Valentine’s Day is one of those weird non-holiday holidays. There’s issues with the ethics of cut flowers and a need to buy ethical fair-trade organic chocolate. There are those who complain about it making single people feel bad and others who say its all just a marketing scam. Yet this
Continue readingAuthor: christyk
Christy's Houseful of Chaos » politics: aspartame, science and society
Oh, what questions arise from opening a science textbook! I didn’t realize a biology textbook would lead me again to wondering about the challenges of being open to new information and the doubt that comes with living in a world where we recognize too much research is done with corporate
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: reminders why feminism is still relevant
It has been one of those weeks where I think about feminism lots. And basically as a married, white woman living a rather isolated life as a homeschool mother and social activist, I’m pretty protected from a lot of the problems women face in the world. So I can forget
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Twitterstorm for an Emergency Homeless Shelter in Sudbury
The Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty is leading a campaign for a new emergency homeless shelter. This is to fill the gap that was created when the Elgin Street Mission announced they would no longer be open all night during the winters. S-CAP first wrote to the city, then disrupted city
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Raise the Minimum Wage campaign meeting
The Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage held an organizing and strategy meeting this weekend. It started on Friday with talks by Sterling Harders about the SeaTac citizen’s initative campaign and Janah Bailey from Chicago talking about the organizing and striking of fast food workers there. They spoke again at
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Happy Things
It is freezing cold outside here, and I couldn’t get my car to start so I wasn’t able to help out a book sale I was hoping to help out at. (Nor could I buy books from the sale!) But that means I have some extra time at home, and
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Benefit Street: If this is entertainment….
…. why don’t we just draw lots for child tribunes to fight to the death? The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty was approached by their allies in Britian to join a twitter protest against the television show Benefit Street, and curious about this I watched part of an episode on youtube.
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Thoughts about the kid’s book The Stamp Collector
I borrowed the book The Stamp Collector from the library because I thought it might be another cute book about collections, and in a way it is but its also much darker and more relevant than that. The story starts like a folk tale with the city boy who loves stamps and
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: I Came From the Water – a children’s book about Haiti.
I always like to share what I’m reading with the kids, so after reading The Big Truck That Went By, I borrowed from the library I Came From the Water by Vanita Oelschlager. I Came From the Water uses very simple language and few sentences per page to describe a
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Haiti – Thoughts about The Big Truck That Went By by Jonathan Katz
Sometimes it seems the problems of the world are too ingrained, too built into the structure of how things have been, so one of the things that stands out for me in the book The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: inequality and expectations.
Sometimes reading two things together brings certain details to the front. The other day I was reading two blogs about obstetrics in other countries. One of them is by a doctor who went with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to work in Sierra Leone. The other blog is by a doctor
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Inside the mall or outside: thoughts on the allegiance to capitalism.
It was bitterly cold today but I joined with others in handing out candy canes and holiday themed postcards in support of the campaign to raise the minimum wage in Ontario. There were six others from my anti-poverty group and we took turns warming up inside the mall and standing outside
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Defend Our Climate
Today I went to a “Defend Our Climate” rally. There are reports of protests in 130 communities across Canada today, but I take slight hope. With the Harper government praising Australia for removing their carbon tax, what hope do we have that the government will take action now? How do
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Remembrance Day
Today is Remembrance Day, when we collectively try to appease the ridiculousness of sending people off to war by heralding the sacrifice they made. I want to link quickly to some good reading material. There is a Globe and Mail article that talks about the shift in language from Remembrance
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Does everyone really hate environmentalists and feminists, and if so, what can we do about it?
There are various articles I’ve been wishing to write commentary about, but never had time to. One of these is an article at Salon.com about a study on people’s attitudes towards feminists and environmentalists. The article is titled: Everyone hates environmentalists and feminists and it claims people’s opinions of the
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Trespassing at our MPP’s office: day 2 of the S-CAP 11 trial.
Last Monday, and again today, I got to learn a little more about the legal system. I’ve been watching the court proceedings for trespassing charges against 11 members of the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty. The Coalition had done a bit of activist theatre back last year, bringing sleeping bags and
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Talking again about minimum wage in Ontario.
Let’s talk about minimum wage again. It’s getting close to September 14th, when advocates of raising Ontario’s minimum wage will be staging actions across the province. In the meantime, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce is responding saying that the minimum wage should raise only with inflation. If minimum wage had kept
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Rebutting the Fraser Institute’s Report on Immigration
(This was a letter of the editor I sent to my local newspaper titled: Re: Immigration selection should be based on businesses’ needs: Report.) QMI Agency reported on a Fraser Institute report claiming that immigration is a drain on Canadian taxpayers because the average immigrant pays less in taxes than
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: my why we still need feminism post
Online news is filled with stories about the rape chant from Saint Mary’s University and while there’s been backlash about it now somehow the students at that university have been putting up with the chant since at least 2009. Then there’s the story about Stacey Rambold being sentenced to just
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Reasons to NOT Support Operation Christmas Child
Google informs me that there are already people and schools taking advantage of back-to-school sales to gather supplies for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. While I think it is great to try to give extra joy to others, I want to write to urge people not to support this program. Why? Let
Continue reading