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by Marja-Leena

April Fool’s

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I was shocked on waking up to see snow coming down and it just keeps coming, wet yet sticking. What an April Fool’s Day joke Mother Nature is playing on us! Rare though it is, we’ve had snow in April before and later, like last year’s very damaging one.

We hope today’s snow isn’t going to build up so much as to cause any trouble, like a prank gone bad. Oh, just as I’m ready to press ‘publish’, it has started to rain – phew!

May the practical jokes you experience be funny ones, dear readers!

April 1, 2009 in Culture, Home by Marja-Leena 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

cultural identity & CBC

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This past weekend Vancouver hosted the Juno Awards, which inspired Miro Cernetig to write an interesting and eye-opening article** for the Vancouver Sun.

It may be tempting to see the Junos — now this country’s most successful entertainment event — as simply a great bash, our homegrown version of the Grammys. But it’s about much more than music and awards. The Juno Awards, and the cultural protectionism that incubated its success, is proof Canada has become a leader in what’s called cultural sovereignty. While living next to the world’s largest economy, we have proven it possible to retain our cultural identity.

Read on** about the remarkable story of how Canada acted to create an international treaty protecting countries’ cultural sovereignty.

This sent me to the pages of the website for the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity** or IFCCD. UNESCO made the decision to base the IFCCD in Montreal, Quebec because the coalition was founded there, which does not surprise me for Quebec is the most culturally strong and proactive of any of our provinces. Here is the IFCCD mission statement:

WHY IS THE CAMPAIGN FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY SO IMPORTANT?
BECAUSE CULTURAL PRODUCTS ENCOMPASS VALUES, IDENTITY AND MEANINGS THAT GO BEYOND THEIR STRICTLY COMMERCIAL VALUE.
BECAUSE, IN THE ABSENCE OF CULTURAL POLICIES, THE CITIZENS OF MANY COUNTRIES WOULD NOT HAVE ACCESS TO BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSIC, THEATRE AND
BECAUSE, IF THESE CULTURAL GOODS AND SERVICES CANNOT BE CREATED, PRODUCED AND CONSUMED IN THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, NEITHER WILL THEY CROSS BORDERS TO BECOME PART OF OUR WORLDWIDE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE AND, IN ESSENCE, OUR SHARED CULTURAL DIVERSITY.

This sure sounds to me like the mandate of any nation’s public broadcaster like our CBC. So I ask you, Mr. Harper, in light of Canada’s achievement and standing in creating this international cultural coalition, aren’t you embarrassed and ashamed to be destroying our CBC, which has been and still is the major unifying cultural organization in our country? You are ignoring the very mandate that Canada fought for itself and other countries!

SAVE the CBC!

*expired links removed

March 31, 2009 in Canada and BC, Culture by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

SAVE the CBC

CBC is Canada’s own publicly owned radio and TV broadcaster, a part of the very heart of Canada and its culture, connecting us all from coasts to coasts. It’s currently being decimated by Harper and his government, after already many past cuts. Please read this letter from Avaaz.org and sign the petition.

Dear friends,
Canada’s media networks have all been slammed by the recession. But the government is reportedly considering bailouts for its friends at private companies CTV and CanWest, while forcing the CBC to drastically cut 800 staff and programming.
Our CBC is a national treasure, and a pillar of public-interest journalism in a country whose media is owned by a few large firms. We won’t hear an outcry from their media outlets, and the CBC is too principled to use its megaphone to make the case for itself. We are the only voice the CBC has.
We urgently need a massive public outcry to Save the CBC, click below to sign the petition and forward this email to everyone who might care about this:
SAVE the CBC
The petition will be delivered directly to the government, through Parliament, ads, and spectacular stunts such as an airplane pulling a giant Save the CBC banner over parliament. In each case the number of signatures on the petition will be crucial to the effectiveness of the campaign, so let’s get as many people as possible to sign.
The CBC is facing a budget shortfall that amounts to just $6 per Canadian, but its request to the government for a bridging loan to cover this was denied. The deep cuts the CBC is making will damage the organization across the board, and they will not be the last. If we don’t stand up for the CBC now, it stands to die a death by a thousand cuts. Harper’s minority government is politically vulnerable and falling in the polls – public outrage could turn the government around on this, but it has to happen now. Let’s move quickly.
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Paula, Brett, Alice, Paul, Ben, Milena, Veronique and the whole Avaaz team.

PS – here are some links for more info on this:
The Star reports on how opposition parties accuse Harper of using the recession as an excuse to gut the CBC
Union says Harper government strangling CBC
Ian Morrison: Stephen Harper’s hidden agenda for the CBC
A crisis of identity – A reader’s letter to the Globe and Mail

I would add to this list:
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. Check out their satirical campaign ads

And finally this article from where I learned that the CBC currently gets about $33 from each Canadian taxpayer, compared to $124 to support the public broadcaster in the U.K. and $77 in France. As a taxpayer, I don’t mind paying another $6 to save our CBC.
_______________
Added March 28th: This message came from J. in the UK:
glad to see you fighting the good fight for cbc. thought you might like to know that the tv licence in the uk is actually considerably more. a colour tv licence currently costs £139.50 (CDN$247.65) for one year. See the licence fee.

This is most interesting: The BBC is paid for directly through each household TV licence. This allows it to run a wide range of popular public services for everyone, free of adverts and independent of advertisers, shareholders or political interests.
The BBC provides 8 interactive TV channels, 10 radio networks, more than 50 local TV and radio services, the BBC’s website, and the on-demand TV and radio service, BBC iPlayer.

PS. Finland has a similar TV licensing system.

March 27, 2009 in Canada and BC, Culture, Current Events by Marja-Leena 19 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

spring and birthdays

‘Tis the first day of spring and I’m longing for the weather to match! A very cold winter not easing up for spring means this year the garden is unusually late for normally balmy Vancouver. Blame the depressing weather if you like, I’ve been wandering through several years of digital photos. Curiously I then got it into my head to search for images taken on March 20th since year 2000. The equinox as we know is sometimes on the 21st, which is also son-in-law’s birthday. Thus many of the photos were of family get-togethers to celebrate his day, for sometimes we celebrated the day before or the day after. As you can see not every year on March 20th did we take a photo.

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2004 – birthday cheesecake made by eldest daughter

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2005 – the rainbow that appeared after the birthday party

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2006 – that’s me at another birthday feast I prepared

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2007 – tulips from my garden. They are a long way off from blooming this year!

Wishing you, dear readers, happy spring (or fall) equinox, may it be a warm and creative one!
And happy birthday, J! I think in a few hours it is the 21st in the UK.

March 20, 2009 in Being an Artist, Culture, Home by Marja-Leena 14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

ice music

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On the first full moon of the year, the mountain town of Geilo, Norway hosts the world’s only ice music festival and most amazingly, the instruments are made mostly of ice.

As short-lived as sandcastles, the ice-sculpted wind, string and percussion instruments give off surprising new sounds that vary according to the quality of the ice and the surrounding temperatures.

American ice sculptor Bill Cowitz is the creator of these unusual intruments which he has made for the IceMusic Festival for the past four years, including this year’s recently finished one. This tickles my Nordic bones (or ears) and makes me want to be there and hear them next year.

Somewhat related older posts:
Artscape Nordland, Norway
Snow Artist
The Snow Show
Snow Show Architect wins Prize

January 19, 2009 in Culture, Music by Marja-Leena 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

epiphany deluge

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It’s the 12th day of Christmas and Epiphany (or loppiainen, a national holiday in Finland). It’s the day we try take down the Christmas tree and decorations and I’m making a slow start on that, leaving some of it for this evening when youngest daughter is home from work.

Following another snow dump on Sunday night, today looks like the end of snow days are near. Something like an amazing-for-Vancouver 26 days of snow on the ground still didn’t match the 33 day record of 1964/65, but oh, the snow’s not going away that fast. It’s being mixed with a LOT of rain, causing flooding and problems with collapsing roofs. Husband has been shoveling the snow off our flat rooftop (thankfully most of it is sloped) and the decks, as well as the walks and driveway, heavy work indeed with our kind of snow. With this deluge now, we may have to make a quick change from snowshoes to hip waders in the coming days, one reporter quipped! Small ponds are emerging, scattered across our snow-full yard with a bird having a happy bath in one, small mercies! The buried kiddie toboggans are reappearing. It is getting so much darker indoors.

January 6, 2009 in Canada and BC, Culture, Home by Marja-Leena 14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Janus and Tammikuu

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Janus – etching, 40 x 37.5 cm.

As I crack open new calendars, I think about January and the Roman god Janus and about looking back and looking forward. I wonder about the Finnish name for this month, Tammikuu which means oak month. The Finnish wikipedia says this (my loose translation):

“Tammikuu” is the year’s first month and midwinter in the northern hemisphere, which suggests the name for the month. In the Häme dialect “tammi” also means heart or nucleus, or alternatively navel, centre, axis. “Tammikuu” has sometimes been called heart month.

I like the notion of a month devoted to the heart and centering oneself. Certainly I’m pulling into myself a little these early January days as I contemplate and indulge over some books. I read by the windows for it’s been snowing steadily since before midnight last night – so beautiful to watch! Even with thaws alternating with night time freezing, there’s still a lot of snow on the ground, now building up again. I don’t remember having such a long continuous snowy period here, almost three weeks now. I love it but admit it’s getting a little tiring navigating it. I’m lucky to be able to stay home if I wish though I did get up to the library and the food store yesterday. This long spell of winter whiteness may be coming to an end with temperatures about to climb and rain about to pour, creating flooded streets and darker days. I have mixed feelings about returning to normal life.

Instead of putting up another snow photo, I thought it appropriate to re-post (from here) an old etching of mine which happens to be called Janus. Hope you enjoy it.

January 3, 2009 in Canada and BC, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena 18 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

New Year’s Hope

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‘Tis the sixth day of Christmas and another New Year’s Eve before us, how the year flew by! As I drank my breakfast tea over our local newspaper, the editorial pleased me in putting some of my own thoughts about New Years into focus. Now let me say, I’m usually displeased by the usual right-wing writing offered by this paper, though I do continue to loyally subscribe for the local news and events and certain more enlightened writers.

I had been thinking about how our long ago ancestors might have felt about New Year’s and this writer has done so as well in 2008 leaves us with a gift: Hope*. Here’s an excerpt:

Two thousand and eight has been something of a Pandora’s Box of a year. It seems virtually all evils were unleashed on the world this year, including seemingly endless wars, political strife both domestic and foreign, and the worst financial crisis in our lifetimes.
But if the legend of Pandora’s Box has it right, there must be something left: Hope. […]
New Year’s is, in fact, one of the oldest holidays on record. First celebrated by the Babylonians some 4,000 years ago, New Year’s was originally observed after the vernal equinox, the first day of spring.
This was obviously a hopeful time, as spring is the season of rebirth, the time when the days grow longer and everything else just starts growing. The Babylonians took this mighty seriously, as they spent not one, but 11 days celebrating the New Year.

The horrific events in the Middle East are dominating our thoughts at what should be a happier time of year and is reflected upon in many great posts on New Years out there in the blogosphere. May I point you to this very thoughtful one by one of my favourite writers, Beth of The Cassandra Pages. And the lovely words and photos by Lucy of Box Elder are not to be missed.

And please sign this petition to call for a ceasefire and stop the bloodshed in Gaza!

After this crazy year, my best New Year’s wish to all of you, my dear readers, is hope, friendship and love in 2009. Thank you all for reading and commenting and I hope we continue the conversations in the New Year.

Related links:
Wikipedia’s New Year
My favourite New Year’s posts in 2006 and in 2007

*expired link removed

December 31, 2008 in Culture, Current Events, Home by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

feast of Stephen

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Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even

The words to the carol “Good King Wenceslas” were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853, the music originates in Finland 300 years earlier. This Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity. Good King Wenceslas was the king of Bohemia in the 10th century. Good King Wenceslas was a Catholic and was martyred following his assassination by his brother Boleslaw and his supporters, his Saint’s Day is September 28th, and he is the Patron Saint of the Czech Republic. St. Stephen’s feast day was celebrated on 26th December which is why this song is sung as a Christmas carol. (From carols.org.uk)

A sunny bright, Christmas Day morning was followed by a cloudy, warmer afternoon with some thawing of our huge layers of snow. Today is Boxing Day as we call it in Canada, and Tapanipäivä in Finland, and it is snowing AGAIN! This inspired our girls (daughters and granddaughters) to sing this carol this morning before Anita and Richard departed for their long drive home.

For all of us this Christmas, Anita had made gorgeous booklets of Christmas carols, with snippets of information about them along with photos of her nieces and winter scenes from around her home near Kamloops. So it was that I learned that the music for this carol originated in Finland 300 years earlier! I could not find the composer’s name through a web search.

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Happy Feast of Stephen to all of you! I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas or other feast and continue to bask in the warmth of the holidays! We have lots of delicious leftovers to feast on for days, with turkey soup and ham and pea soup to follow in the days ahead.

Related:
Boxing Day 2007
Boxing Day 2006
Boxing Day 2005
(Photos taken in our backyard on Christmas Eve day.)

December 26, 2008 in Canada and BC, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths, Music by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

season’s best to you

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Dear readers, take your pick:
 
Happy Christmas, Hauskaa Joulua, Frohe Weihnachten,
Joyeux Noël, God Jul, Happy Hanukkah,
or whatever you celebrate… or not.
And please: peace and an end to poverty!
 
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for visiting and commenting this year!
 
P.S. Thanks for asking, our daughter and family arrived from England safely last night. And we have been having ever more snow! The grandkids have been out playing in it. The three- year-old had to lifted up over it, it’s that deep! Husband has been shaking snow off tree branches, shovelling and more shovelling. It’s sounding like a once-in-fifty years accumulation of snow! Next he’s going up on part of the roof and decks to clear them in the event that rains follow. We hope the power does not go out when it’s time to start cooking the Christmas Eve feast.

December 24, 2008 in Canada and BC, Culture, Home by Marja-Leena 11 Comments »

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