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01:45 - 15.09.07
Epiphanies
The past two days have been similar in terms of temperature and tenor. Mid 20's C/ mid 70's F. Warm, calm air - and a high level of pollutants accumulating as a result. The sky was a sickly green colour on the way home tonight, over an area that is usually less affected than others. I've had to use my inhaler - bleagh. Give me snow or rain instead.

The reason for my grand-daughter's angst became clear over the two days too. Her next layer of teeth are starting to erupt through her gums. At the moment she has eight fully emerged incisors, with which she delights in tearing off bites from adult-type food. She wants to be grown up, you see, and doesn't want the mushy pap any more. She is also very aware of the stress levels of the adults in her life. Her mom coping with the new job and problems with her mom's medical care. My son dealing with his partner's stress and anger, as well as the demands of a very busy job. Me, because I often feel as though I need to walk on eggshells as far as her parents are concerned. Most days now it doesn't matter how hard I try, it isn't good enough. It is re-activating all those old ghosts and tapes from my early childhood on. I am having to be very careful I don't fall into old negative patterns of behaviour or thought because of the triggers. The last thing I want to see is my grand-daughter pushed into those same beliefs about herself, because she wouldn't know that none the issues arising are hers to carry. It is apparent that she is internalising and taking responsibility for the emotional behaviour of her parents. Her mom is particularly impatient and critical with her, even though everyone around her is trying very hard to accommodate her moods. Maybe there needs to be a reflective response to that lashing out, so she sees her behaviour through other's eyes, but I doubt at this point in time, that I have the skill to do it in a way that doesn't make things worse for my son and granddaughter. I get to leave every evening, after all - they don't.

Conversations with long-time fellow travellers around the employment scene has been enlightening too. One woman today was very down. When one of the other women asked her why she mentioned that the very large company she has worked for for a decade or two has announced it is laying off a whole layer of administrative workers. The staff affected have been given notice so that they have time to look for something else, but it sounds as though there isn't any alternative being offered within the company itself. The woman who first raised the issue, said that the very large company she works for isn't and hasn't been hiring and is waiting to see where the political chips are going to fall before they decide what to do. She told her about-to-be surplussed friend that she would put in a word for her with their hiring department, but that it would be at least another six months before there would be opportunities arising - if then. We could see other heads nodding in the surrounding area, even though no one else on the bus and train was directly involved in the conversation.

A call from one of the people who worked for me during the last election,later that morning, underlined the real state of the workplace in the city. He has been trying to find a position at his level of expertise - which is considerable - with no responses except rejection letters, when he receives any response at all. He mentioned a few other people, whom we both know, who are also seeking work, but are having no luck in their own lines of endeavour. He and some of the other people we both know are taking jobs that are seriously underpaid for the cost of living in this city, and where they are underemployed for the skills that they have successfully applied for the benefit of our economy in the past.

Those people all work in the industries that are telling the media that they can't find enough staff. Neptune and Pluto aspects, astrologically, point to lies and deception. Free trade agreements only work to the advantage of a corporation if their workers are paid the absolute minimum in wages, you see. There is the constant threat that they will take their investors and go elsewhere if the rest of the local community doesn't accommodate their demands. Case in point is the royalty tax report about to be released by the province. One of the really big international companies is making dire threats, if they are required to pay their fair share of taxes for the natural resources they are extracting from our province. "Please go", is my thought, since the fact of the matter is that those resources aren't all that easily found anywhere else; especially not in a politically stable country where those companies can operate in relative safety. Yes, I know that jobs will be lost, but a healthier balance of power in the community is worth it. I am saying that with authority you see, because I am part of the skilled labour pool that is already paying the price of those large companies' acts of extortion. When the free trade agreement - NAFTA - was first negotiated, the main source of political refugees in this city were from Central and the west side of South America. Their comments as they watched that negotiation process unfold, almost to a person independent of each other, was that they had lost everything they valued in their home countries, including their citizenship, because of those first attempts/experiments at the globalization of commerce in their countries of origin. They were petrified that our communities, offering refuge to them then, would find that their lives were forever damaged as the march of the CEOs turned toward the northern hemisphere. They may still be ultimately correct in their forecasts, based on what has happened the past couple of years in this city.

That new book by Naomi Klein outlines the strategies used to steal a nation's economic freedom in detail. Governments and political parties here bought into the plan mostly because, in the short term, their individual elected members profited greatly. The scope of theft, graft, and betrayal of their role as stewards for the citizens of this country is just starting to emerge into public awareness now. The recalibrating of the economy has to be now, or our work force will become just another third world pool of out-sourced labourers for those CEOs. I know, try to see the solutions instead of the problems. Guess I need to think on that don't I dear diary? Meditation is best done while sleeping I think. Good night, dear diary.

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