Stuff

Funny world we live in.
Some are downsizing -
Homes and love handles.
Others have no homes,
Struggling
To keep
Meat on their
Bones.
If you 
Can't
See it
You 
Aren't
Looking
Hard
Enough.

Inequities are all around us - while the majority struggle to say afloat, the powerful accumulate more and more, and then pay for high tech alarm companies to defend their golden kingdoms. I live and work in Winnipeg, Canada, and in our city, new construction is booming and real estate sales are breaking records. Multi-billions are being spent on infrastructure - there are few large buildings in the business districts that have not been refurbished in some manner, if not totally rebuilt. There is money around, and lots of it - old money and new money - and those who have are spending it freely!

If you ask average Winnipeggers how they are doing, most will tell a sanitized story, because the reality is uncomfortable to face. If you are working, you are told you should be grateful to have a job. It's rare not to see pan handlers and homeless people in our city centre, and 
Winnipeg has been dubbed the "child poverty capital of Canada." 

You can't deny that distribution of wealth is an issue in this country, but many folks don't realize that Canada (yes, our Canada - the country the world sees as this Eden of opportunity and refuge) is in the World Vision giving catalogue, under providing school supplies and meals for needy children. Of course, the catalogue cover shows brown-skinned children from some faraway, so-called "third-world" place.  So, it appears that times are very tough and times are exceptionally fine - it really depends on who is telling their story and how close you look, whether you are a woman, a man, or a child, and what colour your skin is.

We have lots of brown skinned people in Canada too - everyone knows that Canada is 
culturally diverse. Nationally, Canada's Indigenous peoples are struggling for our government to honour land treaties, and in Manitoba we have the highest Indigenous persons birth rate. We see a lot of poverty and social issues in our urban aboriginal populations. These are complex issues, the root of which are colonial systems of control.  The oppression has compounded over generations, and those of us who see the inequities need to speak up, speak out and be part of moving toward fairness.