surviving on 36 bucks this week

and now, to catch up on the blogging i missed:

this is what i've been doing this week: to try surviving on 36 bucks!


it's my classmates' brilliant idea to raise awareness on how difficult it is for those relying on Ontario Works to gain employment and economic independence... with just $36 a week!! check out their blog if you're interested: ONTARIO WORKS DOESN'T WORK

they've asked people to empty everything in their wallet except for $36 for the week of march 12-18. i signed up to join in on their campaign late on sunday night (march 11). cuz really, who would willingly sign up for social assistance if they don't need to? and let me tell you, it's been hard!!!!

even though i was buying myself some good food & nutritional goodies the weeks prior, i've been learning fast and pretty much figured out how to eat with less than 5 bucks a day. it's not too hard to do if you're just eating bread (the cheapest kind), can soups, and instant noodles. the problem is, i have NO energy when i'm in class! what's worse, my pay-as-you-go expired right on the first day, and i'd be crazy to spend $10+tax on a phone card when i need the money for food!! but... HOW AM I going to apply for jobs if i don't even have a phone, or a place where people can leave messages for me?!

and it's a good thing that it's getting warmer in kitchener these two days. or else i'd be freezing by now!!!

well, i don't need to go through the week to be convinced that ONTARIO WORKS DOESN'T WORK! does that mean i should start writing my MP now and eat normal again by tomorrow???!! hahhaaa...

global citizen

what the... blogger blocked my blog!! (now repeat that three times with me!!)
so anyways, by the time you're reading this, blogger would have had a human approved that my blog is legit. i guess i've been commenting too much on other people's site and not writing enough here!! hopefully it's nothing worse than that. hahaa...

i heard stephen lewis speak last night at laurier's global citizenship conference. he delivered a captivating 5-point talk on darfur, afghanistan, climate change, HIV/AIDS in africa and gender equality, challenging canada to do its part in our world. when he was describing antiretroviral drug-users who are lacking in food, and orphans needing to be raised by grandmas, it brought back a lot of memories of my work in south africa. also horrifying was his stats on climate change, which shocked me into thinking once again about things i could be doing differently each day!

i also went to a few workshops at the conference today. the one that i think is blog-worthy is Global Voices Project -- Lesson Plans for Promoting Global Awareness in Young People. it's a joint venture by free the children, toronto star and nipissing university, whereby the kielburger brothers submit a global voice article to toronto star each week, and the education department of nipissing publishes a matching lesson plan at the same time on the torontostar website! check it out:
http://www.thestar.com/globalvoices or
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94598
or you can access the archives through the free the children site as well.

when you get into the article of the week, you'll find a link or two for the lesson plans (in pdf format). if i were still leading a youth group, or if i had a class to teach, i would totally do something like this to get young people involved in being global citizens.

oh, and i found out that the kielburgers' parents (or at least one of them) are teachers as well! that's why they're natural at mobilizing students!

meet barack obama

in continuing with recognizing the great work of community organizers and social justice advocates, this guy is my new favourite:



i dunno why i got involved & interested in american politics. thanks to mr. bush i guess!

me to we

i have to give a 10 minute group presentation tomorrow on a notable social justice advocate. i chose nelson mandela cuz of my recent experience in south africa, and the unsettling reflection i had after visiting robben island. i admire his inner strength & resiliency, and i gained a lot from his autobiography. he said, "the struggle is my life", yet we saw & know that this struggle is ongoing, even in the post-apartheid days. long walk to freedom... yes indeed.

tien told me about metowe.org a few weeks ago. i think if i had gone to the website earlier, or if it was an individual presentation, i would have pulled a last-minute change and present on Marc and Craig Kielburger instead. i mean, who else could say that they've changed the lives of a million people when they're still in their 20s, or have built 450 schools around the world?!! similar to how craig was inspired by reading about a 12-year-old guy when he was 12, i guess i'm now amazed by what craig & marc have done with their lives. and craig is a few years younger than i!! born in thornhill, ontario!!

i think the mark of a great social justice advocate is the ripple effect that continues onward. and yes, craig has done it for me. on that note, it's interesting to point out that among the many awards craig received, one of them is the Nelson Mandela Human Rights Award!

hmm... not many people are watching the me2we videos at youtube just yet. so maybe this would booster up some 人氣 for those videos:

(this one is marc talking about global stats)

on a separate note, i think my favorite author on coaching (or the only one i know so far, pat williams) has stolen m&c's me2we idea for his new article in choice magazine.

children of immigrants and the issue of identity

from this past monday & saturday's globe & mail:

"It's disturbing to discover the extent to which second-generation immigrants of colour feel less Canadian than their white counterparts in the same generation of immigrants. The divide between racial minorities and whites, almost nil when they arrive, actually grows among their children. That's the opposite of how this country is supposed to work.

"Visible-minority immigrants are slower to integrate into Canadian society than their white, European counterparts, and feel less Canadian, suggesting multiculturalism doesn't work as well for non-whites, according to a landmark report."

well, stop calling us "visible minorities" and maybe it'd start working better then!! :D


for more this disburbing discovery:
last saturday's article
tuesday's article

wowed #1

ever since i got back to kitchener, everyone's been talking about "an inconvenient truth". my housemates, my profs, my classmates, everyone! and then today, i finally saw it IN CLASS. it was our program development & social planning course. we were to pay special attention to the scope of impact, influence, attributing factors when examining just one issue. from the personal to the trans-continental, from the universal to the microscopic... it penetrates all!

needless to say, i've been inspired to do more at least on the personal level. with a few clicks, it brought me to the list of ten things to do at climatecrisis.net:

1. change a light
2. drive less
3. recycle more
4. check your tires
5. use less hot water
6. avoid products with a lot of packaging
7. adjust your thermostat
8. plant a tree
9. turn off electronic devices
and finally...

10. spread the word! hahaaa...

good bye!

goodbye capetown, capequad & social work dept at victoria hospital. it's been well worth it!!

victoria hospital

i can’t believe it’s my last week of placement already. yes, this is the reason why i’ve come to south africa in the first place -- to practice social work in a foreign setting.

how different are the cases here when compared to hospital social work in canada?

well, i'd like to think that people in canada don't abandon their children as often as i'm seeing here. i also find myself calling for homeless shelters for my clients upon discharge quite often. two weeks ago, i worked with a guy in his 40s who was abducted by 3 men at an ATM one evening and was subsequently drugged up and threatened at knife point before getting dropped off the next day at his ex-wife's flat. today, there was a 15 years old guy in his school uniform bringing to us his mother who suffers from mental illness. apparently she has been wandering the streets as of late, and he wanted to get help for her. perhaps those are the exceptions to the pre-discharge planning that i spend most of my days doing, but yea, i find the exceptions do seem to creep up and get treated as the norm around here sometimes.

i guess not all of cape town is as beautiful as i’ve painted thus far. cape town looks different depending on the pair of lens you put on… and where you look too i guess. there are times and places where it’s inappropriate for my camera to see what i see. but if photography is about capturing what you want to see over and over again, then perhaps there are memories and documentations that i could do without!

(picture of protea: south africa’s flower)

attending workshops & conferences

so i was riding the local bus yesterday and it suddenly occurred to me that i was on an air-conditioned bus. although i see its usefulness for later on in the season, i felt the air conditioning was functioning contrary to its purpose of instilling comfortableness. it was in a way a disturbance for me to enjoy what is natural. just like today, the noisy air conditioning system made it hard for me to listen to the speakers and other participants at the workshop.

it was an all-day workshop on "nurturing queer youth: family therapy transformed". isn't family therapy and nurturing queer youths a contradiction in terms? that was one of the introductory jokes by rebecca harvey. i appreciated their personal sharing when rebecca talked about her present day challenges working at a catholic university, and linda stone fish's perspective in mothering her children.

i picked up a few captivating ideas that i'm still trying to think through, including seeing queerness as a gift, encouraging difficult dialogues, continuum of gender and evolving sexuality. how does one create a refuge for queer youth? what are the parents' & therapists' roles in witnessing and encouraging transformation? how do i BE a presence for others (instead of focusing on doing?!)??

personally, i find it quite fascinating that this field is always changing, so much so that there's this sense of it being "too new to know". take a look at this quote:

"These new teens know they're not straight, and they don't want to be. Most are okay with it. Some are thrilled with their sexuality, but don't see why they must therefore label themselves as gay. Yes, they are sexually attracted to other girls or other boys, perhaps ever so slightly. Maybe their feelings are romantic but not sexual--or sexual but not romantic. That's not bad. It's natural. It gives them an edge, a certain mystery. It sets them off from their peers--and from us adults" (Savin-Williams, 2005).

so it seems that this is a "conference month" for me. next weekend i'll be in toronto attending a nouwen conference and the week after there's a conference on social work & spirituality in town that i'm hoping to catch as well. stay tuned! :D