Saturday Spotlight on Olivier de Schutter

Well…kind of.

It is more a spotlight on the state of Canada’s Food Insecurity.

And before you begin to profile me as a wonderful activist for the proper rights of all mankind, I only wish. Although I do tune into CBC now and then and read the newspaper with my morning coffee to understand what is happening in the world so I do not appear like a completely self absorbed person, I miss a lot of the important things that are going on in the world (to my shame).

Hungry people are a problem. Especially hungry children. And that is something I do care very deeply about which is why I am a blogger for the Waterloo Region Food System Round table. The following article is a piece I wrote for them that will be going up about the same time as this one!

Have a wonderful long weekend. (And for heavens sake, buy local!)

From May 6 – 16th, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Olivier de Schutter visited Canada to conduct a formal country mission. The purpose of his visit was to examine the way in which the human right to adequate food is being realized in Canada.

His final statements on the state of food insecurity in Canada were shocking as he outlined that a growing number of people across Canada are unable to meet their basic food needs and he called Canada to a constitutional and legal protection to the right to food domestically.

De Schutter stated that:

“Canada has long been seen as a land of plenty. Yet today one in ten families with a child under six is unable to meet their daily food needs. These rates of food insecurity are unacceptable, and it is time for Canada to adopt a national right to food strategy.”

He also discussed the growing food insecurity of First Nation Peoples in Canada as a result of government policies, decreasing access to land, and the lack of proper implementation of the Nutrition North Canada program which offers healthy food to the indigenous peoples.

The lack of available land is not affecting only the indigenous peoples but the rest of Canada as well. De Schutter stated that our agricultural practices have moved from small, local farms to large scale intensive modes of production since the 1950’s which creates unsustainable farming practices and higher greenhouse gas emissions. He calls for Canada to strengthen our local small-scale farming sector to ensure a strong local food system and help combat food insecurity.

De Schutter commented on the gap between the obesity rates and poverty rates in Canada and on his concern with the growing gap between Canada’s international commitments and their implementation domestically. He affirms that Canada has the financial means to address the basic human needs of our most marginalized and disempowered and that we are falling short; poverty affects some 3 million Canadians, of whom more than 600,000 are children.

In conjunction with De Schutter’s visit, Food Secure Canada is calling for a national Food Policy that includes a minimum wage to cover basic living necssities, student nutrition programs, and public promotion of healthy foods to name a few.

Of course there has been criticism to De Schutter’s visit, one example which can be seen here: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/05/16/john-ivison-hypocritical-un-council-sends-envoy-on-kafka-esque-canadian-visit/

Further resources on Olivier de Schutter’s visit can be seen here:

Food Secure Canada: http://foodsecurecanada.org/ (Follow the links at the bottom of the article)

Official Statement: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12159&LangID=E

Aka My Happy Place

Last night was a revolutionary one for Jesse.

We were finishing up his birthday dinner and he mentioned he had gotten a few texts re: his birthday post. I hauled out my laptop and let him read what I wrote.

At first, he was touched.

He quickly moved on to…”Wait…how much do you write about me on your blog?”

I looked at him for a moment and then said, “Jesse…your mother and sister are some of the most reliable readers of my blog. Many of your relatives subscribe to my updates. You think they are doing it because I only write about myself?”

Thankfully he is not overly tech savvy, bless him.

Anyways, I am eternally grateful to his sister who provided proof that he has been mastering the “tuck and roll” from an early age.

And he’s still got it.

I digress.

I want to update you on my latest race, The Starbucks Run for Women (chosen for obvious reasons). It happened last Saturday in the quaint little city of Unionville. I can only describe it as that little town at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast where all the townspeople are bursting out of their windows and doors and shouting out “Good morning!”

Anyways, I awoke at a ridiculous hour of the morning, sped down the 401 and arrived in Unionville in time to grab my race pack, do a quick warm up and head to the starting line.

There was a 5 km or 10km option. I chose the 10 km because it was bound to be less people and if I am driving a distance, I want to run a distance!

This was a woman’s only race, so I gauged the runners and went to the front. I was standing behind two (what I can only assume to be) Kenyans and a woman who looked like she ate nails for breakfast and was wearing the tights that looked like this:

I tried to ignore the feeling I would be miserably passed, possibly lapped and tried to occupy my mind with the Starbucks coffee and oatmeal at the end of the race.

The gun went off and I started way too quickly and was in second for about the first km. Obviously I started getting passed but I was feeling great and running strong. I quickly altered my  goal to finish in the top ten.

I kept a strong pace for most of the race. It was beautiful! We ran through the town and it seemed as if all of Unionville was outside to cheer us on. When we were not running near people, we were in wooded areas and by large bodies of water. Gorgeous. It was a mixture of a trail race and a road race (aka, my happy place). I kept hammering on, slowly edging past runners and moving up.

I had a good sprint to the finish line and I finished in 47:10. I had just crossed the finish line when I bumped into an athletic woman and as I started to apologize, I realized it was Catriona Le May Doan. We swapped race stories and then I turned incredibly awkward as I started gushing on about how proud Canada was to have an athlete like her, etc. I managed to pull it together for her to sign my race bib and take a quick photo.

I went to check the times board and was shocked to see I came in fourth and first in my age group.

How can this happen? Well, this is the second year of the race, so there were only 334 people in the 10 km. It also was an all woman’s race so I am not competing against males who by nature are stronger and faster runners. Most ladies were making this a fun run with the girls as well. So this will probably never ever happen again, but it felt good to have my name this close to the top for at least one race. (Check out the ages of the ladies who won! They were amazing!)

Anyways, if you are interested, race photos can be seen here. (aka, there you go, mom).

I picked up my prize and collected my race bracelet that all runner get instead of medals (girls race, I told you!) and revelled in the high “estrogenness” of the race.

To cap off the “girl power” theme of the day, I ended up at the Lululemon outlet and of course found another piece to add to my obsessive collection.

Hippie Wednesday

What I found on my desk this morning at work. One would think we are hippies round these parts….

You still do a tuck and roll

You let me chose the movie every time.
Even though you know it will be a drama.
Every time. 

You come to my door all dressed up at my door with flowers and dark chocolate…just because. 

You spend more on your dog’s hair cut than your own.
You never object to sharing chocolate.

You notice things in music that no one else does.

You agree to play Ultimate Frisbee with me and my friends on Wednesday nights even though you could be working late.

You pluralize singular things because you know it makes me laugh.

When I placed in the top four in my recent race, you show up at my door with the pair of shoes I was lusting over ‘because you didn’t have flowers’

. 

You will listen to my close friends rant about ex-boyfriends and fervently announce that “You never did care for them anyways”.

You dropped everything to travel the world with me. You switched from buying tickets to Israel to confirming a flight to Amsterdam in a space of 24 hours because you know I wanted Europe.

You are more interested in being like Jesus to people than making lots of money.

You took up running so we could run a race together.

You can make my little sister feel like the most important person in the room

You let me talk myself out.

You fit perfectly with my family.

I used to adamantly declare I could only be with an active man. You are more interested in hiking, road biking, running, and cross country skiing with me than going to a movie.

You love vegetables

You still do a tuck and roll on your couch and go back for round two, even though you are turning 30.
Happy birthday, my love. To me, you are perfect.

Mother is a verb, not a noun

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of it’s mother.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.

I  love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine – she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Terri Guillemets

A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review.  ~Robert Brault

I cannot forget my mother.  She is my bridge.  When I needed to get across, she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.  ~Renita Weems

Saturday Spotlight on Alysha Brillinger

I remember the first time I met Alysha Brillinger. I was with Jesse to see a group of his friends performing in down town Kitchener and after the show, Alysha slipped up to the piano and sat down.

“You are not even going to believe this girl!” one of Jesse’s friends said.

Suddenly, a powerful voice broke through the crowd and she simply attacked the piano. From that moment on, I was hooked on Alysha’s music. In fact, Jesus is quoted on her website saying: I am coming back just to hear her sing..

She is a Half Tanzanian, half Canadian force to be reckoned with. She creates a gorgeous blend jazz and pop and she plays multiple instruments; performing on both the piano and guitar.

Despite her travels to LA and around the world recording music, she is one of the most down to earth musicians I know. She is humble about her talents and she lives the message of her music. It doesn’t take much time with Alysha to see she is interested in people, funny, intelligent and ridiculously talented.

She has been working tirelessly on a new album and Friday, May 18th is the much anticipated release party. I asked her what she wanted to say about her first release and this is what she sent over.

Basically I did this album independently; so it feels good to be a female artist producing independent music that is influenced by everything I’ve been listening to and performing. I love Jazz and pop and my dad is singing a song with me in Swahili at the CD release party!

So if you are in the area next Friday night, please go to The Little Bean Cafe and heard Alysha and her musician friends celebrate the release of her beautiful new album! If you miss the release concert, keep an ear tuned on CBC as she is played on the radio as well!

**

Speaking of CBC songstresses, Rose Cousins read my very first Spotlight Saturday and sent this:

thank you for the post and you rule and THANKS FOR THE FRIGGEN TEA! it was great. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Have a happy weekend! I know I have so far!

A Funeral or a Party?

I delight in pomp and circumstance.

I eat fruit with chopsticks and I buy dishes in cool shapes because nothing is better than eating oatmeal out of a leaf. I celebrate half birthdays and have “you didn’t get the job but you are a winner at life” get togethers. Why eat on plastic when you can have china? (And besides, it is brutal for the environment!) And you know those favourite pieces of clothing that you wear moderately because you never want them to wear out? I wear them at every opportunity!

This reality was never more clear than yesterday when Jesse messaged me and told me that the vet called because it was Wilson’s birthday. I instantly messaged back that we are going to have a partyyy!

When I arrived at Jesse’s apartment, his room mate and friend were there. I told them that they were honoured guests to our dogs 70th birthday party. They did feel honoured, but they also felt the need to busy themselves elsewhere for the evening.

I took Wilson on a birthday walk and let him sniff along the way instead of hurriedly rushing him around the pond. I let him chase a family of geese. (If you can live to 70, I think you can pretty much do what you want…).

Jesse arrived later and we took out the dog frozen yogurt (peanut butter flavoured) from the freezer and I made Jesse join in for a hearty rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

I posted on beautiful moments this week and my theory is that you can create those moments too. Singing for a dog that couldn’t care less while my boy friend secretly rolls his eyes isn’t the point. I have been raised on these “created moments”. Every quiet morning at home as a young child, my mom would make me a smily faced pancake with smarties and peanut butter. And on really long, rainy days when we would wander aimlessly from room to room after her, she would stop her laundry, load us in a laundry basket and push us around the house. We achieve a life milestone and we get to chose the meal and eat off of the hallowed “Special Plate” . We have had family funerals for hamsters under the giant oak tree in our back yard. (I am sure my father never expected he would be praying over a hamster’s dead body).

What can I say? It doesn’t matter if it is a big event or a minuscule thing that is bordering on the meaningless…I will find a way to have a celebration (or a funeral in dear Caramilk’s case). It has been born and bred.

(Want to know another thing I love to celebrate? Friends birthdays! Check out Nancy’s blog post and giveaway! )

why my mother is the best

Mother’s Day is this weekend, and I thought I would beat everyone to the chase in declaring my mother is the best. 

Why?

I walk in the door, tired and grumpy, and I stop to complain about my homework to her. I trudge upstairs, crack open my books and laptop and a few minutes later, she knocks on my room door and hands me this:

Mum. You are the greatest. 

Beautiful?

I have a confession to make.

I am very bad at stopping for the small, beautiful moments that make up a day.

Last week, I was taking my dog on a walk around the pond and when I stopped to take in the full moon and the trees hanging over the water, he wove his leash around my legs and almost tripped me.

This weekend, I was in Toronto with some of my co workers and there was a homeless man standing on the crack side walk with his eyes closed and his face lifted to the sun with people streaming all around him.

“That is beautiful.” said our editor.

Beautiful? I was just jabbing at the cross walk button. We had a booth to set up! But I looked again and he was right – it was beautiful. Here was a man who stopped everything to openly enjoy a simple pleasure.

And for the rest of the day, I purposed to find the beautiful moments that normally escape me, like a great dane pulling a small boy on a skateboard down the sidewalk; my little sister trying not one, but two desserts in one day; a dinner with the wonderful man in my life; a perfect night of sleep.

So even though I am constantly rushing from place to place, wrapped up in what I need to accomplish in that moment in order to feel like an accomplished human being, I forgot to actually lift my head and look around me. So here is to seeing the small things.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,And daub their natural faces unaware. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Coast of England…from another day full of beautiful moments

New Feature: Spotlight Saturday

I have been brainstorming lately something I can do weekly on the blog that is original and useful to you as my readers. I had a few stipulations: It had to be useful, helpful and have alliteration. I like alliteration almost as much as I love the semicolon. It’s been on the back burner for a while, but last night it was shoved into the spotlight as I had my ‘aha’ moment while driving home from a concert.

Saturday will henceforth, from now till forever be Spotlight Saturdays where I will shine the spotlight on a local artist, musician, author, issue or whatever I think is the most important thing of the week. Ok?

Today’s Spotlight is on Rose Cousins.

Rose is a hilarious human being from P.E.I. whose concerts involve impromptu challenges to audience members to see who can kick the highest and creating tv drama scenarios in which her music would be played. She has her audience doubled over with laughter in between her songs but the moment she starts playing, they are completely captured by her depth and the power of her music. She has been given many awards for her incredible folk music and is in the midst of travelling across Canada, sharing her music and inviting audiences to high kicking contests.

 She has been supportedand advertised by CBC and gives credit to the program for where she is today. She shared that the budget cuts have directly affected her and many other Canadian musicians. Her hope is that we spread the message and can somehow find a way to keep the program alive that has given rise to some of our greatest Canadian musicians.

If you get a chance, please check out her new album. It will feed your soul.