The Big Man and The Little Woman - Part One
He was a huge rumpled Mexican artist whose feuds, energies, appetites and art works, dwarfed most other artists. She was a small, crippled woman whose great subjects were herself - her pains and her sufferings.
They both made history and became famous but at different times. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo married each other, divorced and then married each other again.
By 1960 both had passed away. Yet Kahlo's art career or recognition in the art world had barely begun.
Rivera was older than Frida. He was born in 1886 the son of a school teacher. Rivera studied art in Mexico City and then won a scholarship to study art in Spain and to Paris.
In Paris he studied the art of the day including Impressionism, Cubism and so on. Then he went to Italy to see the great Renaissance painters like Michelangelo, Giotto and many others.
When he returned to Mexico in 1920 he started to paint giant murals that caused a sensation. A civil war and revolution had ripped through Mexico for ten years leaving many dead and large parts of the country in ruins. Now the new Mexican government launched a whole new educational system of which mural painting was a part. The murals that Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueros painted, breathed new life into art and art in Latin America.
"Mexicans are not a gay race," said another great painter Rufino Tamayo, who was at one time Rivera's student and then his rival. "Mexicans are tragic because of their long history of foreign domination."
This is true. Mexico came into the modern world by conquest . In the early 1500's, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes invaded the Aztec empire and brutally smashed it. Now Spain ruled an empire made up of millions of First Nations people. Yet about 300 years later, Mexicans rose in revolt against their Spanish overlords. After lots of violence they won their freedom like many other Spanish colonies in South America.
Yet Mexico's problems weren't over. Mexico's growing powerful neighbour the United States of America cast envious eyes at the relatively empty lands in northern Mexico. "From the halls of Montezuma," goes one of the lines in the hymn of the United States' Marines. And in the late 1840's, U.S. troops invaded Mexico and Mexico City where once the mighty first nations emperor Montezuma had ruled.
The U.S. won the war with Mexico and siezed huge chunks of the country. Texas, California and many other now western states were once part of Mexico. After 1848 they belonged to the United States. "We never gave them to America," a Mexican government official complained in 1971 to a Canadian tourist. "The U.S. siezed them."
Soon after this, french troops invaded Mexico but were driven out. From about 1870 to 1910, Mexico lived in peace under a dictatorship. Yet in 1910 a revolution erupted as first nations and other people of colour wanted the power and privileges mostly held by white
people.
By 1920 the Mexican Revolution was over though violence sometimes broke out again.
Then Mexico went through a period of growth, peace and some prosperity. Ruled by the PRI or Party of Institutionalized Revolution, Mexico underwent an economic boom. A new middle class appeared to enjoy the fruits of prosperity. Yet the old time politicians, and their cronies still held on to the important reins of power. This period lasted from the 1940's to the 1970's.
The U.S. of course wielded great power in Mexico. Canadian nationalists like George Grant, Jim Laxer, Walter Gordon, prime minister John Diefenbaker, Mel Watkins and later David Orchard, have lamented U.S. power in Canada. Yet in the end, this led to Canadian peace, order and prosperity. In Mexico's case it often led to war and poverty.
"Poor Mexico," one Mexican official is supposed to have said. "So far from God, so close to the United States of America." Even to-day violence still plagues Mexico. At this time, the Mexican government ruled again by the PRI is at war with powerful drug dealers. This war has already killed 40,000 Mexicans.
It was against this sometimes violent backdrop that Rivera and Kahlo painted their great works.
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Friday, 12 June 2015
Life Is Unfair - Life of JFK Part Two.
John F. Kennedy, who was U.S. president from 1961 until November 1963 once said, "Life is unfair."
Years later when I remembered Kennedy's brief time in power, I once said dismissively,
"How would he know?". Yet despite his great wealth and power, Kennedy did know that life was unfair, probably even when he said this about life's unfairness.
Kennedy was undoubtedly born into great wealth and privilege. He was one of eight Catholic children of multimillionaire Joe Kennedy and his devout wife Rose Kennedy. This big clan was fortune's family. For instance Kennedy told one journalist in effect, "I knew nothing about the Great Depression." Joe Kennedy gave each of his children one million dollars when they turned twenty-one. To-day this would be worth about $15 million.
Yet by the time John Kennedy was in his early 30's life had shrunk his family. John's older brother Joe Junior, died in a World War Two plane crash in 1944. Joe Junior, like John, had enlisted in the U.S. armed forces in the second world war. A few years later, John's favourite sister Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy Cavendish died in a plane crash in France.
Unlike other Kennedy siblings, Rose Marie Kennedy, didn't show up much to be interviewed or photographed. She was the mentally challenged sister who for some reason was given a lobotomy.
John F. Kennedy was shot dead in 1963. Bad luck pursued his family after his death. His younger brother Robert Kennedy was gunned down by a Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles in 1968. Then-Senator Robert Kennedy was seeking the U.S. Democratic Presidential nomination at the time.
The last and youngest Kennedy brother Senator Edward 'Teddy' Kennedy was on the same quest in 1980. He too wanted to be the Democratic nominee for president that year. "The dream never dies," Senator Kennedy told his fellow Democrats at their 1980 convention. Yet by now the Kennedy myth was fading. The incumbent Democratic president James Earl Carter held off the Kennedy challenge and went on to face Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. Reagan went on to beat Carter.
Edward Kennedy faced many setbacks. He was thrown out of one university for cheating. He too was in a plane that crashed in 1964 and he survived. Yet his back was badly injured. Kennedy also may or may not have killed a young woman Mary Joe Kopechne who he was partying with in Chapaquidick, Massachusetts in the summer of 1969. Kennedy at the time was a married man.
"I can't see Edward Kennedy being president after this," a journalist I knew, said at the time. And he never was.
John F. Kennedy's children didn't escape the Kennedy curse either. Once again a plane killed another Kennedy. John F. Kennedy's son, John F. Kennedy Junior died in a plane crash in the U.S. northeast in 1999. His sister Caroline Kennedy is now the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Yet Japanese ultra-nationalists often harass and heckle her when she appears in public.
More than ten years after the assassination of John Kennedy, a group of journalists including a leading writer of the time Tom Wicker met to discuss Kennedy's legacy. One man said, "Kennedy will only be remembered for being the first Catholic president in U.S. history. 50 years after his death, Kennedy is still the only Catholic who was president of the U.S. "The most overrated president in history," said the British historian E.J. Hobsbawm of Kennedy.
True or not, Kennedy was the first t.v. president of the U.S. He was on t.v. many many times, in his brief two years and 11 months in power. Kennedy was a celebrity president, handsome, rich and supposedly vigorous. He also had a beautiful wife who showed up on television many times too.
Kennedy's political achievements were few but his many t.v. appearances gave him world wide exposure. Millions of people knew him as a t.v. star. That's why his terrible death stunned the world. Yet it also proves as he said, "Life is unfair."
John F. Kennedy, who was U.S. president from 1961 until November 1963 once said, "Life is unfair."
Years later when I remembered Kennedy's brief time in power, I once said dismissively,
"How would he know?". Yet despite his great wealth and power, Kennedy did know that life was unfair, probably even when he said this about life's unfairness.
Kennedy was undoubtedly born into great wealth and privilege. He was one of eight Catholic children of multimillionaire Joe Kennedy and his devout wife Rose Kennedy. This big clan was fortune's family. For instance Kennedy told one journalist in effect, "I knew nothing about the Great Depression." Joe Kennedy gave each of his children one million dollars when they turned twenty-one. To-day this would be worth about $15 million.
Yet by the time John Kennedy was in his early 30's life had shrunk his family. John's older brother Joe Junior, died in a World War Two plane crash in 1944. Joe Junior, like John, had enlisted in the U.S. armed forces in the second world war. A few years later, John's favourite sister Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy Cavendish died in a plane crash in France.
Unlike other Kennedy siblings, Rose Marie Kennedy, didn't show up much to be interviewed or photographed. She was the mentally challenged sister who for some reason was given a lobotomy.
John F. Kennedy was shot dead in 1963. Bad luck pursued his family after his death. His younger brother Robert Kennedy was gunned down by a Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles in 1968. Then-Senator Robert Kennedy was seeking the U.S. Democratic Presidential nomination at the time.
The last and youngest Kennedy brother Senator Edward 'Teddy' Kennedy was on the same quest in 1980. He too wanted to be the Democratic nominee for president that year. "The dream never dies," Senator Kennedy told his fellow Democrats at their 1980 convention. Yet by now the Kennedy myth was fading. The incumbent Democratic president James Earl Carter held off the Kennedy challenge and went on to face Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. Reagan went on to beat Carter.
Edward Kennedy faced many setbacks. He was thrown out of one university for cheating. He too was in a plane that crashed in 1964 and he survived. Yet his back was badly injured. Kennedy also may or may not have killed a young woman Mary Joe Kopechne who he was partying with in Chapaquidick, Massachusetts in the summer of 1969. Kennedy at the time was a married man.
"I can't see Edward Kennedy being president after this," a journalist I knew, said at the time. And he never was.
John F. Kennedy's children didn't escape the Kennedy curse either. Once again a plane killed another Kennedy. John F. Kennedy's son, John F. Kennedy Junior died in a plane crash in the U.S. northeast in 1999. His sister Caroline Kennedy is now the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Yet Japanese ultra-nationalists often harass and heckle her when she appears in public.
More than ten years after the assassination of John Kennedy, a group of journalists including a leading writer of the time Tom Wicker met to discuss Kennedy's legacy. One man said, "Kennedy will only be remembered for being the first Catholic president in U.S. history. 50 years after his death, Kennedy is still the only Catholic who was president of the U.S. "The most overrated president in history," said the British historian E.J. Hobsbawm of Kennedy.
True or not, Kennedy was the first t.v. president of the U.S. He was on t.v. many many times, in his brief two years and 11 months in power. Kennedy was a celebrity president, handsome, rich and supposedly vigorous. He also had a beautiful wife who showed up on television many times too.
Kennedy's political achievements were few but his many t.v. appearances gave him world wide exposure. Millions of people knew him as a t.v. star. That's why his terrible death stunned the world. Yet it also proves as he said, "Life is unfair."
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Life Is Unfair - The Life of JFK
Life is Unfair
On a grey November Friday in 1963 I came out of a drama class at McGill University In Montreal. Horrible news floated in the air of the gloomy second floor of the old Arts building.
"Haven't you heard?" some one asked me in effect. "President Kennedy's been shot in Dallas, Texas. He may be dead."
U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was indeed dead, killed by a sniper's bullet on November 22,1963. On that grey afternoon, many women at McGill University broke down and cried. Young men wandered around the campus in shock. All over the world, millions, maybe billions of people lamented the death of this young, telegenic president.
"How could this great man die?" a friend of mine asked. "This is a tragedy."
Yet only ten years later, public opinion changed its mind on America's 35th president. For new information on President Kennedy revealed a very different president than many had thought of, when he was alive and in power.
He and his wife Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (later Onassis) really had an open marriage. "It was a new blonde every other week," a British journalist who covered Kennedy's White House told a friend of mine about the president's sex life.
Nor was President Kennedy running a squeaky clean administration. He certainly help plan attempts to kill Cuba's president Fidel Castro. Kennedy at the time of his death may or may not have been planning to plunge his country further into the disastrous Vietnam War. And though Kennedy projected a young, vigorous image, he was in fact plagued by illnesses.
Addison's disease, a rare endocrine disorder nearly killed Kennedy at least once. He also suffered from hyperthyroidism. In his 40's, exactly when he was president, Kennedy was swallowing up to ten pills a day for his various ailments. He also suffered from terrible back pain which came from injuries he got during the Second World war.
After his death, a Kennedy book industry took wing. Authors claimed that Kennedy's supposed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, was part of a conspiracy to murder the president. Some specialists blamed Kennedy for the Cuban Missile Crisis that in October 1962 could have incinerated the world. Canadian nationalists pointed out that JFK (as Kennedy was often referred to) helped defeat Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in the 1963 Canadian general election.
Here I don't want to discuss these issues or others like them. Really I remember John F. Kennedy for mainly one thing and that was his reflection on life. "Life," he once said, "is unfair." Perhaps Kennedy's speechwriter Ted Sorensen wrote this. Yet for me this rings true, not only for many people in the world but also for John F. Kennedy. And when he said this he didn't realize he was describing not only his own fate, but the fate of others in his big family.
(To be continued on my next blog).
On a grey November Friday in 1963 I came out of a drama class at McGill University In Montreal. Horrible news floated in the air of the gloomy second floor of the old Arts building.
"Haven't you heard?" some one asked me in effect. "President Kennedy's been shot in Dallas, Texas. He may be dead."
U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was indeed dead, killed by a sniper's bullet on November 22,1963. On that grey afternoon, many women at McGill University broke down and cried. Young men wandered around the campus in shock. All over the world, millions, maybe billions of people lamented the death of this young, telegenic president.
"How could this great man die?" a friend of mine asked. "This is a tragedy."
Yet only ten years later, public opinion changed its mind on America's 35th president. For new information on President Kennedy revealed a very different president than many had thought of, when he was alive and in power.
He and his wife Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (later Onassis) really had an open marriage. "It was a new blonde every other week," a British journalist who covered Kennedy's White House told a friend of mine about the president's sex life.
Nor was President Kennedy running a squeaky clean administration. He certainly help plan attempts to kill Cuba's president Fidel Castro. Kennedy at the time of his death may or may not have been planning to plunge his country further into the disastrous Vietnam War. And though Kennedy projected a young, vigorous image, he was in fact plagued by illnesses.
Addison's disease, a rare endocrine disorder nearly killed Kennedy at least once. He also suffered from hyperthyroidism. In his 40's, exactly when he was president, Kennedy was swallowing up to ten pills a day for his various ailments. He also suffered from terrible back pain which came from injuries he got during the Second World war.
After his death, a Kennedy book industry took wing. Authors claimed that Kennedy's supposed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, was part of a conspiracy to murder the president. Some specialists blamed Kennedy for the Cuban Missile Crisis that in October 1962 could have incinerated the world. Canadian nationalists pointed out that JFK (as Kennedy was often referred to) helped defeat Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in the 1963 Canadian general election.
Here I don't want to discuss these issues or others like them. Really I remember John F. Kennedy for mainly one thing and that was his reflection on life. "Life," he once said, "is unfair." Perhaps Kennedy's speechwriter Ted Sorensen wrote this. Yet for me this rings true, not only for many people in the world but also for John F. Kennedy. And when he said this he didn't realize he was describing not only his own fate, but the fate of others in his big family.
(To be continued on my next blog).
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
two cheers For Yuppies - Part Two
Two Cheers For Yuppies part Two
I'll call this man James. I met him over 40 years ago.
James was a yuppie though that word hadn't been invented in 1973. He was studying to be an economist. "He's so clever. He knows so much," said the woman who was living with him.
She later became a famous media star. Frankly I preferred her to her boyfriend. And she was clever too. Yet James was bright.
Yet he was a horrible man who had complete contempt for most people. "Look at this bunch," he once said about a group of people at a party we were at. "Wow, they're really dumb." James is one of the reasons I don't want to praise yuppies too much.
Then there was another yuppie I knew whom I'll call Frank. He wasn't a nice person either. He studied hard to be a natural resources economist. He knew everything about the price of coal, iron nickel, copper and many other minerals. Yet Frank had no time for the people who worked in the mines.
He launched a personal crusade to cut the costs of the company he worked for. "Yes, we're laying off people," he proudly boasted in the 1980's. "our job is to keep profits up, which means keeping wages down. That's what business is all about."
He also made it a badge of honour to pay as little income tax as he could.
Another man I'll call Leon came to Vancouver's downtown eastside to meet a woman. Leon sat in this very poor area of the city in a run down cafe sipping a coffee some time in the 1980's. "You work here, do you?" this tall blonde 40 something said to an anti-poverty activist who sat at the same table as Leon. Leon shook his fine-featured face with contempt at the whole scene.
Leon was a lawyer who was an arch-snob.
So was a woman I''ll call Andrea. She met a man at a party in the 1980's. Years before this both of them had worked in a government office. Back then, this man didn't have his own desk, though Andrea did.
Andrea made a point of reminding the man how she'd always had her own desk. To her, this showed that she was a far better person than this other office worker. "You finally got your own desk, did you?" she asked. "I never thought you'd get one." Andrea was an accountant who clearly liked herself, but not too many other people.
The list of yuppies I've known could stretch around a half a dozen city blocks. Some of them were nice people. Many of them ended up in the co-op I live in. Yet other yuppies I've known were just horrible people. They worshipped the status quo and adored wealth and power.
Now we need yuppies. So much ot the technological innovation comes from the hard work of yuppies. They definitely know how to run the society and increase wealth in the post -industrial world we live in. Yet some of the yuppies I've known truly turned me off.
So two cheers for yuppies but certainly not three.
I'll call this man James. I met him over 40 years ago.
James was a yuppie though that word hadn't been invented in 1973. He was studying to be an economist. "He's so clever. He knows so much," said the woman who was living with him.
She later became a famous media star. Frankly I preferred her to her boyfriend. And she was clever too. Yet James was bright.
Yet he was a horrible man who had complete contempt for most people. "Look at this bunch," he once said about a group of people at a party we were at. "Wow, they're really dumb." James is one of the reasons I don't want to praise yuppies too much.
Then there was another yuppie I knew whom I'll call Frank. He wasn't a nice person either. He studied hard to be a natural resources economist. He knew everything about the price of coal, iron nickel, copper and many other minerals. Yet Frank had no time for the people who worked in the mines.
He launched a personal crusade to cut the costs of the company he worked for. "Yes, we're laying off people," he proudly boasted in the 1980's. "our job is to keep profits up, which means keeping wages down. That's what business is all about."
He also made it a badge of honour to pay as little income tax as he could.
Another man I'll call Leon came to Vancouver's downtown eastside to meet a woman. Leon sat in this very poor area of the city in a run down cafe sipping a coffee some time in the 1980's. "You work here, do you?" this tall blonde 40 something said to an anti-poverty activist who sat at the same table as Leon. Leon shook his fine-featured face with contempt at the whole scene.
Leon was a lawyer who was an arch-snob.
So was a woman I''ll call Andrea. She met a man at a party in the 1980's. Years before this both of them had worked in a government office. Back then, this man didn't have his own desk, though Andrea did.
Andrea made a point of reminding the man how she'd always had her own desk. To her, this showed that she was a far better person than this other office worker. "You finally got your own desk, did you?" she asked. "I never thought you'd get one." Andrea was an accountant who clearly liked herself, but not too many other people.
The list of yuppies I've known could stretch around a half a dozen city blocks. Some of them were nice people. Many of them ended up in the co-op I live in. Yet other yuppies I've known were just horrible people. They worshipped the status quo and adored wealth and power.
Now we need yuppies. So much ot the technological innovation comes from the hard work of yuppies. They definitely know how to run the society and increase wealth in the post -industrial world we live in. Yet some of the yuppies I've known truly turned me off.
So two cheers for yuppies but certainly not three.
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Two Cheers For Yuppies
Two Cheers For Yuppies
Many people I've met don't like yuppies. Now I can see why this should be. Yuppies are usually smarter than many other people and people don't like to feel stupid. Yet let's back track a little before we proceed and look at some history.
An American journalist first coined the term when he was covering the U.S. Democratic primaries of 1984." Gary Hart has all these young affluent people voting for him," he said in effect. These young Hart supporters were soon given a new name, made up from the first and/ or second letters of the words' young urban professionals'.Of course, the term 'yuppie' came in part from the 1960's revolutionary group namely 'the yippies' or the Youth International Party. And it in turn was derived from the term 'hippies'.
The yippies were led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Like hippies, yippies smoked marijuana, dropped out of the system, dressed any which way, and made love wherever and whenever they wanted to. Yet unlike the hippies, yippies were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the system.
"Kill your parents," Jerry Rubin urged young people in the late 1960's.
Yuppies, on the other hand, joined the system. They didn't want to overthrow it. Yuppies became stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors, urban planners and so on. They were the winners in society and one reason they ended up at the head of the line was that they were smart.
Take the housing co-op I live in. I moved in there in 1982. When I first lived there and for 20 years afterwards there weren't too many yuppies living there. The place erupted in problems. One reason for this was that most of us had little experience in running a 40 suite apartment building.
But just as important perhaps was that many troubled people lived in the co-op and none of them were yuppies.
One man used to bring home his lovers and sometimes beat them up. A woman had two children living with her and all three of this trio were dysfunctional. "I don't think that this woman should have been a mother," another mother said at the time and she was right. The two children, one boy and one girl, tore their apartment up. It cost us $8,000 to repair the damaged place. One of my neighbours was an alcoholic who was nice when he could get his hands on liquor. Yet when he couldn't, he turned into a horrible abuser.
We took pity on a disabled woman and rented her an apartment. This was a mistake. "She had a stroke and then got hit by a car,' someone told me. "Or maybe it was the other way around." In any case, this big chunky woman was a constant source of trouble. After many long years of disputes with this woman we finally evicted her.
We had to throw out other people too. One or two people couldn't pay the rent. Another man went to pieces after his mother died.And if we had problems with adults we also had trouble with children too.
One young man set off a fire in our mailboxes. An adolescent used to break into cars in our garage. A third young person entered her next door neighbour's apartment and stole money from the lady's coin dish where she kept dimes, quarters and nickels.
Family feuds nearly tore our co-op apart. One mother moved into the place after her son did. Soon she and the son's partner were at each other's throats. They nearly came to blows.
Many of these adults smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey or beer all the time and often played bingo.
Now I must be fair here. Many of the people who lived in our co-op in its first twenty years, caused us no problems at all. One trucker helped put together our annual budget. A landscape gardener saved us lots of money and was one of the hardest workers I ever saw. A woman who worked in a bank did endless work for the co-op and was a true co-operative person. And the list of non-yuppies who kept the co-op going, was huge.
Still, wherever we had a big problem with some body it's fair to say that that person was not a yuppie
Yet then in the 21st century, we had to take out another mortgage to repair our co-op and so we had to raise our housing charges. Rising rents drove most of the problem people out. Urban planners, economists, doctors, lawyers and professors have moved into the co-op. And now co-op life moves along much more smoothly.
"Don't put yourself down," one co-op resident told a new arrival. "You're a yuppie and we need yuppies in this place.".I, who at one time was an ardent socialist now realise that life with yuppie neighbours is easier than with dysfunctional members of the lower middle and working classes. Yet that doesn't mean that yuppies are perfect either.
I'll explain more on this topic in my next blog.
.
Many people I've met don't like yuppies. Now I can see why this should be. Yuppies are usually smarter than many other people and people don't like to feel stupid. Yet let's back track a little before we proceed and look at some history.
An American journalist first coined the term when he was covering the U.S. Democratic primaries of 1984." Gary Hart has all these young affluent people voting for him," he said in effect. These young Hart supporters were soon given a new name, made up from the first and/ or second letters of the words' young urban professionals'.Of course, the term 'yuppie' came in part from the 1960's revolutionary group namely 'the yippies' or the Youth International Party. And it in turn was derived from the term 'hippies'.
The yippies were led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Like hippies, yippies smoked marijuana, dropped out of the system, dressed any which way, and made love wherever and whenever they wanted to. Yet unlike the hippies, yippies were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the system.
"Kill your parents," Jerry Rubin urged young people in the late 1960's.
Yuppies, on the other hand, joined the system. They didn't want to overthrow it. Yuppies became stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors, urban planners and so on. They were the winners in society and one reason they ended up at the head of the line was that they were smart.
Take the housing co-op I live in. I moved in there in 1982. When I first lived there and for 20 years afterwards there weren't too many yuppies living there. The place erupted in problems. One reason for this was that most of us had little experience in running a 40 suite apartment building.
But just as important perhaps was that many troubled people lived in the co-op and none of them were yuppies.
One man used to bring home his lovers and sometimes beat them up. A woman had two children living with her and all three of this trio were dysfunctional. "I don't think that this woman should have been a mother," another mother said at the time and she was right. The two children, one boy and one girl, tore their apartment up. It cost us $8,000 to repair the damaged place. One of my neighbours was an alcoholic who was nice when he could get his hands on liquor. Yet when he couldn't, he turned into a horrible abuser.
We took pity on a disabled woman and rented her an apartment. This was a mistake. "She had a stroke and then got hit by a car,' someone told me. "Or maybe it was the other way around." In any case, this big chunky woman was a constant source of trouble. After many long years of disputes with this woman we finally evicted her.
We had to throw out other people too. One or two people couldn't pay the rent. Another man went to pieces after his mother died.And if we had problems with adults we also had trouble with children too.
One young man set off a fire in our mailboxes. An adolescent used to break into cars in our garage. A third young person entered her next door neighbour's apartment and stole money from the lady's coin dish where she kept dimes, quarters and nickels.
Family feuds nearly tore our co-op apart. One mother moved into the place after her son did. Soon she and the son's partner were at each other's throats. They nearly came to blows.
Many of these adults smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey or beer all the time and often played bingo.
Now I must be fair here. Many of the people who lived in our co-op in its first twenty years, caused us no problems at all. One trucker helped put together our annual budget. A landscape gardener saved us lots of money and was one of the hardest workers I ever saw. A woman who worked in a bank did endless work for the co-op and was a true co-operative person. And the list of non-yuppies who kept the co-op going, was huge.
Still, wherever we had a big problem with some body it's fair to say that that person was not a yuppie
Yet then in the 21st century, we had to take out another mortgage to repair our co-op and so we had to raise our housing charges. Rising rents drove most of the problem people out. Urban planners, economists, doctors, lawyers and professors have moved into the co-op. And now co-op life moves along much more smoothly.
"Don't put yourself down," one co-op resident told a new arrival. "You're a yuppie and we need yuppies in this place.".I, who at one time was an ardent socialist now realise that life with yuppie neighbours is easier than with dysfunctional members of the lower middle and working classes. Yet that doesn't mean that yuppies are perfect either.
I'll explain more on this topic in my next blog.
.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Maybe not only progressives die in plane and car crashes.
Last Part of 'Plane and Car Crashes Kill Progressives'
In this part of my blog I'm going to trash my own thesis.
My theories of a conspiracy or conspiracies that kill progressives may fall apart.
On one school day in February 1959 a harassed high school teacher in Montreal faced a revolt. Outside the day was cold and icy. Yet inside this woman's classroom, things heated up.
Her students in one grade ten class stood up altogether and remained silent for a few minutes. "What's happening?" the flustered tall blonde teacher asked the class. "What's this all about?"
This 20 something teacher had lots of trouble controlling her students in all her classes. And this particular grade ten class always caused her problems. Why were they silent now when all they usually did was chat, hum tunes, and talk when she tried to teach?
After five minutes or more of silence the students sat down and went back to creating their usual mayhem. One 15 year-old with slicked back greasy hair, said to the teacher, "We're remembering yeasterday, Miss."
"Yesterday?"
"Yes, yesterday three great singers died."
Yesterday was February 3, 1959. On that date three well known singers died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. The three were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. the 'Big Bopper' Richardson. Their pilot died too.
The three singers's deaths was immortalized-sort of- in a song that came out a bit later called 'Three Stars Are Shining Bright'. As one of the classroom memorial leaders said later, "That song is just junk. And except for Buddy Holly I never liked any of these guys's music."
The students in their few minutes of silence were as usual just causing problems for their teacher. Years later, Don McLean remembered the three dead singers in his runaway 1972 chart topper called 'American Pie'. Frankly McLean's 'American Pie' was not one of his best songs either.
Yet to get back to my main point. Not one of these four dead people were progressives in any way, and certainly none of the three singers were. Nor was Patsy Cline who died about four years later in Tennessee on March 5,1963. In fact country music singers like Patsy Cline were and are very traditional people. Very very few of them buck big businesses, support peace movements or favour bigger social programs.
Jim Croce sang gentle songs about love and loss from a working class point of view. Yet Croce was no progressive either. He died in a plane crash in 1973 in Louisiana, alongside his pilot, his manager and four other people. The other six died too. None were left leaning folk.
One plane crash that did kill a very political person was the shooting down of a South Korean airplane on September 1, 1983. "This could cause a shooting war between the Soviet Union and the United States," a friend of mine said at the time.
For the plane carried 269 passengers including a very right wing congressman from the U.S. called Laurence MacDonald who came from Georgia. All 269 passengers died and it was a Soviet plane that shot down the Korean airliner.
This shoot down happened at a time of a renewed U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. Then U.S. President Ronald Reagan loathed the Soviet Union. "It is an evil empire," he said. Luckily the result of this shoot down heightened Cold War tensions but no war erupted. Yet this plane crash involved a right winger and not a progressive.
So my theories about car and plane crashes that deliberately target progressives may be wrong. It's hard to prove. So I rest my case because the evidence of a right wing conspiracy that murders progressives in crashes can't be proved conclusively.
In this part of my blog I'm going to trash my own thesis.
My theories of a conspiracy or conspiracies that kill progressives may fall apart.
On one school day in February 1959 a harassed high school teacher in Montreal faced a revolt. Outside the day was cold and icy. Yet inside this woman's classroom, things heated up.
Her students in one grade ten class stood up altogether and remained silent for a few minutes. "What's happening?" the flustered tall blonde teacher asked the class. "What's this all about?"
This 20 something teacher had lots of trouble controlling her students in all her classes. And this particular grade ten class always caused her problems. Why were they silent now when all they usually did was chat, hum tunes, and talk when she tried to teach?
After five minutes or more of silence the students sat down and went back to creating their usual mayhem. One 15 year-old with slicked back greasy hair, said to the teacher, "We're remembering yeasterday, Miss."
"Yesterday?"
"Yes, yesterday three great singers died."
Yesterday was February 3, 1959. On that date three well known singers died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. The three were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. the 'Big Bopper' Richardson. Their pilot died too.
The three singers's deaths was immortalized-sort of- in a song that came out a bit later called 'Three Stars Are Shining Bright'. As one of the classroom memorial leaders said later, "That song is just junk. And except for Buddy Holly I never liked any of these guys's music."
The students in their few minutes of silence were as usual just causing problems for their teacher. Years later, Don McLean remembered the three dead singers in his runaway 1972 chart topper called 'American Pie'. Frankly McLean's 'American Pie' was not one of his best songs either.
Yet to get back to my main point. Not one of these four dead people were progressives in any way, and certainly none of the three singers were. Nor was Patsy Cline who died about four years later in Tennessee on March 5,1963. In fact country music singers like Patsy Cline were and are very traditional people. Very very few of them buck big businesses, support peace movements or favour bigger social programs.
Jim Croce sang gentle songs about love and loss from a working class point of view. Yet Croce was no progressive either. He died in a plane crash in 1973 in Louisiana, alongside his pilot, his manager and four other people. The other six died too. None were left leaning folk.
One plane crash that did kill a very political person was the shooting down of a South Korean airplane on September 1, 1983. "This could cause a shooting war between the Soviet Union and the United States," a friend of mine said at the time.
For the plane carried 269 passengers including a very right wing congressman from the U.S. called Laurence MacDonald who came from Georgia. All 269 passengers died and it was a Soviet plane that shot down the Korean airliner.
This shoot down happened at a time of a renewed U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. Then U.S. President Ronald Reagan loathed the Soviet Union. "It is an evil empire," he said. Luckily the result of this shoot down heightened Cold War tensions but no war erupted. Yet this plane crash involved a right winger and not a progressive.
So my theories about car and plane crashes that deliberately target progressives may be wrong. It's hard to prove. So I rest my case because the evidence of a right wing conspiracy that murders progressives in crashes can't be proved conclusively.
Monday, 30 March 2015
How Some Progressives Die - Part Four
How Some Progressives Die Continued
David Fraser McTaggart was another David who died in a car crash.
McTaggart died in a car crash in Italy in 2001. "He was a man of great energy," long time social activist Dorothy Stowe said. McTaggart chaired the environmentalist group 'Greenpeace' for many years. He showed his courage in 1973 when he sailed into the Muroroa Atoll in the South Pacific where the French armed forces detonated nuclear bombs.
French officials boarded his boat, knowing that McTaggart was trying to stop them from
letting off their nuclear devices. They beat McTaggart up and injured one of his eyes. Back in North America, McTaggart recovered. He then continued his endless campaign to save the environment.
He resigned from chairing 'Greenpeace' in 1991. He then joined up with pop singer Bryan Adams and the two of them then toured the world together. They held many concerts, urging the concert goers to write to governments. "Tell them to support the founding of a whale sanctuary," both men told the crowds.
As a result of the efforts of McTaggart and Adams, a Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was set up in 1994. 23 countries came out in favour of the sanctuary. Only Japan, whose whalers 'Greepeace' had clashed with many times, opposed the sanctuary.
McTaggart's death deprived the world of a great activist. No charges were laid in his death. still, yet another car crash took another progressive life.
Then there's the life and death of Michael Hastings who died in a car crash in Hollywood, California in 2013 at the age of 33.
Hastings was a writer for 'Rolling Stone' magazine. He wrote stories about the campaign of U.S. general McChrystal in Afghanistan. "We'll hunt you down and kill you if we don't like what you write," one of Mchrystal's aides told Hastings. Hastings uncovered quite a few things in the U.S. war in Afghanistan that may have angered McChrystal.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation followed Hastings and definitely had him under surveillance. No charges were laid when Hastings died. Yet I do wonder why yet another progressive died in a car crash.
David Fraser McTaggart was another David who died in a car crash.
McTaggart died in a car crash in Italy in 2001. "He was a man of great energy," long time social activist Dorothy Stowe said. McTaggart chaired the environmentalist group 'Greenpeace' for many years. He showed his courage in 1973 when he sailed into the Muroroa Atoll in the South Pacific where the French armed forces detonated nuclear bombs.
French officials boarded his boat, knowing that McTaggart was trying to stop them from
letting off their nuclear devices. They beat McTaggart up and injured one of his eyes. Back in North America, McTaggart recovered. He then continued his endless campaign to save the environment.
He resigned from chairing 'Greenpeace' in 1991. He then joined up with pop singer Bryan Adams and the two of them then toured the world together. They held many concerts, urging the concert goers to write to governments. "Tell them to support the founding of a whale sanctuary," both men told the crowds.
As a result of the efforts of McTaggart and Adams, a Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was set up in 1994. 23 countries came out in favour of the sanctuary. Only Japan, whose whalers 'Greepeace' had clashed with many times, opposed the sanctuary.
McTaggart's death deprived the world of a great activist. No charges were laid in his death. still, yet another car crash took another progressive life.
Then there's the life and death of Michael Hastings who died in a car crash in Hollywood, California in 2013 at the age of 33.
Hastings was a writer for 'Rolling Stone' magazine. He wrote stories about the campaign of U.S. general McChrystal in Afghanistan. "We'll hunt you down and kill you if we don't like what you write," one of Mchrystal's aides told Hastings. Hastings uncovered quite a few things in the U.S. war in Afghanistan that may have angered McChrystal.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation followed Hastings and definitely had him under surveillance. No charges were laid when Hastings died. Yet I do wonder why yet another progressive died in a car crash.
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