August 15, 2010, carnegie newsletter

camnews@shaw.ca www.camnews.org

PRACT~CE R.IINPt!J'"

JiUAIONES& B.- SEN.Stsl..ESS

Acrs c,re: 8EA VTY

24th Anniversary Issue!

UBC LAW STUDENTS LEGAL ADVICE CLINIC Sl;rttni M ond<ly. M ay 24 E nds Thursd<ly. August ~9

Drop-In Mondays & T hursdays 9 -5pm Tuesdays

~

- 9pm

3"' Floor - Art Gallery

Binner in a Food Line

Inequality, Democracy, and Class Warfare (Part 2)

Society's values are skewed topsy turvy. For example, fo lks who dig around in the garbage for cast-off goodies are ca lled bums and are at the bottom of our social hierarchy. The fact is that consumer waste is a huge problem that linle is being done about; individuals who reclaim goods from the garbage are heroes in the grander perspective of things. It is hard, dirty work that pays poorly ( if at all) and generally invites scorn.

It is also some of the most important work being done today.

1 recall reading somewhere that in many Asian countries this kind of recycling is done primarily by senior aged women and, here in Vancouver, female Asian seniors are a major player in this field, alongside s ingle, unemployed men. One needs to simply walk in front of the bottle depot before it opens to understand how significantly senior Asian women contribute to this work.

Sadly, the o ld women who are in this business, and make the same line-ups for food as unemployed men, are subjected to rid icule, intimidation and racism from some of them. It is embarrassing to see when it happens. Many of these women stand four foot nothi.ng and are near as old as time itself. To have some SIX foo t tall, 30-somcthing male threaten to punch an old woman in the face for jumping ahead in a food-line is absurd, but l see it happen all too often. In the business of reclamation, these women are very competitive, and many of them don't speak Eng lish. This seems to be justification for poor treatment by some men in our milieu but let me assure you: picking on old lad ies is goofy (and ! usc the term 'goof' here with all of its street connotations).

1 mean jeez!; get a grip and s how these women the deep respect they are due.

Bv SHAWN MILLAR

By Rolf A uer

Written out ofrespect for Matthew Mallhew, Diane Wood, Clyde Wright, and all the fine citizens of the Downtown Eastside.

Thanks to the good graces of a relative, I receive a subscription to the very expensive Guardian newspaper, a progressive British news paper. In the 30 July5 August 20 I0 issue was this letter, with the caption, "The poor pay the price" : " Poor pay price of Delh i [India 's Commonwealth] games ( 16 July): all so that a minister can declare Delhi to be "world-class". For many of us, and especially for the very poor, it is a great misfortune to have one's city declared "world-class" by a government eager for international recognition especially ifworldclassness involves multi-national games, giant expos itions, .G8/G20 meetings or just a general clean-up to fleeting ly impress rich visitors riding in from the airport.

I saw General Pinochet's poli ce cleansing beggars from the streets of Santiago. Chile, in the 1970s, and the destruction of rooming-houses in Vancouver fo r a long-forgotten Expo 86. Nothing has changed except the globalisation of such outrages.

World-classness is a brief g lamour, but the means to this foo lish end have long term effects.

Douglas Porteous, Victoria, BC, Canada" Right there in the lener you have the three themes: inequality: the lower class ( the poor) vs. the rest, subversion of democracy (poor cleansing, destruction of poor habitats), and class warfare: the idiotic idea that by bringing a "world-class'' event to a poor area, it imparts "class" to it.

Former VANOC President and CEO John Furlong

must have referred to Vancouver as "world-class" at some or maybe even several points around the 20 I 0 Olympics. A quick search on the 路Net shows he was fond of referring to various other institutions related to the Olympics as 路'world-class." Why not Vancouver?

Indeed, it's practically the first thing that comes to mind.

Vancouver: city of class contrasts. One need look no further than our very own Downtown Eastside, where the very epitome o f classism, gentrification, is threatening to overwhelm the neighbourhood in a storm of condos. And what 's to become of the poor, the citizens, the residents of the Downtown Eastside?

Nobody in a position of authority seems to have any answers.

The state o f VANOC's fin ances doesn' t quite seem to be "world-class." The Provincial government, the feds, and the IOC had ro kick in $ \00 million to help VANOC balance its books. ("VANOC will balance books - with $100-million in help," Rod Mickleburgh, The Globe and Mail, July 14, 20 I 0) VANOC chief finan cial officer John McLaughlin said , according to the end of preceding article, that the budget was actually expected to be $250 million more.

There was an August 7, 20 I0 Vancouver Sun article captioned, '路John Furlong among IS named to Order of B.C." On the same date, in the same paper, was this article. captioned, "U.S. bus companies claim Vanoc owes millions of dollars."

Around this time we have Conservative MP Stockwell Day, President of the Treasury Board, declaring that Canada needs to spend $13 billion building prisons based on the unsubstantiated claim that "more and more oflen crimes go unreported." ( It 's strange that the Conservatives indirectly attacked Statistics Canada just before this by declaring the Long Form Census was no longer necessary, causing the resignation of the head ofStats Can, allowing the Tories to slip in one of their own yes-men, as if planning for this very eventuality.) Stats Can immediately refuted the claim. ("StatsCan refutes minister over crime numbers," Mike De Souza, Vancouver Sun, August 4, 20 I 0) Notice that just a chunk ofthat $13 billion would go a long way toward building enough social housing to solve homelessness in Canada.

So why prisons? My guess is that the Tories are looking ahead, further down the road, when the future

s

is darker, maybe somewhat g rimmer. Conservatives arc easily scared by nature (Hell, it's part of their nature; that's why their attack ads are based on scaring people). They' re scared of change; that's why they keep trying to take us back to the '50s. They prefer prisons to social hous ing. Simple as that.

And that's class warfare.

lf1

o J ~ _LJ,....

fd0( .J['OD Vi]} r 'lD

CAR.NE.<ilE. THEATR拢. WORKSHOP presents

the art of Street Performance Community Workshop

Thurs Aug 19 & 26, 2prn-4prn Oppenheimer Park Field House team some basic tricks ofthe trade -experience presence building exercises and games, -simple choreography and orchestrated play, -character exploration and discovery! *bring an instrument if you have one *bring fun costumes and hats if you want or just bring yourself and a willingness to play We will playshop first, then we'll take our magic to the STREETS for a LfVE STREET SHOW! Facilitated by Candice R. Curlypaws Candice is fascinated with the vital ity of extraordinary presence. She find s joy in tap dancing, s inging, playing the clarinet, the baritone ukulele and making stuff from song and dance numbers, to puppets, to costumes. Her passion is in listening, the discovery and the art of self expression. Candice works as a community arts facilitator for Vancouver Coastal Health's CA T (Community ARTREACH Team) where supporting people in nurturing their connection to the creative self and the creative community is understood to be an important part of holistic and healthy living.

CRUN CH A ·HIICHNE£DED AODJTION REqUII{Eb TO

t'H£ DAILY /10RNIN(; tRAFFIC REPORI.S.

Wf.l..\.1"HERE'S

f\L~EAl>Y

Ql.llf~ A LlNE F'oR~li.J6AT (J~\T(O We: CAN

The Carnegie Newsletter Is 24 Years Old! Twenty-four years, I tell you. Twenty-four years with Paul Taylor as editor. Unbe lievable! Our Carnegie Newsletter helps people find the power to define their own reality. It has a passionate sense ofjustice. It is information, entertainment and inspiration all together It is a celebration of resistance against those who would destroy the community of the Downtown Eastside. It is a powerful expression of the politics of the heart, and a declaration that we li ve here and that we are somebody. The Carnegie Newsletter brings hope.

Congratulations to the editor, Paul Taylor, and to all the other volunteers who have worked over the years to bring the Newsletter to the community. It has been coming out twice a month for twenty-four years. It is funded by the Carnegie Community Centre Association, and 1200 copies are printed each time the newsletter is produced.

Putting one Newsletter together takes a huge amount

5

o f work. Paul has been doing this every two weeks for 24 years, AS A VOLUNTEER, which takes an exceptional commitment. Once more, congratulations to the newsletter crew on the 24th anniversary of the Carnegie Newsletter, and may there be many more years of its fei sty, compass ionate voice to raise shit and to help build a safe, dynamic community where all lowincome residents have a decent, affordable home, and everyone is included.

Jean Swanson and Sandy Cameron The Editor: The growing disclosure of the personal complicity of Pope Joseph Ratzing er in concealing and aiding pedoph ile priests has revealed that his Catholic church has, as its policy. the deliberate suppression of the truth o f these crimes.

Priests and Bishops everywhere arc in effect forced by this policy to engage in a criminal conspiracy to keep hidden from the public and the police rapes and other crimes committed on children in their parishes.

The question now becomes, is this same policy s hared by other churches as well? A re the Protestants operating under the same po licy of hiding the crime and protecting the perpetrators?

Experience says yes.

Time and again, serial rapists among the Protestant clergy have been moved about, safeguarded and defended legally by church hierarchies after they have violated the innocent, in the same manner as found in the Catholic church.

Now that the Catholics are being forced to admit this truth, it's time for the Protestant churches to publicly disclose and admit to not only this practice butwhether it follows from an unwritten policy of obstructing justice and aiding rapists in their ranks.

Why are these church corporations not being prosecuted for their cri mes? They have betrayed both their public trust and their right to function as tax exempt charities.

These churches can no longer operate above the law.

It's time to license clergy as public servants, and place churches under public scrutiny and control.

Rev. Kevin Annett 260 Kennedy St. Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8 250-753-3345 or I -888-265-1 007

News prom the LibrarY The DTES Collection; documenting o ur lives and o ur history in the Heart of the City Carnegie Library has received a smal l grant from the Friends of Vancouver Public Library organization to continue buildi ng its Downtown Eastside Collection.

Like the community it serves, the Collection is a fasc inating mix o f many different elements; planning and s urvey reports, works of history, historical photographs and documents, graduate theses, oral histories, stories and poems. All of them tell us something about our lives and our community history in the Heart of the City. Part of the Grant will be used to upgrade and expand the 70 page catalogue which documents the Collection.

Selected items from the DTES Collection will be featured in a display and o pen house at the Carnegie library during the Heart o[the Citv Festival New Books Patricia Morrisroe can't sleep. A fourth-generation insomniac, she decided to turn her journalistic talents to finding out all about sleep. Wide Awake (616.84) is part-memoir, part eclectic investigation. Morrisroe talks to mattress salesmen, an astronaut and a reindeer herder. She tries 路'sleep restriction" and "brain-music therapy", custom-made earplugs and a house in the country.

Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, working the same land as her slave ancestors. Without her knowledge, let alone her consent, her cells became one of the most important tools in medicine, used to develop the polio vaccine, research cancer, viruses and the atom bomb's effects, and to advances like invitro fertilization and cloning. These cells, grown in culture, are still alive today, even though Henrietta has been dead for more than 60 years. In The Immortal Life of Henrie/la Lacks (92 1 LAC), Rebecca Sk loot tells the extraordinary story of Henrietta's life, and of the medical industry that treated it so dismissively.

Homesteaders, gold rushers, and railway workers, Robert Budd's Voices of British Columbia: Stories from Our Frontier (97 1. 1) tells the story of BC's early white settlers in the ir own words. There are some amazing stories and photographs, together with original recordings from CBC interviews in the early 1960s.

Caribou migrate more than 4000km, the longest mi-

g ration of any land animal on earth. The place they reach at the end of this migration, where the caribou give birth to and raise their young, is called ivvavik in Inuit. In Arctic Circle: Birth and R ebirth in the Land oftire Caribou (599.65), Robert Reid sets out to find ivvavik. In doing so, he falls in love with the Arctic, and wri tes passionately about its beauty and mysteries, the possibility of losing its fragile landscape, and what that means for all of us.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee (6! 6.85) looks at compulsive hoard ing through a series of case studies. They illuminate the pull that possessions exert on us, and claim to answer the question of what happens when our stuff starts to own us.

A ll of these books are in the library display case, and will be available to borrow on Monday, August 16.

VHS and Cassette Tapes As of August 15, the Library will stop carrying VI IS and Cassette Tapes. We haven't been able to buy materials in these formats for a long time, and people a re borrowing them less and less oflen. We realize that this will be a problem for those of you who don't have access to DVD and CD players, and we apologize. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _...;B;;.e;,;t;,;,;h;:.,i. yo-ur librarian Les Box People They live high up in phallic maze of boxes Woken up in morning by musical box Descending in small moving box Go to work in box on wheels 9-5 in workaholic office box Staring at monitor box lunch next-door in cafe box Back home later in wheely box Uppa up up in ascending box Home, turn on tv/putor box Then tres Ires weary Of all of these boxes, Go to s leep on Box-spring ............ . and dream of boxes Then retire to ornate box Called Coffin!

John alan Douglas

Design a Carnegie Button!

The Carnegie Centre & Library has a table at this year's Word on the Street Festival on Sunday, September 26. As part of our table, we're going to be giving away up to 250 buttons to people who visit our table. And we need your help to design them.

Please draw your design in the space below. It can be anything that represents the Carnegie Centre for you: a picture, a slogan, or something else.

Draw your image inside the small circle (grey outline). Any artwork or text close to the edge may not show up very welL Extend background colours to the outside circle (black outline).

We'll choose up to 5 designs to make buttons. The winners wi ll get a small prize as well as the chance to see your buttons on people all over Vancouver!

Please drop your entry in the box at the Library by Friday, August 27. We'll let winners know by Sept 3.

I, William Arn old Combes, am alive and welL I was never considered missing nor was I presumed dead.

This wrong information is on the website Hidden From History, and 1 am publically asking Kevin Annett to correct such erroneous statements.

All my relations.

Libby renews call for a public inquiry into Vancouver's missing and murdered women Premier Gordon Campbell, Government of British Columbia Honourable Vic Toews, [Federal) Minister of Public Safety I write once again to press upon you the urgent need for a public inquiry into d1e actions of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the investigation of Vancouver's missing and murdered women.

A public inquiry is the only acceptable course of action, given the new horrifying information revealed since the lifting of the court publication ban and the Crown's decision to stay the remaining 20 murder charges against Robert Pickton.

The fami lies and friends of the murdered and missing women deserve answers as to why the disappearance of their daughters, sisters, mothers and friends were overlooked for so long.

I commend the VPD for their acknowledgment of past mistakes and their call, along with the RCMP, for a public inquiry. Many questions remain about the actions oflaw enforcement in regard to the missing women in Vancouver over the last 20 years, and there are crucial lessons to be learned from an inquiry.

It must also be recognized that many women in the Downtown Eastside are still at risk due to neglect and the fai lure of governments to act I therefore urge the federal government and the government of British Columbia to immediately undertake the needed public inquiry and to work with the City of Vancouver to make public the existing recommendations and findings of the internal investigation by the Vancouver Police Department cc. Hon. Michael de Jong, Solicitor General of B.C. Mayor Gregor Robertson , City of Vancouver MP Irene Mathyssen, NDP Critic for the Status of Women MP Don Davies, NDP Critic for Public Safety Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs

I ' '.\.:

-\1 '

--- _., . -

'

~路::r o:路

,

--'

--

~

--~ .- (

-

raise shit - a downtown eastside poem of resistance "the m)th of the frontier is an invention that rationalizes the viole nce of gentrification, and displaceme nt" NEIL SMITH "these pioneers in the gradual gentrification of the downtown eastside say their hopes for a middle-class lifestyle are undermined by the tenderloin scene down the street" - DOUG WARD 1997 there is a planetary resistance against consequences of globalization against poor people being driven from land they have occupied in common and in community for many years and while resistance to and rapidity of global gentrification differs according to specific local conditions we in the downtown eastside in the poorest and most disabled and ill community in canada are part of the resistance which includes the zapatistas in chiapas, mexico the ogoni tribe in nigeria and the resistance efforts on behal f of and with the lavalas in haiti the minjung in korea the dalits in india the zabaleen in egypt the johatsu in japan and these are names for the flood the abandoned the outcasts the garbage people the homeless poor and marginalized people and gentri fication has become a central characteristic of what neil smith perceives as "a revengeful and reactionary 'iciousness against various populations accused of 'stealing' the city from the white upper classes" and this viciousness and violence

"prominent amid the aspects of this story which have caught the imagination are the massacres of innocent peoples- atrocities committed against them and, among other horri fie excesses, the ways in which towns, pro\ inces, and whole kingdoms ha\ e been entirely cleared of their native inhabitants" BARTOLOME DE LA CASAS, 1542

brought to the downtown eastside by fri endly predators such as builders planners architects landlords

was the word words against the power of money and law and politics and media words against a global economic system the word "hebrew" originally designated not a rac ial class but a social class of despised driflers and ou tcasts who exis ted on the margin s of m iddle eastern cultures and those advocates those ancient hebrew prophets said

bankers and politicians is like violence brought to our community by other predators by johns and oblivion seekers by sensationalizing journalists by arrogant evangeli.ling christians predators like "the wealthy move the boundaries and developers and real estate agents the poor have to keep out of the way who remind me of no one so much the poor spe nd the night naked , lacking as g ilbert jordan c lothes the serial killer with no covering against the cold who came down he re repeatedly the child of the poor is exacted as and seduced bribed and bullied securi ty 10 native women fro m the city comes the groan of into drinking alcohol until they wer the dying dead and the gasp of the wounded and one woman cry ing for help damn those who destroy the huts of revived after a night with jordan though pronounced dead on arrival the poor at st. paul's hosp ital plundering their homes instead of described jordan as building them up "a real decent-looking person those w ho tear the s kin from off our very mild-mannered people a real gentleman who grind the faces of the poor he looked like a schoo l teacher who join house to house white shirt and tie who add field to fi eld I trusted him" until there is room for no o ne but the m and in our situation in the d owntown those who turn aside the way of the eastside the s ingle weapon we wie ld li ke the weapon native indian prophets like the weapon ancient hebrew prophets used in situations of vicious displacement and threatened destruction of their com munities

our words like bolts of lightning in a dark night lighting our way our words like tears like rain like cries like hail from our hearts feeling with each other in our suffering for each other our words angry as thunder exploding in the cars of those who would ignore or dismiss or innict upon us what they in their ignorance think is best for us our words defiant as strectkids in a cop's face our words brilliant and beautiful as the rainbow I saw spanning our streets our words of resistance and comfort and commitment

aftlicted who trample upon the oppressed" and the native prophets of th e americas who said "when these times arrive we will leave our homes like dying deer the land will be sold and the people will be moved and many things that we used to have in this land will be taken from us we have been made to drink of the bitter cup of humiliation they have taken away our lands until we find ourselves fugit ives, vagrants and strangers in our own community our existence as a distinct community seems to be drawing to a close our position may be compared to a solitary tree in an open space where all the forest trees around have been prostrated by a furious tornado"

like mountains our words prophetic on behalf of the hard-pressed poor our words buttons !-shirts fliers inserts newsletters pamphlets posters spraypaint slogans stickers placards speeches interviews essays poetry songs letters chalks paints graffiti

we have become a community of prophets in the downtown eastside rebuking the S) stem and speaking hope and possibility into situations of apparent impossibility a fi rst nations man recently told me he had come to the downtown eastside to die he heard the propaganda that this is only a place of death, d isease and despair and since his life had become a hopeless misery he came here specifically to die but he said since living in the downtown eastside ''hat with the people he has met and the groups he has found he no\\ wants' ery much to live and his words go directly to the heart of what makes for real community a new life out of apparent death and this is what we speak and live with our words our weapons

for as one prophet said "when all is dark the murderer leaves his bed to ki II the poor and oppressed" jeff and muggs and eldon and kathleen and frank and maggie and carl and Iori and duncan and margaret and mark and sonny and ken and fred and sheila and Liz and tora and terri and ian and chris and bob and leigh I and jen and shawn and darren and sarah and irene and cathy and ann and lorelie and nick and

l I

linda and john and lorraine and joanne and judy and allison and sharon and deb and marg and dan and jean and don and libby and carol and lou and dayle and mo and barb and ellen and sandy and tom and luke and gary and travis and bruce and paul and deidre and jim and lisa and so many others our words and our presence create a strange and profound unity outraged at each other disappointing each other misinterpreting each other reacting against each other resenting each other unhealed wounds dividing us when to be about unity is to be caught in a crossfire of conflicting ambitions understandings perspectives still our words and our presence create a strange and profound and strong unity as in memory of the long hard nervewracking battles for the carnegie centre against the casino for crab park against brad holme for zero displacement bylaws against hotel evictions for poor people living in woodward's against condom inium monstrosities and for our very name .

-the downtown eastside removed from city maps the most stable communi!) and neighbourhood in vancouver suddenly disappeared but recovered through struggle our name reclaimed but the meetings the pressure the downtown eastside community besieged and beleaguered strung-out and dissipated running on constant low-grade burnout fever

meetings and meetings and meetings love as in our public celebrat ions a dolen fronts to fight nt the sam e time love as in our pub lic griev ing deal with one and a dozen more a ppear love going past fatigue again another dehumanizing media s tory love taking risks in the face o f or a new condo threat . uncertainty a hundred needs crying out all at once love as stubbornness sticking to a hundred individuals with emergencies community principles love as willingness to go one more crying fo r a response sirens and s irens and sirens length construction noise to make one more lean et automobile mayhem love sitting down together one more a disabled population ti me a poor and ill populat ion love saying hello to hate and fear a nd criminalized goodbye up against global it:ation love as resistance, to lerance and pressure cooker emot ional atmosphere acceptance excruciating questions and dilemmas love so much happens so fas t for th is poor beloved com mu nity how much com promise? reeling from global upheavals how to organize? love where to fight? taking on the consequences of a syste more sirens and screams and break-i ns producing welfare cuts more wounded more murders and s uicides more damaged more bodies on the sidewalks and in more excluded alleys and parks more refugees space and places for poor p eople more unemployed and never-to-beshrinking employed and the ambiguities of advocacy and lov~;'s immense capacity to care the rumours and love as courage the well-founded paranoias the political manipul ations like the other day near main and exploitations confus ions de liberate hastings obfuscat ions ' an old white man headed across and seduction of the gentrifi catio n hastings system in the middle of the block the backroom deals somewhere e lse traf!ic roared and blasted in both in office towers and government o ffi ce directions meetings and more meetings the man was using a cane and moving and yet very slow! y beneath the ostens ible reason his eyes fixed somewhere beyond for attending another goddam ned it sure looked like he'd never make it meeting but ''ould become is that which truly ho lds us together another vehicular maiming or death holds and has held every real down here community together and then a native fellow waiting at the bus stop love like a matador dodging furious bulls not as passive abstraction or a dodged into the traffic commod ity privatized and stopped it but love using his body as a shield as fiery personal and collective social and escorted the old white man justice passion safely to the curb

words and courage and love and hope and unity if only we had the means for set f-determination instead "the real estate cowboys .. . also enlisted the cavalry of city government for ... reclaiming the land and quell ing the natives, in its housing policy, drug crackdowns, and especially in its parks strategy, the city devoted its efforts not toward providing basic services and living opportunities for existing residents but toward routing many of the locals and subsidizing opportunities for real estate development" wrote neil smith about the lower east side of new york sounds familiar, literal like the day the police showed up on horseback to patrol the I 00 block of east hastings horses on the sidewalk where some of the most ill and suffering human beings most drugged and drunk and staggering human beings slipped and stumbled through the huge horse turds left laying on the sidewalk I remember attending a kind of gentrification summit called b) a vancouver city planner to examine the city's victory square redevelopment plan david ley, jeff sommers, nick blomley and chris olds reached a similar conclusion the plan does nothing to prevent displacement and gentri fication but when recent ly remmded o f this verdict the city planne r s till pushing his plan said "I don't care if god and david ley ... " and that's just it the necessity for heeding the prophetic blast and rallying cry

delivered by larry campbell now the provincial coroner in the carnegie centre last summer

against itself against panhandlers and prostitutes

and we, you and I. us are all that stands between

the unique vulnerable troubled liferaise shit giving and deathwhen a city planner in with the attacked community of the downtown raise shit convention centre scam eastside ¡ against the kind of "urban cleansing" says "the voters of vancouver can easily we are all that stands between our vast gentrification unleashes li ve with community it's a war 20 to 25,000 homeless people and not and those who would agains t the poorest of the poor even notice" gentrify and displace and replace it I ,000 overdose deaths and when I think of raising shit replace with greed in the downtown eastside in 4 years I think of this basketball team I o nce the s ingular leadership we have here highest rate and number of suicides in played on where it is said we lack vancouver a single dynamic individual leader lowest li fe expectancy for both men and composed of middle-aged beat-up alcoholics but we have women and addicts from the streets the most powerful leader there is fatal epidem ics of aids and hepatitis c 1 who'd been sober for awhile the most effecti ve leader we can have and lack o f human e hous ing and we entered a c ity recreational ' in this grave situation identifi ed as a major factor league our community in all this violence against us against teams that were our community itself younger, wonger. faster. healthier and raise shit has emerged as our leader when a friend of mine, a gay native more skilled the dO\mtown eastside community and though we lost most games by a man, tells me itself "l' lltry anything to get a decent home large margin leads us I'm gonna become a mental case we determined that and it is to our credit that this is so no matter what the score I'll even go into an institution if it'll for it is from our help me each hotshot team we played would prophetic, courageous, connictual and know get a decent home" loving by their fatigue and sweat and bruises unity raise shit that they had been in a game that our community when both young people and hard core that they were up against an opponent raises shit addicts we knew we couldn't out jump or and resists either deliberately infect the mselves outrun those teams with hiv or BUD OSBORN but we sure could raise shit take no precautions to prevent infection 2001 better than they could so that they and amazingly we actually won a few have a better chance at games obtaining housi ng, income, health care to raise shit is to active!) resist and meals and we resist with our presence raise s hit with our words when a city cop in a newspaper colu mn with our love says with our courage Raise Shit- Social Action Saving Lives "the locals were at their best fighting is the story of the years-long struggle to we resist and howling" and calls drug addicts "vampires" person by 'person open lnsite, an accepted & 'legal' Safe j square foot by square foot Injection facility -the first on the North raise shit â&#x20AC;˘ room by room American continent. The book's authors when an extremely innuential north building by building are Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson american block by block and Bud. theoretician of displacement, george we resist kelling is brought to vancouver because we are a community by the business people and the police of prophets, of activists, of advocates, to define and divide our community of volunteers. and agency workers

"raise shit," he said

I

I

I

I

'

\

I

'I f

(

,.

I

I

I

/"'

. t

. "'..... \

....... .,.. "<:""If~

.. J,

•,. I

\'•

,•'

'•

......

I

Ca rnegie Concession Food Prices to Rise Sept. 1 1 want to thank all the customers who look to Carnegie's food service for nutritious, low cost meals and snacks. Many patrons have expressed to me how important the food services are to them and how much they appreciate the variety and value of the meals and other food items we offer. Our kitchen staff and volunteers are proud of the service we provide.

Unfortunately the time has come when we can no longer avoid raising the prices for food sold at the concession. The price increases will be moderate and will take effect September I. As many of you will know, it has been a very long time, over 10 years, since we last raised prices at the concession. Over that period the cost of food and the other expenses of running the kitchen have continued to go up. We can no longer make ends meet while maintaining the high quality food service we are committed to.

A menu with a listing of new prices will be posted at the concession by August 25th at the latest. Some examples ofthc changes we will be making include raising the price of breakfast to $2.00, lunch to $2.25 and most dinners to $3.25. Baked goods such as date squares and cake will increase to$ LOO, soups '_Vi ii ~e $.85. A good cup of fair trade orgamc coffee will sull cost just $.50.

1 want all the Carnegie Volunteers to know that we will be increasing the value of the Volunteer tickets to $.50, and will make adjustments at the till as necessary, so that you will still be able to buy items for the same number of tickets that you do now.

These price increases should help keep our kitchen healthy for some time to come. The kitchen volunteers and staff look forward to continuing to serve you the best food we can.

Catriona Moore Food Services Coordinator Carnegie Centre

Tutoring English at the Learning Centre In May I began volunteering at Carnegie's Learning Centre as an English tutor for a small class of five Mandarin speaking seniors. We meet once a week to work on pronunciation, grammar, telling the time and sing ing! (These ladies also belong to a local choir).

We worked on Oh Canada, which they performed for the first time at the Learning Centre's end of term picnic in Stanley Park. We've now moved on to Edelweiss, which is tricky because the w in "Edelweiss" is pronounced like a English v.

Swallow Zhou also works with the students to help explain (i n Mandarin) some differences between Mandarin & English in terms of sounds and grammar concepts - many of which do not exist in Mandarin.

We'll be starting up the class again in September and it is satisfying to notice the group's improvements in only three months. We also have a very good time!

Phoenix Wisebone

Creative Pathwa_ys & Oppenheimer Park

路路 "Rud.Y Suha Wind.Y ~ Lad.Y Di Rob.9n Uvingstone Social Outcast Cole Rachel Davis &

'

the 1"""-'!:ll..,~l

...., .

ONCE Once had a friend real name unknown we'd just call him fate, always showing off or up at the oddest hours to the norm much too early for hookers & 2 1" century babysitters way too late; superheroes are hard to come by always cheering you of this helter s kelter merry goround is grounds enough you may now have your expiry dates when all is dead & done, is the entire world in on this joke called life? sorry St Minus I have no s harp words m uch less a gun. I ONCE carved an 'H' in my arm hope*hate*hell *harm*hell hole*hell on earth St Minus protect this wound up but run-down soul, like hearing Again I've lost another friend & wondering if I could have prevented the event then I lose control knowing I'll never know almost time t go I ONCE had aspirations but complications settled in drinking cough syrup every day (was garbage day) & stomach lining caving in which kind o f reminds me are there any Walmarts in China or Berlin? Bitte r hostility with each bottle from cough syrup to booze to Hero in wasn't supposed to see 84 but here 's what's left just writing scratching my head & curtailing that rage that lives within ..

I ONCE loved a city Vancouver I believe was the name they once began promising everything under the sun ( it'll take us awh ile to wreck that one) & mo re deliveries right to your door ste pping over the poor we began getting g less & lesser then built I 00,000 new doors with all these new taxes should kill offlot more let Mr Death in he helped orchestrate this score then it began to pour want more?

I ONCE was a hard worker stripping freezers fu ll of fi sh maki ng more $$ than I knew what to do wi th (I knew) there I was out on the waterfront & No. Marlon Brando wasn't there; good money was being made j ust as g reat plans began to fade bottom line 7 years

seniority down the drain .. other than a couple quirks of fate 1 never worked again, tried one more band & watched it fa ll apart in our hands they ain't kidding when they say life isn 't supposed to be fai r.

1 ONCE had a vision with futu re written all over it looked so easy well not completely every dream was just another dream that fit my scheme to look cool & older now most body parts are out of order maybe yours will come out on top now I've lost my key, but I remember it saying something about " Don' t stop!" I'll do my part by taking my funenjoyment stories maybe concerned guardians w ill see unsettling similarities & communicate before any more tragedies g race newspapers & computers nothing lower than deathbed looters you'll catch it on one of your 12 TYs now you may leave that's your luxury for as far as far as your eyes can see times it by a thousand now you've entered my vicinity of misery the Disney Cartel try ing to control 54 channels of hate. I look out my window channel eleventeen as real life is better off-screen & no bloody commercials wh ich is great!!

I ONCE had a future brighter than a thousand suns several choices but one voice so like a fire hydrant spewing out words how much ink do I waste? Let's j ust say Octipus Monthly won't be interviewing me any time soon but they may reconsider if they thought I was late numbers were fun but there was an enormous bla~k hole which began sucking all sounds 2 or 3 bands later with lit1le to s how I jam with the Invisible Man & fri ends g ranted it was hard to know if they had showed if I ever disappear just call out my name I'll be the one with the red carnation at the lost but found I ONCE put my trust in a complete bust BC Housing is their name over 8 years & 80 blocks later like the lesser of2 evils Mr Death keeps s ix he knows how to play this game, we' re talkin' the New Art Linkletter fo r worse or better I know he is dead b ut here come brand new games the kids will love- One Life to Ruin ; The Price is Death; Crass-Word; The l-eanhold-my-breath Test; Warsaw Squares (actually Triangles) and lots more so grab your obesity & let's do the tango HOLD IT!! My humi liation cloaki ng device is only on during nig httime hours -li fe is truly bad for your health like the despair I keep in ample supply if you had to wake up every day not knowing how let alone what to do you would not be the least bit curious I'll never ever know why.

By ROBERT McGILLIYRA Y

\

\

\

'

I I

\

\

My knowledge is my wealth 1give it to you Hara

\

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret MeadE

102.1 FM Co-op Radio THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBUCATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributor.; and not of the Association.

Next issue Wednesday, September 1·51 !

SUBMISSION DEADLINE FRIDAY, AUGUST 27TH We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.

WANlEl

Artworll for the Carnegie newsletter

. · . ·.

Small Ulustrations to accompany articles and poetry.

,/.;_..:, .·

~

,.~;.:··.-:-.· .:~;! ·~·

;;~ ·

•···. :.· .. ..=:;~ . .:·;:: :.

::..~

; •.. ·.·

Editor: PauiR Taylor; Cover art- T~ra Collation & distribution crew: Bill, l.iu Lil, Harold, Ada, Vldeha, Mary Ann, M'llian, Kely, Usa_ Robyn, Nick.

Cover art - Max size: 17an(6 %")wide X 15cm(6")hql. ~ mailer pertaining to issues relevlllt to lhe Downtown Eastside, but all wOO WISidered .

Black & White printing lilly.

Sire restJdioos ajlply (i.e. if your piece is leo !age, ~ wil be reduced and/or aopped to fit).

AI artists wiU receive aedit for their worlt.

Originals wiD be returned to the artist after being cnpied for putmltioo.

2010 DONATIONS: Libby D.-$50, RoH A.-$50, Margaret D.--$40.

Jenny K.oo$25, Sue K.-$30, Michael C,-$50, Jaya B.-$100, Christopher R.oo$180, Barbara & Mel L-$50, l.esfte S.·$50, Sheila B.oo$25, Wilhelmina M.oo$10, CEEDS -$60, L.aurie R.-$60 Vancouver lloving Thutre ·$100, Sarah E--$46 The Edge -$200 Paddy T.-$100

Renmeralian: Carnegie Volunteer TICkets Plellse make submissions to Paul T~or.

~

Ed"ator.

Carnegie Services for Members include:

Basketball; Tal Chi; Yoga; Shiatsu; Dance; Run Club; Soccer; Nature Hikes; Aoor Hockey and more. See Monthly Program Guides Membership is $1. Open to alii/

GET CLEAN! Shower up at the Lbrd's Rain 327 Carra II Street (just-off Pigeon Parle) HOT SHOWERS (towels, soap, shampoo, the works! & coffee) Monday llam-3pm; Tuesday 7-8:30am; Tuesday l-4pm and LADIES Only!

Friday llam-3pm; Saturday 7 -lOam

lei on parle Francais Hablamos Espana/

Q!!liiCWS®shaw,ca www.camnews,org bttn:l/harvcstm,sfu.calchodarr [Index) I

Jenny Wai Ching Kwan MLA Working for You 1070 -1641 Commercial Dr, VSL 3Y3 Pbone:604-773-0790 ·

··i have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and c~re for their minds, dignity, equality and justice for their spirits. I believe that what self-centred men have tom down, other-centred men can build up.'

Dr. Martin luther King Jr.

Happy birthday Carnegie newsletter! Reading the newsletter every two weeks is a treat and a reminder of what goes on in this energetic neighbourhood of volunteers, free thinkers, senior citizens, and folks who care. In the midst of the trashy print offered up by the dailies 'Metro' and '24' and the irrelevant fashion and lifestyle glossies that gastown puts forth, the newsleller really starts to shine and demonstrate its character. Notices of memorials, photographs of peaceful demonstrations moving through the streets, curious illustrations, and the viewpoints of people who care about the neighbourhood are essential print documents. Who hasn't read through the monthly CCA P documents and reports about housing woes and wondered about the wisdom of condo developments?

The newsletter is a big beating heart in the midd le of the Carnegie Center, and of the neighbourhood, keep up the great work!

Robert Pedersen

Public Forum with Amanda Tattersall

Power in Coalition sponsored by the Metro Vancouver Alliance THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 7:00PM SFU HARBOUR CÂŁNTRÂŁ

515 vi. HASTINGS STREET

Those Behind the Scenes Does the media tell it like it is?

To them it's mostly all just 'show-biz', Newspapers become merely places for stories Where one can hear the many lies of the tories, How they eventually take us for a big ride Even fabricating "truths" about Downtown Eastside Allowing us to know when murdered victims are gone Create, they'll too a scapegoat to blame it on.

Of course this is usually done for the real criminals For they have a goal to make others' lives minimal Perhaps it is not only bringing in an HST But also smothering Mother Earth in oily misery.

Sooner or later they could destroy everyone's dreams Just look then and beware of those behind the scenes.

KMay L

HUMlOl DOCUMENTARIES CARNEGIE THEATRE SATURDAYS 6PM AUGUST21 Life On The Edge of a Bubble blowing the American dream.

B omb Under the World a look at the status quo.

AUGUST28 H ealing Cancer From The Inside Out Fast Food Natio n

I low can we change things in an age in which governments arc fixated on the bottom line and convcnHi Invin, tiona! protest rallies have lost their punch?

Thanks for this. Please keep me up-to-date on Coalitions can be important tools for social change events etc. but also make time for writing a history of and community revitalization. What makes them suethe struggle for W2, what kind of response/recognition it gets from powers-that-are.. you can ' t use direct cessful? What causes them to fail? Come and hear Amanda Tattersall, community organizer and author sword thrusts leaving blood on the floor from current assholes (at least with names and places) that would of Power in Coalition, discuss how community coalilions can be a powerful strategy for social change, invite harsh retaliation, but public embarrassment and organizational development, and community renewal. shaming are always good when sent to and read by Amanda is a commun ity organizer, researcher, and their peers or supervisors. It could even be a serial union activist with Unions New South Wales in Sydwith accompanying cartoons. ney, Australia. She is currently a Director of the SydWe have to make the real ity of the situation as ney Alliance, a broad based coalition of unions, compublic as possible and deflate the balloon that says munity organizations, and faith groups. " ... and they lived happily ever after at Wood wards in ~~=~~~=~~~~~~~~~~~~~:!! the Downtown Eastside."

Join urban ink productions for our

Women in Fish/Hours of Water Tour Launch Adapted from the CBC radio drama stunning visuals by Tim Matheson and live performance by Rosemary Georgeson.

Friday, August 20th.

Reception at Spm Performance at 6pm W2 Storycum, 151 W Cordova S t

Words for the last Page This issue marks the 24'h birthday of the Carnegie Newsletter. The first edition was put together in a storage closet in the basement for Aug. 15, 1986 - 12 pages, 60 copies. It's been "that @ QjoX#(*&A$ rag!" to 'the only paper I read from cover to cover every time!!" but the invisible victories are much deeper and more profound.

The Newsletter has become a foundation for expression of universal principles, for gathering allies and propagating the ideology of justice. The Downtown Eastside is a microcosm of global struggles. "in every living being there is a thirst for limitlessness"; the struggle is to progress without getting overcome with the sky- licking greed of humans, the impossibility of quenching this spiritual thirst with the desert of drugs and booze, money and power.

The dogmas of criminality and cleanup being identical are still dogma -bad theories presented as truth.

The prime directive is to elevate the dignity of women, a struggle expressed throug h building housing and a new Women's Centre, Breaking the Silence around violence against women, and the hidden obscenity of 59 missing women and the deaths of over 125 women in just a few years.

The prime directive is to raise the consciousness of

humanity; the struggle to expose dark forces of gentrificati on, superiority complexes, forced d ispersion of residents without concern for consequences and the driving greed and self-interest mistaken on purpose for enlightenment.

The Carnegie Newsletter is a pole in the spiritual magnet of the Downtown Eastside. Eyes are on us as the hub of a cosmic wheel, but our incredible strength is invisible, intang ible .. often incomprehensible.

It is told to investors, speculators and interested partics alike: "you have to talk to the community" and it's fair notice. We are not vain-glorious, nor is anything exempt from the droll dabbling of dilettantes, but the networking and connections are invisible victories of enormous magnitude.

At the wild risk. of whimsically will ing a little wisp of wisdom to wing forth: Baba Nam Kevalam -love is all there is.

PAULR TAYLOR VOLUNTEER EDITOR