welcome travel readers and a bit of a warning

1982-1994

Wmtc has some new readers who are interested in following my travels. I feel I should warn you new folks: it's a lot of words. Like, all text. 

We do love taking photos, but we wait til we get home, sort through all the pics, and post the keepers on Flickr. Then I usually go back to the blog posts and add links to the photos. It's old-school, but it works for me. 

This blog is my writing outlet. When I first started blogging in 2004, I was still writing professionally. This was my place to process and connect. Twenty-one years later... all my writing lives here. I would continue to write wmtc even if no one read it. But of course I love that people do. 

Fun fact: I've been keeping travel journals since my first trip to Europe, with my dear friend NN after we graduated university in 1982. I have paper journals from every trip I took from 1982 to 1994. After that, I started bringing a laptop and saving them digitally (and I still have those files, well backed-up). In 2004, I started keeping my travel diaries here. That's a lot of words!

Our trip actually starts locally tomorrow: we drive down to Comox, about three hours from here. We'll stay overnight for an early-morning flight on Tuesday, April 30 -- a very long travel day. I'll check in when we're on the other side of that.

the residential school denier who won't face voters -- and the party that stands by him

Aaron Gunn, the Conservative candidate for North Island-Powell River (my riding), is a bigot and a residential school denier. 

Pierre Poilievre stands by him, denying the denialism, claiming that the words Gunn said aren't really what he meant.

Gunn's residential school denialism tops a list of his other ignorant views, which include transphobia, admiration for Vladimir Putin, and support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Gunn has cancelled or no-showed every all-candidates meeting since this story broke. The man clearly lacks the courage to face voters and talk about his views. 

* * * *

When Allan and I were looking into moving to Vancouver Island, one of the things that attracted us was local politics: the entire island was NDP, both provincially and federally.

Whatever the NDP is or is not, regardless what it is doing right and what it could do better, they are the party that most closely represents our values and our interests -- and what should be the interest of all Candian people, as opposed to corporations and industries. A place that votes orange in large numbers is going to be more comfortable for us than the southern Ontario ridings that flip back and forth between the Conservatives and the slightly less conservative Liberals.

Once here, I learned that the North Island has a history of flipping back and forth between Conservative and NDP representatives. The Conservatives pander to the Canadian equivalent of MAGA, while a high concentration of union members keep many of those voting for labour. And everyone hates the Liberals. 

I have been very concerned about this election for many reasons. 

Here in the North Island-Powell River riding, a much loved and well-respected Member of Parliament, Rachel Blaney, decided not to stand for re-election. The NDP candidate, Tanille Johnston, is articulate, passionate, and progressive. A young woman with Indigenous heritage, Tanille is a smart, sharp leader with the necessary courage and energy for the job.

Tanille has been a city councillor for Campbell River, but outside of that area, doesn't have a high profile or strong name recognition. 

There is so much racism in this area, an abundance of aggrieved white men listening to talk radio. As issues rise to the forefront -- Reconciliation, trans liberation, immigrants and newcomers -- their reactions are predictable. 

There is also an ignorant backlash against the provincial NDP that bleeds into the federal election. In the last provincial election, the riding flipped from orange to blue, our former and excellent NDP MLA being narrowly unseated by the Conservative candidate. 

Given all these factors, I've been dreading and assuming that we will soon have a Conservative MP.

Then came Aaron Gunn and the revelations of his disgusting denialism of the impact of "residential schools" -- more accurately called concentration camps -- and Canada's role in colonial genocide. Even the dismissive language he used -- "get off Twitter and read a book" -- reveals his unsuitability to be a Member of Parliament. Does the man think the impact of the residential schools is a social-media myth? I'd like to know the last time Aaron Gunn read a book, and Tom Flanagan's latest doesn't count.

Many mayors and councillors of North Island communities signed a letter calling for Gunn to withdraw from the race. Port Hardy Mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt has said:

With everything happening around the world -- especially the troubling events in the United States -- I felt compelled to use my voice by signing this letter.

I believe that all people are equal, regardless of gender, race, religion, mental health, appearance, wealth, or age. To me, this letter is a stand against both overt and subtle forms of racism.

As Desmond Tutu once said, 'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of the mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.'

Chief Boby Joseph's words continue to echo in my mind: 'We Are One'. I truly hope that whichever Member of Parliament is elected shares that belief. 

[Quoted in local newspaper, no link available.]

With the federal election three days from now, blue lawn signs dominate our street. Pierre Poilievre says Gunn didn't mean what he very clearly said. And Gunn himself is in hiding.

So many of my neighbours either don't care, or they agree. 

greg palast: trump lost -- and our most hallowed media didn't tell us

Allan recently shared with me a sobering piece by Greg Palast. It illustrates so much of what is wrong with both the US's fake electoral system and the major media. Palast -- an impeccable researcher -- has run the numbers, and he reveals a simple truth: Trump lost. 

Millions of Americans have had their right to vote stolen through corrupt, antidemocratic, and racist lawmaking. Because guess what? Most victims of this vote-theft are Black.

As in Bush v. Gore in 2000 and in too many other miscarriages of Democracy, this election was determined by good old “vote suppression,” the polite term we use for shafting people of color out of their ballot. We used to call it Jim Crow.

Palast's analysis of this voter suppression may not tell us anything we didn't already know, but seeing the numbers is still stunning. And hearing so many Canadians ridicule Americans for electing this maniac, I feel compelled to share this as widely as I can.

Certainly this was not the first US election to be manipulated by the right wing, but it is certainly the most consequential.

Trump lost. That is, if all legal voters were allowed to vote, if all legal ballots were counted, Trump would have lost the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris would have won the Presidency with 286 electoral votes.

And, if not for the mass purge of voters of color, if not for the mass disqualification of provisional and mail-in ballots, if not for the new mass “vigilante” challenges in swing states, Harris would have gained at least another 3,565,000 votes, topping Trump’s official popular vote tally by 1.2 million.

Stay with me and I’ll give you the means, methods and, most important, the key calculations.

But if you’re expecting a sexy story about Elon Musk messing with vote-counting software from outer space, sorry, you won’t get that here.

As in Bush v. Gore in 2000 and in too many other miscarriages of Democracy, this election was determined by good old “vote suppression,” the polite term we use for shafting people of color out of their ballot. We used to call it Jim Crow.

Go here to see the numbers and read the rest of the story.

Palast concludes:

Question: If these vote suppression laws—notorious example: Georgia’s SB 202—had no effect on election outcomes, then why did GOP legislators fight so hard to pass these laws? The answer is clear on the Brennan Center’s map of states that passed restrictive laws. It’s pretty much Trump’s victory map.

is my facebook timeout becoming permanent? thoughts on (maybe) leaving social media behind

I've been off social media for a few months now, and I'm unsure about whether or not I'll return. 

Mostly, it feels good. Another step towards the minimal. More focused. A bit liberating.

There's only one downside: long-distance friends. People who I'm unlikely to keep in touch with individually, but who I enjoy seeing in my feed, people who I try to support and who support me.

I'm reluctant to lose these connections. I'm also reluctant to re-start the inevitable slide into increasing time spent on social media. 

I'm starting to consider that there may be no way to balance these. That any balance I find will be fleeting. That social media is a mostly negative force in my life, and I should stop engaging with it.

* * * *

I stopped almost all my social media use some years back, limiting myself only to Facebook, and using that only minimally. But my time on Facebook gradually began creeping upwards, because that what it does. It's a highly addictive drug, and even light or moderate use can be self-defeating.

Shortly after the US election, my forays onto Facebook became really unpleasant. Friends were (very rightly) using that space to vent, express shock and frustration, and share information about the troubling and bizarre goings-on in the US. 

But I was coming to Facebook for an escape, or at least some respite, and the barrage of US/Trump news in my feed was anything but relaxing. I had already unfollowed or unfriended a lot of people from my old activist network in Toronto, who I felt were dangerously wrongheaded about the US election. I didn't want to shrink my feed any further. So I did that thing, I took a break. 

At first I experienced what most people on social media breaks attest to: I found myself reaching for my phone to post something, and had to consciously stop myself. 

I would ask myself, why do I want to share this? Is it something I need to talk about, or am I merely the habit of sharing these little bits of life? What I'm reading, what I'm watching, what I'm cooking. And so on. Small, superficial moments. Like any impulse that we're trying to get under control, I had to ride it out. Feel the feeling, stay still, don't act. Let it sit there, move on.

Past attempts

My current Facebook break caused me to re-visit my 2021 post about Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism. Newport draws a distinction between using technology to enhance our lives or to further meaningful goals, and being addicted to our smartphones and social media. Being intentional about how we use any technology. It's the difference between having one glass of wine with a nice dinner, and daily drinking, glass after glass, out of habit. 

In that earlier post, I wrote:

We all have reasons that we use social media. Newport argues that although our reasons may be valid, and we do derive some value from social media use, the quality of our social media interactions is very low and adds little to our lives. When you drastically cut down your social media use, once you get accustomed to new habits, you may notice that you don't miss it. Whether you spend 20 minutes on Facebook or Instagram, or 40 minutes, or 60 minutes, you come away with the same low value. And for many people, those shallow, low-value interactions have gradually come to replace more meaningful interactions.

I revisited my own plan to reduce my social media use, also from that 2021 post. 

- I discovered  that some pieces of that plan are well integrated into my life. I have regularly schedule videochat dates with some long-distance friends. People really appreciated my initiating those, and they've become great habits. 

- I'm leaving my phone aside when watching movies or series. This can be challenging, as I get antsy if my hands have nothing to do. A notepad and a pen is a great antidote to that, or I have my phone, but only to play word games.

- The weekly screen-free night has fallen by the wayside. Allan and I have three evenings together, and we enjoy watching movies or series. I've been looking for ways to balance this. Sometimes the only screen-free time we spend together is at a restaurant, a road trip, or a dog walk. I'd like to return to a weekly music night.

- I'm no longer tracking my analog pursuits. One, I was tracking too many things and it became onerous. And two, I don't have time and energy for many or most of them. Several of them are waiting for retirement, which is still another six years away (at age 70). So I've put that aside.

- Most importantly, and inevitably, when it comes to the first point on the plan -- "only using social media at designated times and for a designated duration" -- I fell off the wagon. I reinstalled the Facebook app on my phone, and returned it to my home screen. Gradually my use crept upwards. 

Revisiting that 2021 post, I realized that I had tried the same thing a few years earlier. (This is why habit tracking is so useful!) In my review of Digital Minimalism, I quoted an earlier review of Tim Wu's excellent The Attention Merchants. From 2021, quoting myself in 20217:

I notice that I ended my review of The Attention Merchants with this:

By the time I finished the book, I challenged myself to take a holiday from social media and reclaim my own attention span. Some of you know that because of my health issues, I struggle with low concentration. Perhaps the effects are exaggerated for me... or perhaps not. I want to spend less time with little bits of information scrolling in front of my eyes. When it comes to information, I want quality over quantity. I'm experimenting with it now, but I'm not sure I'll ever go back.

Some of the changes I made did turn out be permanent (I said goodbye to Twitter), others did not (I re-installed the Facebook app on my phone). Now I'm assessing my current habits with Newport's advice in mind, and thinking about whether I want to go a few steps further.

Perhaps I will continue leaving then returning to social media. Or perhaps I will be one of those people who eschew social media use altogether. I know a few of those, and they live full lives without it.