and speaking-up - defined in the dictionary as: speaking clearly and/or freely!
4:37am. Raising the blind for that first - crucial - look, I see foliage across the street move in a big way. Wind! A special morning, promising adventure - I love a good storm, but just some basic wind will be good too!
Poplars and aspens live for the wind - they become truly forceful in autumn, with their leaves now drying, and with that their sounds in the wind increasing from green-flirty flutter to grey-scratchy rattle. Waves, enormous waves - made up of thousands of these sounds - move through me. Speak to me.
White poplars - at the nursery-fence by the boat-house - are particularly convincing. Not only because of their imposing size but also because Peter, the tree-man, tells me that by those in the know they are also called weed-trees - growing fast and being messy. A rowdy bunch! Ents maybe! I tell him why I wanted their name: their wind-speak. Peter says: trembling.
There are peoples who have many different wind-languages.
Water sprinklers. Not sprinkling here - they hiss this morning, sometimes with a spiteful spitting stutter. The flower-beds at the park's entrance. Usually I walk along the grass strip behind the beds in my bare feet, but this morning I have to make a wide detour across the main grass area in front. Wet-glittering arches everywhere - back-lit - and in the centre John McKinnon's giant, holding a hawk and a cat in his arms - quicksilver streaming down his face and shoulders. Transforming him - he is otherworldly hard and frightening.
Meditating - I sit on a bench at the labyrinth, facing where they sun will rise. Maybe. Dry maple-leaves whisper-skitter across the circle.
Farther off a duck - in a duck's dream - quacks several times.
Crows begin to caw - and with that separate from the darkness. The crows' language is varied - juveniles remind me of teenagers; adults caw with blunt insistence. Crows speak-up! Clearly and distinctly! I feel close to them - their directness, self-sufficiency and lack of vanity. Crows don't preen! I wish I could speak to them in their language, let them know about me - but although their language seems simple, I would not presume to imitate it. So when they sometimes shriek at me I tell them to cool it - but gently - in human-speak. And keep going.
I find trying to imitate the while-feeding-on-grass-mutter of geese easier and usually do it when walking by/through them. Wanting to be accepted.
But more urgently wanting to be a crow in basic black and on the move!
Do birds gossip? Meeting the usual old-timers on their early-morning rounds - we talk about gloves and the end being near.
White bits of paper flung across the soft-ball field - gulls.
The lake speaks differently in different places this morning. At the beach it sounds expansive and steady; among the rocks more playful - a tease.
Park-speak.
It is light now; I pick my daily bag of rosehips, this morning behind the pump-house - three more to come. Leaving now ends the most satisfying part of my Nelson day - at about 7:30am.
On my way out I pass two larger rocks - both with a bronze plaque attached and about 2 meters apart. A young maple growing half-way in between. One plaque says: "City of Nelson - In memory of all the workers in our community who have lost their lives as a result of a workplace accident or occupational disease." And the other: "Workers' Memorial - In memory of those who have lost their lives as a result of a workplace accident or occupational disease."
As Joan Rivers used to say (still does?): Can we talk?
The town is waking-up - the uncouth language of motor-traffic across the bridge takes over most everything - but not the crows! Nelson gets ready to say much - which is not the same as speaking-up!
I tell my Chinese students - budding or practicing nurses and physicians - that clear and direct communication must be a given between the care-giver and patient. A big one: Chinese -in any situation - don't communicate directly, and much is said by not being said. I also tell them that in the West this is how people connect with each other. Clearly and freely! Not that I have any Western experience over my 14 years in China, but cultural differences seem to simply present: if it's not happening in China - it surely is happening in the West. Conditioned by the Net and Hollywood. But that realization hits later - after I come back to Canada; there they assume I know what I am talking about - as do I! About speaking-up! Over here!
I come back here, and all seems to be lovely. People smile a lot, are helpful and polite. Then I hear/read that many from other countries often describe Canadians as - polite. No examples of this politeness and nothing else, really - just polite! Well, after a few months the politeness wears kind of thin for me - Canadian politeness often appears to be a cover for apathy - lunch! There doesn't seem much else to recommend the Canadian experience; well, maybe polite beer (with a polite hangover) and polite hockey (with a polite concussion). Truly Canadian content - also cleverly called (the big) Can-con.
With me going: Yeah, yeah - simple is good!
Then the spiteful Harper rattles much of Canada and most of China (even getting the world's attention!), with his scheduling-conflicts not allowing him to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics. That and his two not-to-be-interrupted potty-training sessions, while world-leaders are waiting for him, to be able to get on with the official group-photo. Just to make an entrance. Over time - the more infantile and bizarre he and the Canadian form of government come across - the more (a)pathetic Canada seems, for not speaking-up and putting the Harper and his gold-embossed functionaries on a leash!
With me - at this point - moving from simple is good to simplistic not so much and beginning to feel embarrassed as Canadian.
Meanwhile, I find myself in Nelson - still in culture-shock and by-and-by more and more in culture-similarities; but decidedly done with Buddhist-monastery hopping and patented spirituality - wanting to pare down and do it on integrity alone. The simple life. Speaking-up and listening to others speaking-up. As in speaking freely (communicating openly) and getting on with it! Thinking: if not here - where possibly? Because Nelson seems the place for it: good air; pleasant environment; organic mechanic; lots of coffee; lots of progressives - if not actually running it - at least influencing greatly how the place is run. By speaking-up. An overall conscious low-pressure construct - aware of and having learned from high-pressure environments. I think! For a Time!
Then I do my first radio-program - Chinese Feed - about my experiences in China, partly as personal transition and partly because there seems curiously little in-depth info on or positive in-depth interest in China, even among local progressives. This leads to the second phase of Chinese Feed - still available as podcasts on Kootenay Co-op Radio - about the Chinese experience in Nelson. Even though major historio-cultural fact - a side-show at best within official Nelson's vague construct of its own history! And a non-event for the Community Heritage Commission (CHC)!:
The Chinese Community Of Nelson-As-Was
and
How Did It Get Here?
How, indeed! I begin to realize in my process of digging that - despite Nelson's with-it appearance - it is very conservative, and progressive is largely a Mr. Dress-Up game.
I begin to speak-up in this radio-program.
Which takes me to organizing the Chinatown Plaque Project and Chinatown Week - these endeavors eventually bringing the Chinese consul-general to Nelson. On my way towards that City Hall tries to cut much of already agreed-on funding as frivolous - thereby trivializing Nelson's Chinese experience, thus its own historio-cultural base - cementing this with Councillor Stacey speaking-up with: a plaque attached to a building surely would be enough.
In my Plaque/Week proposals/presentations I enclose a page showing two large, centred Chinese characters - the page is otherwise blank. During all the necessary months of City-Halling - including the Cultural Development Commission (CDC) - not one person asks me for the meaning of these characters. They mean - integrity! All this Chineseness - then and here - is not a single-focus issue but one of deeply cultural - period - dimensions.
Not acknowledged as such - even though this town already in a parallel universe - having no industrial tax-base - quite a while ago came-up with wanting to create income through - cultural tourism! Obviously - with Nelson culturally challenged - there is no cultural tourist! Lookin' good though, lookin' good!
Speaking-up is becoming a craving!
By now I see that smug Nelson is really very much like Brigadoon - its reality shrouded in dense fog all year, except for one day when the fog lifts and entering knowingly is possible. While those on the inside think (pretend) that it is (they are) open all the time.
Meaning - arty, spiritual yoga instructors keep flocking to Nelson, based on unrealistic assumptions. And the progressives here - feeling the cosmic urge to contribute - serve on all manner of boards of (to a great extent out-there) feel-good causes, because slugging it out over basic civic issues - or just process - with ingrown City Hall is not as glamorous, not as downtown! Not to forget - a biggie! - that in Royal Nelson's econo-political stew it's best to duck and be polite - with everybody - just in case. Unspoken frustration may be expressed in a good long sulk!
Leaving City Hall pretty much to its own - and the Chamber of Commerce's - devices. Rarely challenged, talking the talk but not necessarily walking it freely and clearly - largely disconnected from those who elected them.
The Harper thing: I am doing what you asked me to do by electing me!
Public input generally is not sought or heeded. In the Council Chamber - during commission-meetings, council meetings, Meetings of the Whole even - councillors, members chat with each other; there's little speaking-up clearly, even less freely - as in taking a personal stand with conviction and/or even just considering the attending Whole's need to be able to hear whatever is said. To each other. What microphone! This here is a microphone? Just for me? I didn't know that! Cool!
The media - specifically the Nelson Star and its relationship with Councillor Macdonald. For the Star she seems to be the go-to person on anything Council. Consistently featuring her opinions prominently or at least as an exit-line in City-whatever write-ups. Even though her declarations sometimes clearly are unsupported/unsupportable. Why she - so predictably? Why not other councillors for a broader picture? Who seeks out who? Granted - she does have entertainment value - but what with the Star not usually strong on satire - entertainment probably is not the reason. Balanced reporting?
The Star runs the Council Column - a forum for councillors, taking turns, to express themselves on particular City-related issues - emphasis on issues. This - regularly and for some time - has been the only conduit in town for councillor-specific communication to the public. Thanks to the Star for that! It was Ubiquitous Donna's turn, in the Sep. 28 column Thinking in sets of threes - the threes blatantly and totally being ME, ME and RE-ELECT ME!
This is ethically troubling - not only because she used for personal gain a forum provided to all councillors for council-business, but also because the Nelson Star supported this by signing-off on it! Both sneaking-up on the reader - in thin disguise! Weren't all councillors out of town when this column appeared? If so - one wonders how many of the other re-elects got to see it!
One of the three accomplishments Macdonald shopped in this very free, very prominent and very large campaign-ad is her CDC involvement. So one would have expected to see her much-touted solo-flight with the heron swizzle-stick (pre-pre-election, with the Star's generous help of Culture Columns for days!) - to be part of that. Not so - never mentioned it!
Because!
Councillor Stacey - as an inside-aside, not a public announcement (and not picked-up by the media)-during the last Meeting of the Whole said: the City would definitely not be involved financially in getting the heron to fly. Well, I'll be...! I do not know whether or not that involves the transportation-costs and $6000 for the base-construction, supposedly a pre-condition for getting the post for Nelson. Here now? Splat!
In the meantime, Councillor Stacey had her turn with the Council Column, Oct. 5, which - though lacking substance - stuck to Council concerns. Personally I appreciate this - particularly as she had earlier announced that she would run again, while Ubiquitous Donna - in the same Star write-up - coily straddled the fence.
For many here the Star is still a credibility issue; it needs to make some ethics-based decisions - clearly communicated - to become accepted more fully and by more. Especially in view of the coming election.
I do not know if Ubiquitous Donna is City Hall's designated spokesperson. Regardless - with public perception often more deciding than fact - she is making Council as a whole appear increasingly inconsequential - even silly!
Nelson's administration speaking-up - freely, clearly, comprehensively, timely and believably - would (one more time!) automatically mean transparency and accountability. Would! But - of course - with everybody else concerned soon entering campaign-mode as well - we're in for an even bumpier ride!
Mind you, according to the City's website - at least minutes of meetings are available on-line. This - ostensibly - could be something to hold onto.
Yet the most recent minutes of meetings (if) available are:
Regular Council Meeting - Jun. 27, 2011
Committee of the Whole - May 30, 2011
CHC - Feb. 22, 2011
CDC - Aug. 3, 2011
Advisory Planning Commission - "No records on display"
Supposedly, hard-copies can be had for a fee. Which, when and for how much I don't know, and even just getting info on that may be difficult. City Hall's voice-mail - as of the time this is written - has been down for several days now!
"Hello, City Hall!" I nudge the predictable.
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