Ron Giesbrecht, chief of the Kwikwetlem First Nation (formerly the Coquitlam Indian Band) near Vancouver, BC.

‘We’re a national embarrassment right now,’ says councillor calling for chief’s resignation

CBC News, Aug 02, 2014

Some members of a tiny Coquitlam-area First Nation want their chief to resign after damning financial disclosures were published this week.

In filings published under the new First Nations Financial Transparency Act, Kwikwetlem Chief Ron Giesbrecht disclosed he earned an $800,000 bonus last year on top of his salary.

Marvin Joe, who has been head of the 81-member First Nation in the past, says the revelation of that extra compensation has deeply angered many of the band’s members.

Two week retreat at the Lower Farm – a review

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”  – Albert Camus [The Minotaur]

At the Lower Farm there is no TV, no radio, no phone, no computer, no indoor plumbing, no running water and heating/cooking is done with a wood burning stove. That is the beginning of paying attention to all the little things.

I’m all about the beauty of resistance, not just merely surviving through harsh conditions, but finding creative ways to give birth to life when you’re surrounded by (the constant glimpses of) death. That is why I love stories like Darfur Sartorialist, Syrian artists breaking world records in the midst of war, or parkour in Gaza.

It’s about finding freedom within you. It has to work within a limited physical area (like Gaza), yes, but it helps breaking the imposed restraints. Because – you choose to live and not be defeated and not be depressed. It gives you strength to go on in life and – fight back.

This is another story about the beauty of resistance.

Andrew McConnell is famous photographer whose work was featured in most of the world’s biggest publications, he has won two 1st place prizes at the World Press Photo Awards and many other…

A massive explosion hits Gaza Strip as Israeli forces bomb heavily populated areas.

Israeli violence isn’t senseless — it follows a colonial logic.

by Greg Shupak, Jacobin Magazine, July 30, 2014

One could be forgiven for understanding Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as butchery for its own sake. That’s a plausible interpretation of the killing of 1,284 Palestinians, at least 75 percent of whom are civilians, and injuring another 7,100.

Seeing Israel as engaging in senseless bloodletting might seem an even more reasonable conclusion in light of the massacre of sixty-three people in Shujaiya after “the extensive use of artillery fire on dozens of populated areas across the Gaza Strip” that left bodies “scattered on streets,” or the bombing of United Nations shelters for those fleeing the violence. That conclusion is also tempting based on reports out of Khuza’a, a hamlet in the hinterlands of the Strip that was…