9:41 PM - 30.10.04
Samhain
Man was I cranky yesterday. Part of it was that I haven't been to my chiropractor for two weeks and my back is really bothering me. He should be returning from his trip to Africa as I write this and I did verify my appointment for next week with his staff just to make myself feel better.
Second reason was an e-mail from Elections Canada. I had written challenging their fine for my not having provided answers to questions they had about the racial backgrounds of some of my workers. That is illegal under provincial and federal legislation. Their response was that they had lost all records of those responses where I explained my reasons for refusing to supply the data - could I provide the text for their notes. I went into the software that we had been required to use to respond to them and it has been locked off in addition to the intranet e-mail account that we had no option but to use during the electoral event. Uh huh. Deadline for providing evidence is November 15. Wonder how long they can stall or block responses that would mean that they would be required to pay me. Considering that my "sent" email from March to October this year all disappeared a couple of weeks ago it makes it difficult for me to reassemble all of the information I had forwarded to explain my stance on the issue. I was digging through the stacks of boxes containing the hard copy material that are in my computer room but the amount of time I will spend finding and recreating the notes will cost me a lot of additional hours. The bottom line is I have to chose to do considerably more "free" work for them or I have to accept a black mark on my work record if I decide not to pull that report together.
I did send out a lot of resumes last night and bookmarked several other job postings for later submission. The bookmarked postings are ones that will require quite a lot of writing to ensure that my submission meets their criteria for providing information. There was a really interesting article in the local Herald today that talked about a program at our university that deals with things like workplace bullying. Apparently companies are now paying more attention to the issue since the courts just awarded nearly a $1,000,000 settlement to a worker who was not properly protected by his employer from harassment on their worksite. I think I might try attending that session next time it's offered. If nothing else I might mail the information to the company that is angry at me for "losing" their contract because I refused to accept any more abuse. A FYI but maybe it will make them think again about the risks they expose someone like me to in their quest for business.
What also made me feel better about things today was a National Film Board look at what occurred behind the scenes during the Iran crisis in 1979/80. You know the one where Iranian fundamentalists seized the American Embassy and took 55 Americans hostage. Six other Americans escaped capture and finally found sanctuary with the Canadian ambassador and his staff after being told by other countries that it was too risky to take them in. Our Prime Minister then was Joe Clark and the US President was Jimmy Carter. The two men were and are very much alike. Quiet and only using as much force or power as necessary to achieve their goals. There was some riveting news footage of Carter stating unequivocally that the US would not negotiate with the terrorists. In the Canadian House of Commons Mr Clark quietly took an enormous amount of abuse so that the secret work done to protect those Americans by Canadian embassy staff could proceed safely. In the best interests of the American fugitives and the embassy staff he took Mr Trudeau, who was leading the Opposition then, into his confidence. Their public show after that point was a very carefully choreographed debate that hid much - just as has been the case recently I think. The joint effort of the two country's security personnel, directed by our Foreign Affairs Minister Flora MacDonald, is what eventually allowed them to be spirited out of Iran. The cover was that the hostages were Canadian employees of a Hollywood production company scouting a site for a sci-fi movie. Is that life imitating art or art imitating life? Hard to say. I remember the events very clearly because news of their escape came right around my birthday. I thought it was one of the best presents one could get.
I always thought Flora MacDonald would have been a wonderful Prime Minister, but that was back in the days when caustic comments were being made about Mr Clark's ability to govern because his wife, a lawyer, kept her maiden name when they married and Mr Trudeau was being publicly admired because it appeared he had hit his wife when she flirted a little too much with a rock star. Uh huh. Both leaders - Mr Carter and Mr Clark -, were in part, turfed from their positions because they put the best interest of the hostages before their own careers. Guess the bigger the bully one is in public life the more likely they are to be voted in to office.
My spirits were also lifted a bit by an account by the one columnist in the entertainment section of our paper who talked about life in the public eye. The story about his experiences in the plus 15 walkways downtown had me howling. The one consolation he might take is that he probably saved some hapless clerk from the abuse that the woman who accosted him heaped on his head. The downer that also made me upset yesterday though is that the one one female columnist who has always had the integrity and the guts to speak up for those who can't fight back is retiring. Well deserved indeed, but another voice of conscience silenced is a great detriment to our community.
Interesting article in the papers about a pardon for 81 people burned at the stake in Scotland by the Calvinists as witches when what was really going on was that the emerging medical practitioners didn't want to compete with the mid-wives and herbalists who normally cared for most of the sick in the community. Why would people choose "grass" and non-invasive help over being cut open with filthy knives, eh? In some ways it is like Galileo being excommunicated and silenced by the Catholic church, because he stated that the world was round or the public opprobrium now heaped on anyone who doesn't toe the new wave of fundamentalist thinking whether it be Muslim or Christian in origin. Truth is none of that has anything to do with the divine anyway - it is all about who gets to keep the power and money generated within a society.
Speaking of things heavenly this conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be visible next week Star_of_Bethlehem and this is the solar activity being watched for Hallowe'en Flares. Anyway time to go see which of our neighbours is celebrating All Soul's Eve early - maybe lock down a little earlier than usual.
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