Womanseyeview's Blog

Madiba

Posted on December 6, 2013 by womanseyeview

Nelson Mandela died today.

This is a different kind of blog for me. First because the photos were not taken by me and secondly because I want to reflect on the passing of a giant and how humbled I was that our paths crossed however insignificant for him and how hugely significant for me.

We officially met twice…technically three times but I’m not sure that going through airport security in Cape Town with him, when his guards had to remove their guns and he charmingly joked and apologized for the delay with us, counts!

For all my youth I was passionately involved with the anti-apartheid movement within the trade union I belonged to and fought for sanctions against the state of South Africa because the black workers there asked us. From the time when our governments still called Nelson Mandela and his ANC terrorists until they embraced him as a saint we kept faith with his indomitable spirit.

When that glorious day came in February of 1990 when after 27 years he walked free from prison, the first thing Mandela did was embark on an international trip to thank supporters around the world. Yes he met leaders but he also met activists who had supported the struggle through those dark years and miracle of miracles I had the privilege to be one. It was a quick photo op in Toronto with Madiba and Winnie but there was no one in the world I would rather have shaken hands with!

In 1994 while he was running for President in the first democratic elections in South Africa I met with him again at the ANC headquarters in the Shell building in Johannesburg when I visited along with the then President of the Canadian Labour Congress, Bob White.

We sat with him for over an hour discussing the challenges ahead and as you’ll hear from anyone who met this great man he was humble, attentive, self deprecatingly funny, wise and mesmerizing. There are some people who walk this earth who are different from us…who when you’re in their presence you just know they’re made of different stuff – ‘the royal jelly’ my husband respectfully calls it.

Whatever it is, Madiba had it.

President Obama said that Mandela said “I am not a saint unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying”. Who else but a saint would say that?

Posted in History, Life, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged Apartheid, Madiba, Nelson Mandela, saints, South Africa | 14 Comments

Contemplating Christmas

Posted on December 3, 2013 by womanseyeview

We are into the season of special events – whether religious or gift giving or family get-togethers…even those of us that find pleasure in some aspects of this time of year can’t help but also be dismayed at the excess and ‘consumerism gone wild’ aspect of it too. It got me looking for a little relief even though the month of December has only just begun.

One of my favourite parts of the season is my mother’s choir which brings joy to family and neighbours, sometimes in seniors homes, many of whom can’t get out for the holidays.

For the little buying I do, I try to restrict my ‘consumerism’ to local artisans and local products where I can. It really does make the interaction so much more personal and humane – not to mention far more interesting.

Local art fairs like the one I regularly attend in Southhampton, Ontario at their Art School and Gallery is always a delight. Look at this amazing punch-needled evening bag by local fibre artist Phyllis Mercer!

Fabric art evening bag, Phyllis Mercer

Then as a real balm to the soul my granddaughter and I just helped decorate the barn where we ride horses together.

Grazing happily in spite of a misty, wintery day the horses had no idea what awaited them back at the barn…

…truth be told unless it involved apples or carrots they probably didn’t much care either!

But a stable at this time of year has a special kind of meaning and is about as far removed from a mall as one can get. A nice respite – lucky us.

Posted in Life, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged artisans, buy local, Christmas, consumerism, Fabric art, horses, Ontario | 17 Comments

Autumn Glory

Posted on October 29, 2013 by womanseyeview

Can anything beat a crisp, sunny fall day in Canada? Not to my mind… although my son and granddaughter, the skiers, would argue for a Canadian winter as their favourite. Walking through the woods nearby, especially the deciduous ones, is a delight I relive each autumn as if it’s the first time.

My humble garden puts on her best clothes as if to say bienvenue to Winter.

Even the plants after a first frost take on one last display of frost kissed beauty.

Who could compare this to the Winter that awaits us just around the corner…Well maybe a couple of people I know!

Posted in Environment, Life, Photography, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Walking | Tagged Canadian Autumn, Canadian Fall, Favourite season | 16 Comments

Public Transit Culture in Toronto

Posted on October 5, 2013 by womanseyeview

Observing fellow travellers as they observe back, over the past few years, I’ve often wondered about how unique our train/bus/subway culture is here in the GTA (greater Toronto area). Having used public transit in Europe, Africa and Latin America, Japan, Korea and China I know that the quality of the equipment, training of the drivers, density of population and mood of the passengers varies enormously.

What is truly unique about our transit system is that as a city with one of the most multicultural populations in the world – many of us have experienced transit elsewhere and yet blended together we create Toronto’s very own transit culture. Add to that, we are the 3rd busiest system in North America, after New York and Mexico cities so we’re bound to have our own unique vibe. For the most part it works quite well too – don’t know why.

The things that happen on the train ride have a certain regularity – make up being applied on the two earliest morning rides is a common occurrence.

So is the eating of breakfast – sometimes boiled eggs – Oh no! Eyes meet across the aisle and grimace but in typical Toronto fashion we say nothing.

Down the passage way a young woman reads a book – ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for Dummies’ – and a young couple sits lovingly sharing their music.

The top level is designated a quiet zone – library rules apply! And since we have a very high density of public library users in the GTA it works amazingly well.

Earlier this year we had an art display in the subway system – photos of tunnels seldom seen by daily riders. It was really interesting both to see the hidden labyrinth and also to observe the high number of people who took a keen interest in the photos themselves.

Underfunded, crowded, service often disrupted and yet people co-operate amazingly well to get us all where we’re going. For those of us who are intrigued by the rituals of our fellow travellers in this journey of life – the Toronto commute has many riches.

Posted in Life, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Thoughts, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged commuting, public art, Toronto, Toronto transit | 1 Comment

GOing on the Red Rocket

Posted on September 7, 2013 by womanseyeview

How did it take me so long to discover public transit?

As a committed driver for decades I had always dismissed the train or bus as an option but now that I commute to the downtown core it is so obviously the smartest alternative. 2.76 million passengers ride the Red Rockets (pet name for the Toronto Transit Commission’s streetcars, subways and buses) around town every day and that takes a lot of co-operation on the part of travellers!

Next to New York City and Mexico City we are the 3rd largest transit system in North America. Given the tight budget our transit commission is forced to work under and the lack of vision by some elected folks it’s impressive what we manage to achieve.

Coming in from the North of the City I also travel the GO transit system and 250,000 of us converge on Union station every morning.

The past few months however, have tested our civility to the limit as we must pass through two major construction projects: the renovation of the historic railway terminal and the construction of a second subway platform at Union station.

This has all gone on around us and every day is an adventure as we never know what entrances are open, what platforms we’ll arrive at and what other surprises we may find.

The pleasantness between construction workers, transit workers and commuters trying to get where they’re going is a tribute to us all!

The comraderie we discover as we suffer through this together is quite amazing. If anything people are more polite than usual as we work through each day’s challenges and it does make you feel better about our home town.

Posted in Environment, Life, Puzzles and Contradictions, Thoughts, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged commuting, GO Transit, Red Rocket, Toronto, Toronto Transit Commission, transit workers, Union Station | 7 Comments

The Pope and me

Posted on July 29, 2013 by womanseyeview

Pope Francisco looks down

He looked down on us from all over the City of Buenos Aires – the newly chosen Pope was awaiting ‘coronation’ and his native Argentina was alive with anticipation. He was the first Pope from a Latin American country and one who claimed he would work for the poor and as you can see from this enterprising street vendor his ascension was helping already! While my travelling companion Cheryl didn’t necessarily share my fascination with the new Pope, she as a non -catholic and me as simply a ‘non’, we were both aware we were visiting BA at an historic moment.

As Pope Francisco Ist has his first visit to Brazil – and ministers to crowds of adoring millions – I’ve been thinking back to the excitement felt in Buenos Aires when he was selected earlier this year. Within hours of the papal conclave’s announcement the Peronist Parties were claiming him as one of their own. You may recall from one of my earlier postings ( https://womanseyeview.me/2013/03/27/dont-cry-for-me-argentina/ ) politics in Argentina are not for the faint of heart or shy. The chutzpah of a Party claiming him as their own is politics as usual in this unique political environment. Outside the Cathedral in BA the faithful and the curious milled around what had been Cardinal Bergoglio’s home turf before he was selected to succeed the retiring Pope Benedict. When he was selected Pope Francisco declared ‘I would like to see a church that is poor and is for the poor’ – such radical sentiments.If you go inside though you immediately see the huge challenge for any Pope deciding the Catholic Church will be a church for the poor!

If you look closely in the following photos you’ll see the Cathedral itself flew the vatican papal colours (yellow and white) along side the Argentine flag.

Even their famous obelisk, on the Avenida Corrientes, was draped in Papal finery.

Huge screens relayed scenes of the Pope and yet more vendors sold instant papal trinkets on the cathedral’s steps. Everyone young, old, innocent or cynical appeared to enjoy their country’s newest star. I’ve long admired the liberation theology wing of the Catholic church, rooted in Latin America – those who stand with the poor and have a clear class analysis. His Papal predecessors worked hard to clear those priests from the church – could we see Francisco resurrecting that noble tradition? Some of his pronouncements in Brazil have been inspiring. The Pope and me … could yet see eye to eye one day!

Posted in History, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Reunions, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged Argentina, Argentine politics, Buenos Aires, liberation theology, Pope Francisco | 6 Comments

Environmental and economic struggles – Port Alberni’s contradictions

Posted on July 12, 2013 by womanseyeview

On a recent visit to a friend who lives in the old section of the British Colombia town of Port Alberni , we found ourselves in a region surrounded by stunning natural beauty and natural riches …but full of contradictions. We came face to face with the struggle between economic interests and the environment played out in microcosm in this town.

Logging, clear-cutting, pulp mills and fisheries are all part of the historic fabric of Port Alberni, a post industrial town on the way to Vancouver Islands exquisite Pacific Rim National Park.

Port Alberni waterfront

The streets are still wide avenues, built for bygone boom times of rich robber barons and lucky workers with decent union jobs.

The one remaining pulp mill employs only 250 workers these days (1/10 of it’s heyday) yet the forestry sector is still managing to strip the rain forests with monster machines, only with fewer and fewer workers to share at least some of the riches.

They don’t even process most of the logs into lumber any more but ship them raw to China, along with the jobs that used to go with them.

Ships loaded with raw logs for China

Located at the end of a Fjord leading to the Pacific the prettied up Port area can’t seem to decide how it’s going to reinvent itself…tourist attraction or resource extraction?

Looking around the Port itself is a study in the parts of this conundrum. Looking out from the pier, the mountains reaching down to the water with their shades of blue and green, are breathtaking. Mount Arrowsmith still with patches of snow in July, is a majestic backdrop to the town

…but a closer inspection reveals the clear-cut sections on the deforested slopes of the port’s surrounding hills, the resulting landslide scars and the ships being loaded with raw logs.

The latest endeavor for some in Port Alberni is the possible construction of a coal port for the export of raw coal also bound for the hungry power stations of China. It would truck the coal from the planned Raven Mine on the other side of the island, along the one mountain highway and down the streets of Port Alberni and on to ships – a dirty endeavor every step of the way.
Yet another contradiction for a struggling community trying to reinvent itself and survive. Many have a different vision for the town. There is a nascent arts community with hopes of transforming the old town into a haven for kinder, gentler pursuits and organic farmers and vineyards hoping to contribute to a new start .

Just outside town is the famous Cathedral Grove – a living monument of towering old growth forest, hundreds of years old but now reduced to a sliver to hide the clear-cut behind.

Cathedral Grove

It’s a ‘Potemkin forest’ acting as a blind for the logging companies that destroy at will, ancient trees that should be part of the entire world’s heritage.

800 years- a living monument

Our friend is heavily involved in community groups fighting the ‘coal-port’ and the Raven Mine too. She also heeds the calls that go out every time a bulldozer advances on another living monument in the old growth forests. It is a never ending vigilance however and the contradictions of this community in transition are never ending too.

Posted in Environment, Life, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged British Colombia, environment, jobs, Old growth forests, Port Alberni, Raven Mine, Vancouver Island | 7 Comments

How green is my valley…again

Posted on May 14, 2013 by womanseyeview

The classic 1939 book by Richard Llewellyn (made into a movie of the same name) ‘How Green was My Valley’ was one of my favourites when I was young. It described the transformation of agricultural valleys and ancient, green rolling hills into an industrial wasteland with the toll it took on workers and their families. The Wales of my youth wasn’t too far removed from that time. My maternal grandfather walked down the street to enter the Windsor colliery which stood within the village of Abertridwr. As a child I went to the pit to meet him after his shift and always remember the smell of damp coal dust, the soot that coated everything and the slag heap across the road from my grandparents home.

My paternal Grandfather had survived the Senghenydd colliery explosion of 1913 because he had just come off the night shift – he was washing at the well outside the family farm when the earth shook, the pit-head whistles started shrieking and people poured out into the streets, running towards the mine – 439 miners were killed that morning. Senghenydd and Abertridwr became villages of widows. (more about this disaster can be found in The Valley of the Shadow by John H. Brown).

The historic photo below needs no elaboration.

The-original-photograph-depicting-a-mother-and-child-at-the-Universal-Colliery-site-in-Senghenydd

The centenary of the Senghenydd Explosion is this year and a memorial will be held this fall.

The mines have long since left the Valley and the coalfields of Wales are no longer worked – Margaret Thatcher closed them all down in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Where the Windsor Colliery once stood a memorial now stands.

Where once the railcars left the valleys loaded with coal a simple reminder is tucked away in a park.

Windsor colliery closed 1976

One hundred years later the Valleys are green again – except for the occasional new housing estate.

Almost no sign remains of those dark mining towns except the monuments. When I take my granddaughter how can I ever make her understand what those times were like? How her family once lived and that there ever was ‘the valley of the shadow’.

Is it a better time now? Of course it’s better than the early days of the industrial revolution…but later after the miners unions had grown stronger, the struggles for better working conditions and rights were being won and communities knew their neighbours..it’s harder to categorically say it’s better today.

…but my how green are those Valleys again!

Posted in History, Life, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged Abertridwr, Coal mining, colliery memorials, Senghenydd, The valley of the Shadow, Wales, Welsh collieries, Welsh history | 10 Comments

History lives in a garden in Seasalter

Posted on May 10, 2013 by womanseyeview

As I parked in front of the pretty little bungalow in Seasalter, Kent, England I felt anxious about the ‘strangers’ I was about to meet. My mother must have felt the same because when I urged her to go ahead while I got my things together she hesitated. In that garden waited the descendants of her father’s family…children of uncles and aunts who were part of her childhood but only one who played any role in the rest of her life. My Grandfather’s parents had eight children – the first two and the last two were sets of twins…seven boys and one girl. Mary (91) the wife of the youngest brother, John, was there as the only representative of that generation.

We rounded the corner and there was a tentative ‘Maureen and Carol from Canada?’ and the tension melted away. Old photos were passed around, lives were caught up on, reminiscences shared and tears shed. We marvelled at our common ancestors.

A chart was produced to consult about who belonged to whom and where our roots began…the threads of our lives woven together.

The sun shone down on us all afternoon and the hours passed as quickly as the years we were recalling. We gazed into each others faces, openly and with hope to see if we could find a part of ourselves looking back.

It was an afternoon filled with delight and discovery and when it was over we were content, our curiosity satisfied…for now. Would we stay in touch? Would we work on our family connections? We fully intended to when we said we would but as with so much of our busy life perhaps not…we’ll see. But for one afternoon our family’s history lived in a garden in Seasalter.

Posted in History, Life, Reunions, Thoughts, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged Family history, History, reunions | 6 Comments

History under our feet and all around us

Posted on May 9, 2013 by womanseyeview

My mother and I have made the trip to England for a reunion of her father’s relatives. Battling jet lag on our first day, we foray out into the English county of Kent and with a stunningly green British spring bursting forth we head to the seaside for our much needed vitimin D. This is the area around Dover where the ferry’s go to Europe and of course of ‘white cliffs’ fame. Sheep and lambs dot the verdant meadows and yes nodding daffodils are everywhere! Keep left, keep left goes the little voice in my head as we zip along. But truth be told there is often barely a right or left to these narrow roads.

The little seaside town of Hern Bay has a classic British seaside feel to it – Victorian guesthouses line the beachfront… and there is a pier…although in two parts since after a fire it went from being the ‘longest pier’ to a short pier where you could ‘peer’ at its lonely palisade out there in the distant sea.

Hern Bay palisade alone at sea.

There must be some kind of analogy there if only my sleepy head could find it…an analogy for life in some way…

Just outside Hern Bay along a winding, highly hedged country road is the tiny village of Reculver where you can walk along the North Sea front and literally feel the history beneath your feet. A plaque describes the changes that have been seen and in the nonchalant way which only a country this ancient can manage, it goes something like this…’the Romans had a fort here around 200AD and stayed until they left Britain in 407AD…

Graphic of Roman ruins at Reculver

…then around 669 a priest built a monastery here but it was abandoned when the Vikings started raiding around 800 and kept it up until 1016’…and as you stand looking out at the sea, with the ruins at your back you can almost see the Viking longships in the mist. Along the coast a little further and you get to the seaside town of Margate…it has a faded elegance to it, especially when the tide is out. More recent history here is reflected in this sign below… imagine that day when every boat that could float big or small left these North Sea shores to rescue the allied troops at Dunkirk…46,779 souls were evacuated and brought to Margate jetty…history can be humbling.

Posted in History, Life, Photography, Puzzles and Contradictions, Thoughts, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged British history, British seaside, Hern Bay UK, Margate UK | 3 Comments