The urban warrior

When I lived in Toronto, way back when, there was an urban warrior.

Dressed in army fatigues and armed with nothing but a large plastic bag, the urban warrior had but one task in mind: picking up litter. Over the seven years I lived in Toronto I saw him all over the city, slowly but surely making it a better, greener place - one piece of litter at a time. 

I often tried to find information about the urban warrior, but to no avail. 

He was nameless. He was faceless (not literally, but figuratively). But he certainly wasn't useless. 

In doing a little research for this post, I decided to try and look him up again. While I didn't find him, I did find this guy, Mark Giesbrecht, aka "the litter guy." Much like the urban warrior, Mark spends his days picking up litter in Toronto. Unlike the urban warrior, Mark asks for donations/supplies via a large, handwritten sign that he keeps strapped to his back.

While you can't blame, or shame, a guy for asking for money for a job done, I kind of love the fact that the urban warrior did what he did payment, and glory, notwithstanding.

Either way, both the urban warrior and the litter guy are special people - angels, in their own special way.

According to this article from the Toronto Star, incivility and unfairness trouble Mark.

I know how he feels.

Can you imagine the kind of world we'd live in if everyone cared about the planet, and people, as much as Mark and the urban warrior do?

Mark used to be homeless and his dream is to help the homeless. He works seven days a week to make his $450 a month rent (this is back when the article was written in 2009) and he loves morning talk shows "because ignorant comments about the homeless fill him with the indignation he needs to start his day."

I know how he feels.

One last word.

According to David Suzuki, cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, with 4.95-trillion (trillion!!!) tossed onto the ground or water every year. "Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a non-biodegradable plastic, which can take up to 25 years to decompose. The toxic butts are ingested by animals, especially birds and marine animals."

 
And so the urban warrior in all of us must fight on!

The better way? Me thinks not

Now that I've been back in the city for a little over three months I can safely say the honeymoon is over!

Taking the metro into work this morning, all my old feelings (annoyance, aggravation and anger, to name but a few) came flooding back.

Every time I lineup to take the metro, whether it be in the morning on my way to work or in the evening on my way home, I feel like George Costanza. I mean... we are living in a society here, right??? So why doesn't anyone else seem to be aware of that?

The rules of society (it's called first-come, first-served people) and the Societe de Transport de Montreal, or STM for short, dictate that everyone wait their turn. The STM even took the time, and spent taxpayers' money might I add, to have diagrams drawn on the ground of every metro platform, so commuters would know exactly where to lineup before embarking.   

But nooooooo.  

At least 50% of commuters disregard these diagrams completely, budding ahead of the other 50% of people who are desperately "trying to live in a society here!" 

Getting on the metro is literally like whatever sport is most like a shoving match. Football perhaps? Or maybe rugby?

Gripe #2: Move to the back of the bus assholes! 

Every time I force my way onto a "packed" bus and literally squeeze and curse my way to the back of said bus, I want to take a picture.

Why, you may ask?

Because the entire back of the bus is EMPTY!

That's right. Emp-ty.

Most commuters are too stupid selfish to realize that if they move to the back of the bus others will be able to get on - as opposed to freeze their buns off while they watch half-full buses drive by without stopping because there is "no space left."

URGH!

My last anger-fueled rampage is aimed at pedestrians who think they own the sidewalk.

You don't!

While you and your three friends may enjoy walking down St. Catherine Street arm in arm a la Sex in the City, I will not jump out of your way, into a ditch or oncoming traffic, so you can do so. I will continue walking and make direct physical contact with you.

And we're back to football... 

While the Toronto Transit Commission's slogan is "the better way," I suggest the STM's should be "the most annoying way."  

And I could really do without the music every. single. time. the metro doors open and close...

Homeless nation

Having lived in the confines of the country, and a somewhat gated community, for the past year, I've missed out on the misery that is the ever-worsening homelessness situation in Montreal. 

As winter quickly approaches and being homeless takes on life or death proportions, I can't help but feel that I (and everyone else for that matter) should be doing a lot more to help those that this city seems to have forgotten.

Or chooses to ignore.

Last week, as I made my way from the metro to the office (I'm talking about a very short, maybe three-minute walk max) I counted over five homeless men sleeping on the ground. In the cold. With nary a blanket in sight.

I'm not ashamed to say it made me cry.

But crying won't help anyone.

With municipal elections about to head to the polls (November 3), I thought I'd go online and see what our city's politicians are doing saying about the sitch.

I was surprised glad to see that each candidate had, at the very least, taken the time to formulate a policy re: poverty. I was surprised shocked to see that l'Equipe Denis Coderre had not even announced a position re: the environment.

But I digress.

The Coalition Montreal Marcel Cote seems to have given the issue the most thought. According to the (handy-dandy) diagram created by the Montreal Gazette, his team plans to "build 15,000 social and community housing units over five years with assistance from (the) Quebec government, including a proportion adapted for the disabled or infirm. Develop a bank to make cooperative housing ventures more affordable as needed. Hire inspectors and create (a) database to track landlords and properties which aren't being maintained. Support organizations (that are) fighting poverty."

McGill's Centre for Research on Children and Families recently (2012) reviewed literature on homelessness in Canada. According to their findings, Montreal's homeless population was anywhere between 10,000 and 28,000 people in the early 2000s, with males making up a disproportionate percentage of the visible homeless population (and accounting for 91% of shelter users).

Those who know me well know why this issue is so important to me - and why it touches so very close to home. 

A home that I, unlike so many others, am lucky enough to call my own.

if you'd like to help Montreal's growing homeless nation there are any number of ways you can. From simply 1) respecting them as human beings (a simple smile and/or hello works wonders) and 2) education yourself about the homeless to 3) passing on gently-used clothing, bringing food and/or donating money to 4) volunteering... there is definitely something YOU can do to improve at least ONE PERSON'S lot in life.

For a list of resources (mostly shelters), click here and contact the one that speaks to you to find out what else you can do.

Thank you!

Love, life, (labels) and the pursuit of happiness

Like Seinfeld, Sex and the City spawned a slew of quotables that can be used in everyday life. Nary a day goes by, in fact, that a SATC quote, or situation (getting broken up with on a Post-It note, anyone?), doesn't come to mind.   

But maybe that's just me.

I was out for dinner at Il Cortile with a friend the other night when she unleashed one of the greatest compliments ever. 

"You remind me of Carrie," she said. End quote.

While some people may not view the above statement as a compliment, given Carrie's ever-so-slightly neurotic nature, I most certainly do.

Like Carrie, I'm a writer. Like Carrie, I'm a bon vivant of not just food and drink but also of clothes and shoes. Like Carrie, I'm blessed/cursed with a Mr. Big. Like Carrie, I have curly blonde hair... and so forth.

Like the actress who portrayed the ever-so-slightly neurotic writer, Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP), my initials also run the gamut of three characters - with J firmly ensconced as the middle one; UJL.

Freaky!

A couple of weeks ago, when my laptop suddenly crashed, I was reminded of the following quote from season 4, episode 8 (My Motherboard, My Self): "No one talks about backing up. You've never used that expression with me before, ever, but apparently everybody's secretly running home at night and backing up their work."

Like Carrie, obviously, I'm not one of those people. Unlike Carrie, my computer didn't die. Yesss...

Some SATC quotes are funny. "You can't swing a Fendi purse without knocking over five losers," "I like my money where I can see it - hanging in my closet," "I have a style and jewelled panties aren't it," and "All righty? He said all righty? Now I'm thinking the upsetting thing isn't that you proposed, it's that you proposed to a guy that says "all righty,"" are some examples.

Some SATC quotes are life lessons, like "maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with," "They say nothing lasts forever; dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style," and "You and I are like that red wall. It's a good idea in theory, but somehow it doesn't quite work."

And finally, some SATC quotes are just plain sad. "Oh, it's never different. It's six years of never being different! This is it! I am done! Don't call me ever again! Forget you know my number! In fact, forget you know my name! And you can drive up this street all you want - because I don't live here anymore!" is a doozy. "We're so over we need a new word for over," is another.

By the way, I'm back in the city. I guess that makes me a citycountrycity bumpkin.    

 

Much ado about Miley

“To live in a culture in which women are routinely naked where men aren't is to learn inequality in little ways all day long. So even if we agree that sexual imagery is in fact a language, it is clearly one that is already heavily edited to protect men's sexual--and hence social--confidence while undermining that of women.”  

The above quote is from Naomi Wolf's (in my opinion) brilliant book The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women.

Here's another one: Women could probably be trained quite easily to see men first as sexual things.

But they aren't. 

And therein lies the Great Double Standard. 

The battle around the GDS has recently resurfaced, thanks in large part to Miley Cyrus' VMA performance. I say "thanks" as opposed to "due" because I think Miley has done us all a great service, as opposed to a disservice, by showing  that we've not, in fact, "come a long way, baby."

If anybody seriously thinks we've really come a long way... I have just one thing to ask: where the hellz are we going, yo?

The GDS is glaring when you examine the reaction to Robin Thicke's VMA performance and unrated Blurred Lines video.  He was the "victim" and everyone like boobs, respectively.

Double ick for Robin Thicke.

Miley's co-conspirator quickly sold her out on Oprah by the way, which is just one more reason he's a huge douche kabob.

Here's another one.

the very married mr. ick giving a young fan a colonoscopy

But I digress.

I am honestly surprised, nay shocked, at the amount of controversy stirred up by Miley's twerking, latex outfit, foam finger, Wrecking Ball video, Rolling Stone cover, movement. 

I mean... I can't walk down St. Catherine Street, open a magazine or watch a movie without having 10,000 tits rammed down my throat.

And that includes so-called feminists'. 

That's right, I'm talking to you Femen...

If supposed feminists think the only way to have their voices heard (ha!) is by putting on red lipstick, wearing a vinok and going topless then... let me repeat... where the hellz are we going, yo??

Femen was actually founded, and is controlled by, a man (big surprise right?) who thought young, pretty, topless blondes (that he personally "hand-picked," kind of like mr. ick) would be a good way for him to get his point across.

So Femen's point, just like pop culture's, pornography's, etc's, is to capture the male gaze. 

Excellent.

Does ojectification really equal empowerment? I don't think so. Even though Britney and Rihanna clearly disagree.
 

Strip clubs and dollar bills... double excellent! I feel so... empowered! 

The GDS debate is even more relevant in Quebec, where a new Charter of Values is threatening to disrupt the delicate (pH) balance reestablished since the last... ummm... incident.

Some Quebecers are saying the charter is being enacted to protect "oppressed women" who are being forced to wear religious garb such as the hijab and burqa. What they don't realize is that these same women will now have to choose between their faith and the economic independence provided by their jobs. 

The underlying message is that women who cover up are oppressed and woman who let it all hang out are empowered.

Good one male gazers! I see what you did there! 

Mathangi Arulpragasam, Maya, or MIA sees it a little differently.

Even though she's covered up, she's expressing herself. And that's as opposed to empowering oppressing herself. You see what she did there?

A recent spoof entitled HBO Should Show Dongs is a great comeback to the male gaze because feminists (such as myself... loud and proud) aren't saying we shouldn't show boobs. We're just saying the "dumb double standard," the one that purports that different moral structures should be applied to men and women, is as antiquated as the people who believe in it.

So "don't give us the shaft, show it to us!" We demand genital equality and the end of the GDS. For those of you who disagree with me, I hear Carl's Jr. just came out with a great new ad...

Triple ick. Covered in cheese.

One last word about Miley and the surrounding controversy.  I promise.

If Sinead O'Connor really wanted to do something in the spirit of "motherliness" and "love" she wouldn't have written an open letter with the word "prostitute" smattered all over it. She would have made a private phone call and shown a little respect, woman to woman. 

But I guess that's too much to ask from a famewhore.