black person; I decided to be more appropriate."

Is there any response but to reel in horror from a comment like that, whatever your colour, if you believe the violence against people of colour is wrong and disproportionate? (It is.)

He went on to say he'd never experienced racism and speculated that it was he can pass as white.

David Shepherd, you don't pass as white. You have done a massive disservice to people of colour north and south of the border with your comments. The live, on air gasp from Portia Clark (also Canadian, also black) is edited out of the podcast of the show.

Reakash Walters commentary on racism that followed Shepherd's dismissal of it was infinitely more intelligent, informed, and not whitewashed.

That she did not win the political nomination and he did is astonishing.

I'm proud to have campaigned for and voted for her. Him? Glad I did neither. (I couldn't vote for him; I don't live in his riding.)

Yes, I am a white person commenting. I admit my privilege in being able to do so. I see a man who has more privilege than he recognizes by a long shot, a man who failed every person of colour in his constituency with his thoughtless comment.

Racism is real.

Saturday, July 2, 2016