serendipityoucity

Dang!  Imagine if we could roster up this much interest in poverty, homelessness, disappeared women in Vancouver and the highway of tears, childcare, food insecurity, public health, child abuse and well the atomistic consumer society we live in!  Actually i think the bill for universal childcare in Canada was cheaper than the cost of Radarsat-2, and the positive social returns even greater.  Also quite a few new homes for the homeless could have been built with that cash.

I wonder about our value structures on some issues and wonder why some related to technology and science seem to be worth so much more than fundamental social issues. I am not suggesting that science and technology should not be valued but i wonder why some of the issues i pointed out above value-less.  Also why when it comes to science and technology we are so alert, attentive and can march to a common beat and when it comes to decisions regarding social policy we actually refer to skewed and myopic studies like the recent fraser institute report on education,  or even better we just let politicians cut social assistance by 21.6% in 1994 and not raised it in 14 years, or why we allow the minimum wage to remain stagnant, and why it is so easy for us to allow the gap between the rich and the poor widen.  

Why is it that big technological projects, radarsat-2, copyright, net neutrality, bill c-10, and the throttling of the Internet can get so much acreage in the news papers, bits space online and mobilize so much spectrum energy on TV and Radio and thought space in our collective consciousness?   The actions, successes and energy spent in those areas are a wonderful, intelligent, and a powerful force that have brought positive change and have made government accountable.   And i am most thankful.

However, my world is multifaceted and I currently reside in the world of technology, science and social policy.   And it never ceases to amaze me the minuscule amounts of money tossed at the women working in social policy organizations doing fundamental community development, outreach, feeding and housing, work related to the bodily needs and access to resources for marginalized, downtrodden, neglected, abused and new comer constituents of our society combined with the outrageous reporting structures and evaluation systems associated with those pennies, and compare that to the big cash tossed at the boyz building stuff, the giving away of that stuff, no monitoring how they use that stuff, and the little or no social accountability associated with what that stuff does and imposes on society and its structures.

Am i off here?  Am i missing something? Should i have my lenses adjusted? When do we get to think of these things simultaneously in government?  Is it possible that we don’t? I am perplexed!

ESCAPING AMERICA’S ORBIT
Maisonnueve - Montreal,Quebec,Canada