Libraries are not all vanilla 

“The man who does not read has no advantage over 
the man who cannot read.” 
 Mark Twain

In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption.
Raoul Vaneigem

Libraries are exciting spaces, believe it or not. I sell books to collection librarians and they are some of the most engaged, interesting and articulate individuals I work with in the publishing business. They are ardent book lovers, adamant about the knowledge, power and fun of reading and the value of free access. Librarians are excellent resource people in our culture, oft under appreciated, they have the uncanny ability to link community needs to big ideas, and can immediately put iany books or ideas that they encounter into the perspective of culture and global history. No mean feat.

There is a lot that goes in libraries besides reading dusty books. Libraries provide an alternative to corporatized culture, by providing a non-corporatized civic space. Free programming and skill building offer the chance for people to empower themselves, in a welcoming environment. A central space to  include new Canadians of all income brackets, they promote literacy, both as a value in society as well in families, by offering access to link people to books in all areas of their lives. For example, looking for a way to cook kale? Use a cookbook. Want to learn about a language? Get language CDs. Interested in building a resume or starting a club? Get a book to learn how.

Libraries also give us a space to interact with people who may not be from our own communities, or our own milieu. They have the power to democratize social relations, unlike Starbucks.

Calgary Public Library is one of the most heavily used libraries, per capita, in Canada. The new plans for Castell Central Library are going ahead, and they are seeking input from Calgarians
Go to their survey at http://calgarynewcentrallibrary.ca/

You will be asked what your priorities are for the library and what the new library can do for you.

As I filled out the survey, I imagined a beautiful and open access space, the library as civic landmark. It would centralize books, civic life, and the sharing of ideas in Calgarian consciousness via a free and open cultural space. My top priorities for this library then, in accordance with their categories on the surgery, are Arts and Culture, Lifelong Learning, Local Heritage, Civic Landmark and a Vibrant Space. I am hoping the new library will look like one of these fantastic library spaces, but this is getting my hopes up

Librarians are the keepers of our cultural knowledge. The internet is not a permanent nor neutral space. There is no accountability and it is driven by the market. Libraries are not driven by the market but are driven by larger social history both including and excluding the market.  For example, they store books that don't necessarily hit bestseller lists. And this is important because how can we know what it means to look at ourselves if we cannot see what we produced in times past? How can we know what it means to be a civic person, rather than a consumer, if we don't have any physical spaces that are about free and open access?

To me, the act of checking out books from libraries represents what Mark Kingwell calls participatory citizenship, defined as:

"...a new model of citizenship based on the act of participation itself, not on some quality or thought or right enjoyed by its possessor. This participatory citizenship doesn't simply demand action from existing citizens; it makes action at once the condition and task of citizenship." (The World We Want, p. 12)

By using libraries we are acting, and this action is a recognition of the value of the shared commons, a non commercial space for resources, ideas. It is also an act of recognizing the value of sharing our costs of housing such collections. We are recognizing the value of individual non-ownership as a conceptual space. We are recognizing the value of our shared past and the value of appointing librarians as keepers so as to make such an archive accessible and navigable in an intelligent systematic way.
Ultimately libraries are the embodiment of the value of equality and equal access, for everyone regardless of income, to the world of ideas.

If, in a kingdom of consumption, the citizen is supposedly king, then we, as kings, would all need an education to know how to rule ourselves; books are our path to such an education.
Such an education can never be had in such a kingdom where only that which gets published is that which supports the kingdom. Thus libraries and their non commercial space, as well as government grants, provide such a refuge.

An unwitting consumer without access to knowledge outside the system is not a ruler but is merely a tool- a tool of a system designed to exploit those very tools at the bottom.

Thus the library card, and its free passage to knowledge, is a shining jewel in such a kingdom and librarians become the gate keepers of our freedom.

More activism: Poisonous BPA still in Del Monte cans

August 13, 2009
Dear Heather,

Thank you for your e-mail sharing your concerns about Del Monte Products. We're glad you took the time to contact us.

Del Monte Foods' #1 priority is the quality and safety of our products. All Del Monte Foods products are prepared and packaged using safe, FDA-approved processes and materials.

Our products come in a variety of packaging, including plastic cups, paper-based packaging and metal cans. Our plastic and paper-based packaging do not use or contain Bisphenol A (BPA). Like most in the industry, the metal cans we use for our consumer products are produced by a third-party vendor, and they use protective coatings which contain trace amounts of BPA. These coatings are used to prevent spoilage and protect food and beverages from direct contact with the can.

BPA is approved by the FDA for use in food contact applications, and for more than 40 years has played an essential part in food preservation. The safety of BPA has been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), after rigorous review of scientific data. That said, we are aware that the FDA is currently re-evaluating its most recent position on the safety of BPA, and we are monitoring this closely.

Del Monte Foods is committed to providing high quality, nutritious and great tasting products to consumers. The use of BPA is an industry-wide matter, and we will continue to work closely with leading trade associations such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the International Food Information Council, to follow any developments in this area closely.

For more information on Bisphenol A (BPA), visit these Websites:

FDA: www.fda.gov.
IFIC: http://www.ific.org/publications/qa/bisphenolaqa.cfm
American Plastics Council: www.bisphenol-a.org
Grocery Manufacturers Association: www.gmabrands.com/publications/SciPol_Bisphenol.pdf

I appreciate the opportunity to respond and hope this information is helpful.

Niki, Del Monte Foods Consumer Affairs

letter to Prime Minister sent August 12 2009

To: Right Honourable Stephen Harper
James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
Re: Government funding cutbacks to magazines with circulation of less than
5000

Dear Sirs
I wish to convey my deep disagreement with this policy of cutting funding to
small magazines. Magazines are a consistent and flowing representation of
ideas & culture, and an effective way to share ideas in an affordable and
almost democratic format (because they are relatively inexpensive, mostly
widely available and made up of writings from established as well as new
voices).
I believe that a rich culture involves including
voices from all corners of the country. By your policy, effectively killing
off magazines that appeal to the 'minority',
you effectively silence the voice of that minority. It is precisely
those magazines that need funding, because
they don't appeal to advertisers with deep pockets (who would often censor
editorial content).

Do you realize that virtually every literary magazine in this country
will disappear as a result
of your policy? Once again the conservative government has shown that the
only voice that has any credibility is the voice of the mainstream and the
voice of the corporation, mass media conglomerates that fit in with your
cultural ideals. Almost all evolution of culture since Ancient Greece
started with writings from new fringe voices, and you are silencing these
voices. This is not progress.

A homogeneous culture is not the cultural aim for most Canadians, and
by pandering to the circulation numbers you effectively make it the
policy of our government to legitimize the majority and
de-legitimize minority viewpoints. This is bordering on cultural censorship
in my viewpoint

I want you to know for the record that I did NOT vote for this
Heather Parsons
Calgary AB T2T0G7

public meeting : save the Historic Brewery!

From the Calgary Heritage Initiative

Calgary’s heritage community and the Inglewood Community Association are
hosting a Town Hall Meeting dedicated to the Calgary Brewing and Malting
Company. In view of the recent demolition application for the historic
site, we are arranging a panel of presenters and providing the community
and public with an opportunity to discuss the situation.

July 16, 7 pm at the Inglewood Community Hall, 1740, 24th Avenue SE. An
RSVP by July 14 is appreciated. Reguster online at
http://www.calgarycommunities.com/events.php
or call 244-4111.

- Celebrate the history of the brewery, founded in 1892 by "Big Four"
rancher A.E. Cross, and its importance in the development of Calgary – a
major industry, western Canada’s first salt water aquarium, Horsemen’s
Hall of Fame Museum.

- Learn first hand about the brewery’s social importance to the working
class roots of the community once known as Brewery Flats - a good employer
for local families through good times and bad, the local gardens,
recreation at the fish hatchery and trout ponds.

- Ask questions about the next steps which are planned for the site. The
site is listed as Category A on Calgary’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic
Resources. The Ministry of Alberta Culture and Community Spirit issued a
Historic Resource Impact Assessment Order to evaluate the site to
determine its significance and integrity and to provide recommendations.

- Share and discuss ideas regarding the public value of this site, and
find out how to be part of the solution.

Free and open to the public, refreshments will be provided. Please pass
this information along and plan to attend!

Here is a link to a more information and posters:

http://www.calgaryheritage.org/phpbb/posting.php?mode=editpost&p=1707

Or go direct to www.calgaryheritage.org

Historic Malt Brewery threatened in Calgary Alberta

From the Calgary Heritage Initiative

There is a demolition threat to the Calgary Brewing and Malting
site in Inglewood, a very important site with buildings dating back
to 1892. 

For information, go to www.calgaryheritage.org or click directly to the
the link below:

http://www.calgaryheritage.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=1680#1680

Watch the Calgary Heritage Initiative Society website for further news.

__._,_.___

Kiva.org: A Cure for Recession Insomnia

It is a scary world we live in right now. Enough to trigger my ever-lurking insomnia. Whenever I would listen to the news on any day of the week and hear about how my life-savings are in the toilet, I would set my jaw a little tighter. I tried not to read the paper, but I was drawn to it like a rubbernecker at a gruesome accident scene. I stayed awake at night worrying about the crisis of our pension plans and mutual funds, those funds that could collapse under their own weight, those funds that were supposed to give us security and now are only giving us ulcers. We are all in the same boat. Between fearing for our jobs, paying the mortgage and worrying about our future, it is ironic that the cure for my insomnia came to me last month as I was looking at a website to give away what little money I had left in my bank account. I was looking at Kiva.org

Kiva is a small internet-based money lending network. Their mandate as a non-profit is to match up lenders, who are average citizens from industrialized nations, with micro-finance organizations in the third world. The borrowers who apply to these micro-finance organizations are ordinary people in places like Africa and Asia, who are looking for loans to start up their own business or expand their existing business. Often training is provided along with the loan to ensure a better chance at success. All the information about the borrower, their business needs, and how much they are looking for is listed on the website. Also statistics on the likelihood of repayment are also provided, as each applicant is carefully screened by the micro-lending organization.

I loaned money to two different recipients and have been already partially repaid by both (6% of the initial amount). Both are mothers in Vietnam in their mid-thirties. One borrower is operating a small grocery store and hopes to use the loan money to expand the store and to buy more stock for her shelves. The other woman is starting up a pig-farming operation and needs money for feed and livestock. She also has a small wine-making operation in her home that pulls in a small income. Both of these entrepreneurial woman are using their ingenious resourcefulness to try to make a better life for themselves and their family, under tougher conditions that I will ever know. Both are asking for a very small loan each (less than $600 USD) and have manageable repayment schedules of 12-14 months. I didn't loan the entire amount to each borrower, donations don't need to be that large. Instead I am one of a group of people from all over the world who donate money to these individuals and, like a linked patchwork of like-minded neighbours at a pot-luck, our money is pooled together by Kiva. The other donors for each recipient can be viewed once users are logged on to the website. Looking over the donors section gives me a warm feeling. Donors are mostly from Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and all over Europe. This is such a wonder to me, to be part of such an international group of generous and caring people, who actually do something to participate in making this world a little better. I feel honoured to be included in this group.

Another really great thing about Kiva is that they send donors consistent updates on the status of the borrowers. I love getting these updates: it is a joy to cheer on these people from across the other side of the world. I don't even care about getting the money back for myself at this point. I plan to reuse the money in my Kiva account to loan more money out. Whenever I think about those two women in Vietnam, I forget my recession worries and realize how very lucky I am to be part of a movement to help redistribute some of that which I was so arbitrarily given. 

Somewhere in Vietnam or Cambodia, or in a small part of Africa or South America, there are people who are worse off than me. A lot worse off. And they need my help. 

As all the great prophets and new age philosophers have said: Abundance in thinking leads to abundance in life. We reap what we sow. Kiva provides a fertile field to sow those seeds of goodwill in me and drown out my weedy thoughts of darkness. Now I go to bed thinking of pigs and grocery shelves. And I sleep like a lamb.