This summer deffinately is not what I thought it would be, the lack of job is really changing things.  And the energy put towards getting a crap job is really uninsipiring.  Next week a good friend of mine will fine out if she can get a job with the UN in Maowi, if she does she will be one of two people I know who have a job that they want.  It seems the rest of my friends are either working horrible jobs or are attempting to have their art pay their way.  I think its fabulous that they can do that but usually it can only bring in so much cash so still have to take the telemarketer, watress type job.  Most of these people have university degrees and many of them have masters degrees.  And all of them seem to be struggling to pay there rent.  I'm in a lucky place right now where I don't have to pay rent for the summer, but I do have to pay for tution in the fall and rent in dublin which is hella expensive.  The compitition in this city for the non profit sector is insane.  you need to have 3-5 years direct experience plus a degree to even bother applying.  Volunteer related experience does not seem to count.  The thing is having the minimun standard does not mean very much since most people seem to be going for jobs they are over qualified for. 
 
The next things is how companies are forced by employment law to widely advertise, yet in many cases the position is already claim from within.  I know the city jobs do this.  I remember when I was promoted to supervisor for the city, the job was widely advertised in the city brochers, online and such.  But in reality in order to get on the interview list you had to have been recommended by both your supervisor and a higher level supervisor.  So it would not mater if you had all the experience in the world from another company or city, there was no way you could even get a call back unless you were part of the city already.
 
WOW this post was not suppose to be about this at all, I suppose I needed to rant a bit.  What I was going to write about is the anarchist summer camp or Anarchist university summer retreat as some like to call it that I'm going to in a few weeks.  Its over the long weekend in august, you go camping in this space called Dragonfly farm who say "Here at Dragonfly the 'politics of anarchy' rule within a sense of 'communal individualism.'"  The camping weekend will be a communal vegan event with workshops, films, music and nature loving.  The idea that everyone who goes brings something to it, and the list of workshops keep getting bigger . . .If I can get by friend lara to come with me I will ask if she will do a workshop of feminist praxis in anarchist organisations with me.  So far the workshops are as follows:
Community living 101
Film making workshop
Anarchism 101
Facilitating & Consensus
Starting up anarchist projects
Direct Action workshop
History of Anarchism
 
I think these are just the core workshops that are generated from those in the university, it should be interesting what else people bring to the event.  Even though the event is not expensive, a few of my friends are too broke to think about going.  The only costs are a $25 reg fee that pays for the space and contibutes to gas money for a van that is bring up supplies and the supplies themselves.  Then there is the cost of bringing food and getting there.  I am hoping now that I will be able to get a ride with someone and just split the gas money.   If I can't score a ride then sadly I can't go, I think buses to get to this place is $50 each way.  Not a very popular bus trip I tell you. 
 
 

privitised health care

The direction canada is going towards healthcare is really scarry. As a canadian who grew up here I have taken universal health care for granted, but having friends from the states and around europe and living in Ireland I realize how lucky we really are and how important it is that we keep the system that we have now. The prospects of privitising this public service is very frightening and will create so many inequalities and further the spaces betweent the rich and the poor in this country. Today this women on the public health policy board was using a frightenign discource encouraging the privitisation of health care in canada. She was saying the regulated amount of money given to health care is problimatic since if the countries revenue is depelated then all other public services are cut. Her solution for this is for those who are using the health services shoudl be paying for the services. She repeated several times that she is concerned for all the youth who disporportionalty pay for health care and do not use it. The only solution to the problems that she was posing was privisation. The discourse she was using was to create a sence of individualism and othering of illness. Why should WE pay for THEM.

Also in the news the past few days is that Alberta has become debt free. First of all there are two reasons they were able to accomplish this, oil (and that resource will not last) and the cut back in public services. The premier, Klein who is a drunk capitalist bastard, is boasting about this acievment yet has left all those who are in need of health and other public services in great need. There is also talk that since Alberta is the only provence that is debt free and probably the only provence likely to be debt free from time to come, that they have more barginning power. They can say that they do not need things like the canadian health system. And that they can more outside the universal health care system and move into a private system.

A further story on privitised health care was this chief from an aborigial community (I believe in ontario but I can't be sure) who is also trying to use his aborigal status to say that there community also doens't have to be part of this canadian health care system and that he is trying to get privitised hospitals on the reserve. He believes that this will bring in money for his community since the hospital will be open to those living in the reserve and those from the outside. But he didn't answer any questions on payment. In reality the aboriginal communtiy cannot afford to be paying for private health care.

Canada has a few things going for it, the health care system deffinalty is one of them, but this discourse on the news the past few days is looking in a really negative direction.

Jobs and jobs and no jobs

One deciding factor about coming back to T dot for the summer was that I would have a full time job waiting for me starting the day after I returned. This was planned months in advance and I was happy enought to take a job that I would hate for the convience of not having to search. Not only that the company said that if I went back to the location I was last year they would give me a bonus. score. So you can imagine my disappointment when I phoned to confirm my hours and they said that I was placed in burlington (this is two cities away from toronto). Burlington, fuck who goes there, why and how . . . grr, my trusty bike is not really able to do that journey twice day . . . FUCK. So here I am in the horrible position of pimping myself for some crap job that will hire me immedialtly. The jobs applied for so far and still no responce are: telemarketers, those ppl on the streets getting you to sign up for charities, house keepers in hotels, coffee shops (with 5:30am shifts), shoe stores. you would think that having a degree and getting your masters would qualify you these crappy jobs but appartley not yet. I havn't even bothered with good jobs since it is so late in the summer and I'm only here for a few months.

My cousin said that she would not hire me based on my appearance, what the fuck, seriously I think people with tatooes should be easilty hired since you know they can dedicate themself to something and they are passionate. I think people with dreadlocks should easily be hired since you know that they are determined, dedicated and willing to put time in. My cousin said that there are stereotypes that people have of people that look like me and althought she knows they are not valid her customers would not. Ahh I told her that pop stars have tattooes, models have peircings, fuck your librarian and kindergarden teacher have coloured hair. We are in a time where this things are part of pop culture, where stereotypes have been broken and if they still exist why not use your hiring powers to continue breaking them. But I have to remember that altough my cousin is my age, she grew up in brampton, went to western, she is management in a big company and has a child . . . her perception of the world takes a much more conservative slant then mine and much of this city. I now that bascially anywhere I apply in teh city iwll be more understanding that that. That even though some places will say no noticable tattoes, or even face peircings they will not say much about my hair. Damn it I worked in a small dry cleaners for rich people in Ireland and I had no problems, how is it that in T.O. where hipsters, punks, freaks, hippies and so on are the norm i can still have problems getting a job based on my appearance. I do not look radical in relation to the people in this city.

So starts the saga of my job searching, today I am off to a few employment agancies and am ditching this one interview I have for the day. The interview is up by York, ugg, I dont' travel that well on buses and that trip would be 10 mins on the subway then 45 mins on the bus . . puke! Plus when I phoned about the job (it was a number on this flyer that jsut said something about making money) the women switched into this sales pitch saying that they were looking for "smart ppl, intelligent ppl . . .they were looking for dedicated ppl, energetic ppl, determined ppl . . . they were looking for ppl that were good at teaching others, ppl that will go the extra mile, ppl that are a cut above the rest, then raised the notch one level higher to ask "Are you one of those people?" then said I want to see you in my office monday morning at 11. fuck I'm not traveling that far to sell knives, to do door to door sales, perhaps I'm just not one of those people!

The saga has continued of course, I went to these two temp agancies near me. I decided to hide my tattoos and dress cuter then the day before, so I wore my angela davis skirt and a little t. Big mistake!! The first tempt agancy I went to was only for factory work and in this outfit I did not fulfil the image of a factory worker, but I told him that I have done the work before, that I have steel toe boats and that I am stronger then I look. Hopefully the assertiveness convinced him that I was not this passive cute girl. If only I had my tattoos showing and was wearing my regular clothes!!


I went to another temp agancy and got turned away do to lack of fuckn' experence and that they no longer had summer jobs. As I biked I, I decided to head to that interview the one with the phycho women shouting "are you that kind of person" cause fuck it I'm the kind of person who needs money and the kind of person who will do a crap job for a few months. BUT I did have one concern, if this job is commission it really wont be worth my while. I'm not a sales person and like waht regan says feminism 101 NO means NO, so when working at a call centre or door to door we have a hard time convincing people to buy shit they don't want.

Anyways I called her and asked if the job was commission or was on a wage . . .she went off on a tangent about any job in this society you get paid for the work that you do, that it is only right that you only get paid for the work that you put in, that you should never be expected to get paid just because you showed up and that you shoudl put in an honest days work for your wage . . then asked if I agreed with her. I told her not exactly, I felt like going on a rant about explotation but she was not worth the energy so I said considering the distance of the job and the commission I would not be comign for the interview. She interupted me and said that I didn't need to give her exsuse I just was not interested in working and said thanks for calling.

blah . . .well I suppose I proved that I was not that type of person, but now I have to start at the begging again and pimp my resumes at all the coffee shops, bars, and restaurants in the city. Fuck with my lack of expereince on paper. grrrr