Never Said. Always Assumed.

I come from a long line of feisty, intelligent, motivated women.  My great grandmother divorced her husband and denied the Catholic church (in Ireland of all places).  My grandmother divorced her husband and raised her kids herself.  My mother was out earning a solid living as a salesperson when other women were talking about refusing to pick up their husbands' socks.

But we live in a society full of conceits (underlying assumptions) about gender - a society that has trouble categorizing women like those from my family.  Conceits that insist women should be subject to men, that men are better and stronger people than women, that constant trivializing of the female point of view is not only appropriate but, somehow, part of our DNA, thus right and good. In a society like this one, we are assailed from all sides by messages that women are somewhat lesser beings and really only physical beings at that.  We can achieve; we can be successful.  But one of the worst underlying perceptions of our success suggests that a male version of ourselves could have done much better.

I get this all the time.  I was a stage manager for a few years and, arguably, did a solid job in the role.  However, I actually had an actor turn to me and tell me that men iron better than women.  Huh?  True story.  Underlying assumption:  no matter how well I performed in the task a motivated man would always do better.

When I was a kid, we had a substitute teacher come into our grade six class.  He thought he was pretty hot, this guy, and kept talking about a book he wrote about Transylvania.  And, very quickly, he decided to do a social experiment.  His premise was this:  the boys would always do much better than the girls in a random general knowledge test.  We played the game.  I was neck and neck with the other top student all the way through the game -- he a little ahead and, then, me a little ahead.

But when the time ran out, the teacher turned around and said, "See?  John is clearly the winner."  At that moment, John was one point ahead of me.  When a number of kids in the class came to my defense, he looked at me, grimaced and said the world 'well' implying that because I am a little funny looking and I limp, I am not female anyway. So his premise could remain intact despite evidence sitting right in front of him that he was wrong. Absolutely inappropriate behaviour, now, but acceptable then.

That was a while ago, you say?  Yes, a long while ago, and things should have changed by now.  But, still, in discussions about how women and men fare, folks constantly call me the exception that proves the rule.  This is clearly not the case.  There are tons of strong, intelligent, motivated women out there.  We can't all be exceptions.

And, so, along comes my little girl.  Unsurprisingly, she's a lot like me.  She's smart and geeky and loves things that little girls are expected to spurn.  But she's tall and gorgeous.

I wonder how they are going to try to explain away her.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing and producing Oleanna by David Mamet for a two week run at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, prepping and leading her Shakespeare is Boffo! theatre arts camps for active kids, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  



Want to contact me?
Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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The Emperor's New Jacket

I have this jean jacket.  It's super old and fraying at the wrists.  There's a hole in the right shoulder. It will never be truly clean again.  I love this jacket.  It came as a very nice gift from a company that I worked for a long time ago and it came at a time when I was hankering for a new jean jacket.  I have worn it for something like fifteen years.  Maybe more.

But you know, it was never that flattering, though I felt good when I wore it.  And it doesn't really suit who I have become.  Even the company I got it from is gone.  Things change.  We change.  I've changed.  Maybe it's time to stop wearing that jacket.

Funny.  I think that the conservatives of this world might need a change of jacket, too.  Their jacket requires a particular stance about the environment, a particular opinion about criminality, a particular belief about values, a particular assumption about reproductive rights.

But what if things have changed?

What if the world could be a better place if it were cleaner, moving away from fossil fuels as a primary energy source?  What if the world is, inexplicably, safer?  What if values have changed intrinsically?  What if the world has more than enough people?  We don't need to pollute more than we already do.  We don't need more prisons at a time in which crime rates have dropped consistently for decades.  We don't need to be told what to think.  We don't need to count every sperm as sacred.

We do need to vouchsafe this planet for our children's children. We do need to vouchsafe our way of life for them, too.

The brand spanking new jacket with the maple leaf on the back is hanging in your closet, Mr. Harper. It's there. You've shoved it aside for what I can only assume is your understanding of current values, trends, and needs.

I would never want to accuse you of wearing your jacket just because it makes you feel more popular to wear it. I would never want to accuse you of wearing your current jacket out of sentiment. I would certainly never want to accuse you of wearing your current, frayed, hole-ridden jacket to further your political ends.  Even you have to say:  it's really not that flattering.




Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Life Preserver

I am writing to ask you, my blog readers, to consider supporting a friend's brother in his fight with cancer. All I am asking is that you sign an online petition which would take just a few moments. Let me tell you a bit about the story.

Darcy Doherty has been fighting cancer for years and experienced great success a couple of years ago with a particular drug. His cancer went into remission. His life and quality of life were extended. He could continue to parent his three children. However, just recently, the cancer returned in a very bad way and is not responding to treatments. Prognosis is certain death. There was no hope for Darcy and his family.

However, Bristol-Meyers Squibb is currently running a clinical trial on a drug that very well might save Darcy's life because it works similarly to the last. A drug in clinical trial is practically ready for the market. It is being tested on humans. Of course anything could happen but this drug is, for all intents and purposes, fully developed and ready for human consumption. All Darcy wants is access to that drug.  

Unfortunately, because of a technicality, he does not qualify for the clinical trial. The company is saying it cannot administer the drug because it could endanger his life.

We are saying that he he is in imminent danger of losing his life with or without the drug. We are petitioning Lamberto Andreotti, CEO of Bristol-Meyers Squibb, to allow access on compassionate grounds.

If you have a moment, right now, just click on this link and support Darcy's petition to Mr. Andreotti who, literally, may have Darcy's life in the palm of his hand.  And, if you think this is worthy, please repost.

I can't imagine anyone standing safe on a shore by a stormy sea who wouldn't try to throw a life preserver to another not so lucky.  

Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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It's our fault. Not theirs.

What those kids are doing in Quebec.  How about that?  Agree with them or not, but they have stuck to their guns and might actually be making a difference not only for their future but the future of countless others - if they manage a win in Quebec, then other provinces are sure to follow.  The protests have been largely peaceful with a few exceptions and, despite laws that attempted to restrict freedoms, the protests continued. Now, the government and students are back to the bargaining table because tourist season is almost upon us.  You can't really legislate students back to school, now can you?

I guess the Quebec government thought their laws restricting peaceful protest would shut everybody up.  After all, that's been the trend for a long, long time.  Restrict rights and freedoms, increase costs.  Most people will go along with it if it's incremental and sold as good for us all.

And, looking at this graphic, it would seem that Quebec students have it pretty good already.  Looks like they are paying pretty much the lowest tuition of anyone in the country. So, what?  Why would they be protesting what the government calls a reasonable rise in tuition fees over a number of years when they already have it so good?

The real question might be this:  Why are the students in the other provinces NOT protesting?

According to StatsCan, university tuition fees are on the increase, outstripping the rate of inflation, not to mention the addition of new fees.  For even a simple bachelor's degree which we know will get you a great job slinging burgers or coffee, a student will pay, on average in Canada, about $15,000. And, despite the fact that researchers are starting to draw distinct, real correlations between health and years in education, we are starting to restrict access to higher education to the wealthy few or those willing to pay of tens of thousands of dollars of loan after they are done.  So, why aren't kids in the other provinces hopping mad?  Why aren't their parents hopping mad?  Why are protests not popping up all over the country?

Make your own prognostications on why society is becoming more unfair.  Make your own decisions as to why the rich are getting richer, lifestyles are devolving, and mobility between the classes is eroding all the time. Make your own decisions.  Believe what you need to believe.  But if they take what they take without a fight, the fault is ours, not theirs.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Sucking blood.

It's common, right now, to slam youth.  From the assumption of a coddled childhood to the dismissal of youth concerns like tuition hikes, the current generation of young people have a bad rap.  This is often true as the next generation comes forward but, the Boomers (of which I am a tail-end version) happen to have played a mean game of generational politics all the way along, and seem particularly vitriolic in their dislike of this upcoming cohort.

And have pulled their support of them.  The significant proportion of wealth in the developed world is flowing up to (a small percentage of) the older and more established as opposed to down toward youth.   Public funds are being pulled to bail out ailing corporations (who pay, comparitively, very little tax - United States examples) as opposed to maintaining and supporting education and youth programs or any other programs for that matter.  Maybe it's a good thing these kids love computer games and social networking because for so many of them, there is no work.

So, what the heck is everybody thinking?  Fuck these kids.  I had to work my way up and so should they.  Okay.  Okay.  Okay.

But, you didn't.  Even if you're a year or so older than me.  I know.  Because everything started to dry up as I got there as it's only gotten worse since.

For example, after the death of my supporting parent, I applied for the Ontario Student Assistance Program.  This assistance came -- before I got there -- primarily in the form of grants and a lot of people were eligible.  Fairly affluent kids would apply and receive a grant; so much so that OSAP's nickname was The Ontario Stereo Acquisition Program.  As I got there, however, all changed.  Welcome the 80's.  The grants, mostly, disappeared and were replaced by very low interest loans.  Tuition was cheap.  Housing was cheap.  And I was a hard luck case.  I got out with a very small yolk around my neck - a little over a thousand dollars.  And found a job pretty easily.

Of course, because of its relative inexpense, higher education became cheap.  There were lots of lots of little BA's and BS's and such.  Breeding like rabbits they were.  And a lot of them weren't needed; so a lot of them got McJobs.  Even the bachelor's degree, itself, was undermined to the point of being barely as important as a highschool diploma.  And if you don't have a highschool diploma, you can barely get any job at all.  (Never fear.  Handymen grew up to trump us all but that is a subject for another post.)

And, despite the devalued status of the average bachelor degree, tuition has gone up.  Waaaaaay up.  Housing is expensive.  Even if kids stay at home while they attend, they come out of university owing tens of thousands of dollars.  With no work to go to.   Of course it's their fault.

Look, in general, they seem a little cocky, a little assumptive, a little too optimistic.  Not us, though.  We weren't like that.  Hmmmm....

In what kind of society do the old suck the life right out of the young?  A vampiric one.  And if only we all aged like Lestat, this might make sense;  I mean how much money does one person need in one lifetime?  You can't take it with you.  Ah, unless you mean to give the money to your kids to ease their way.  It's just fuck everybody else's.  They're all slackers, anyway.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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I don't like it either.

I had a conversation with a fellow I know only barely.  Great guy, talented, fairly articulate but who will probably never get laid because he holds the following opinions:

1. Women's reproductive issues - in this case, abortion - are topics in which MP's should vote their conscience and not necessarily vote along the party lines by which they were elected.  
2. That women are more likely to be swayed by the charismatic or well marketed -- even the sexy -- candidate and don't vote on our beliefs.
3. That abortion should not be covered by public health care.  He feels that people should not be required to pay for something they don't believe in. 

I, as you might guess, demured at the time and had one or two things to say.  Well, here's what I said; though, I admit I did say it in a less orderly way and I have had the chance to weigh my responses and make myself sound more clever.  So, here goes:

I don't vote for a candidate so that they get to change their mind and do whatever the heck they please when they actually get into power.  I vote for a party, not really a candidate.  I expect the candidate in question to honour the published policies of their affiliated political party.  If she wants to vote her conscience, let her grow a pair and run as an Indepedent.

I don't vote for the dynamic candidate. I don't vote thinking that he's sexy and my vote will get me laid.  I have met some very charming, charismatic, beautiful politicians in my lifetime.  Not one of them changed my mind on something that mattered because I thought they were sexy.   Could you die?  Phoning the lad or lass up the next day and saying, "Right you are.  Voted for you.  I will be right over.  Knickers off, please."

I don't like for paying things I don't believe in, either.  But I do it. I don't like paying for wars...uh...police actions.  I believe that there must be a better way and hate the fact that a significant amount of the money that our family pays in taxes goes to machinery, technology, and manpower that kills people.  In Canada, we are one of the top 15 in military spending and lay out about 22 billion a year right now for just this purpose (assuming Wikipedia can be trusted).  I honestly cannot see any difference between my conscientious objection to war and another person's religious objection to birth control and abortions.

I don't like paying for bailouts of large corporations.

I don't like paying for the development of the tar sands.

I don't like...huh.

Come to think of it, I don't like paying for a lot of things that the government does.  But what are we going to do?  Opt out of paying for some things because we don't believe in them?  Like RevCan would let you get away with that. We are either all in or all out.

And if a person wants to be a politician, she must recognize that she represents thousands of single votes.  She does not get the luxury of voting her conscience because that was already done on election night by the thousands of folks who voted for her.  She doesn't get to re-evaluate without going back and consulting those folks.  A vote of conscience is called a 'referendum'.  That's when everybody in the country gets to vote their conscience.  A politician voted in legally and representing the wishes of her constituents needs to be professional and vote down party lines.  If you don't want to do that, then you shouldn't have become a politician in the first place.

If we, the public, don't get a choice and must bend to the will of the people, then, a politician shouldn't have the right to bend the will of the people by arbitrarily voting as she pleases.



Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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The Rallying Cry

At some point, feminism became a four letter word.  And it was a long time ago because I remember being at university and tap-dancing around the term.  Most of my fellows thought that if I identified myself as a feminist, I was a bra-burning uberbitch.  It was hard to be classified that way and very difficult to get laid if you were viewed as a hard head.  So I (and I think a lot of others) starting tapdancing.

In the intervening thirty or so years, what has feminism accomplished?  The depiction of women and girls in the media has actually gotten worse.  Women's earnings are still far behind men's in Canada (though the gap is slowly closing and some of the difference must be attributed to women's willingness to balance paid and unpaid work).  How about violence against women?  Folks are saying that violence against women is not decreasing despite the fact that the rate of violent crimes, in general, has been going down for decades.  (However, this view is predicated on the assumption that only one in ten rapes get reported.  So, the view is statistically unsupported.)

How about our view of the sexes?  Well, there are studies like this that emphasize male and female differences and there are views of those like Dr. Cordelia Fine who strikes down pre-conceptions, stating that the two brains are, actually, very similar and suggests that design and interpretation of studies that point out vast difference between the brains may be nothing more than neurosexism.

And, now, in many states of the USA and, perhaps soon here in Canada, the very personhood of women is coming into question, again.  And, certainly, her right to control her own reproductive health is at severe risk with many folks preferring government intervention in some of our most private decisions.

Well, it's not all bad.  Women are entering universities in far greater numbers and far greater than their male counterparts.  Career-minded women are learning to 'marry down' and get back to work quickly, leaving their spouse to raise the children.  And women are, slowly, entering the upper echelon of industry and, slowly, being represented more and more in parliament.

Okay, so feminism has, predictably, helped and not helped the overall lot of women over the last thirty some odd years and, I hope (because the studies and conclusions are so confusing and disparate) that the general trend is up.  If we keep up the fight, maybe there will be some semblance of equality, if not in my lifetime, then in my daughter's.  So the fight needs to go on...  But it leaves me wondering:  Why is feminism still a dirty word?

Well, it's that uberbitch thing.

Feminism is okay, it seems, when we are ultra-feminine about it.  When we are nice.  When we speak softly.  When we allow our audience to continue to ignore or undermine scientific studies in favour of deeply ingrained belief systems.  When we don't say anything when a colleague makes a rape joke, or uses the term 'like a girl' to imply deep incompetence.  When we get on facebook with titillating status updates meant to peak men's interest in some charity or women's issue, that's okay.  When we dress up like sluts and walk the streets, that's okay - apparently, it's empowering.  But to speak strongly and clearly, to debate rationally, to challenge pre-conceptions, to stride forward in a forthright way, that doesn't seem to be okay.

Whenever, I attempt to change views or cite political studies or discuss women's rights and a woman's position in the world, I am often laughed down, dismissed, or beset with anecdotal evidence, family lore, and common sense.  And even though any anecdotal evidence or family story is simply not enough of a statistical set from which to glean any conclusion; and, even though common sense once told us the world was flat not so long ago, on these gender issues, we seem to be born knowing what we need to know and no study or evidence or discussion can change another's mind. Given this much resistance, it's a wonder women ever got the vote.

But they did.  The single most important accomplishment of feminism is women's suffrage.  Now, what did women have to do to get the vote?  They marched; they shouted; they physically fought; they were arrested; they refused to pay fines.  They attempted to storm parliament; jumped in front of and were trampled by horses; endured force-feeding.  Not very 'lady-like'.  Not very 'feminine'.

So maybe part of the reason that we haven't accomplished as much as I would like to see accomplished is this:  Maybe, we are not uberbitchy enough.  Maybe all that tapdancing was stupid and undermining.  Maybe hyperfeminization in the form of a slutwalk is not what I would like to see as a primary choice, a rallying cry, for my daughter's generation.  Maybe.

I know this for sure.  If women's reproductive rights are challenged in this country, I am not yet certain what I would adopt as a rallying cry but I do feel certain that I will redefine the term  'uberbitch'.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

Like what you read?
Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in this blog. 

Am starting *My 90 Days* tomorrow. Am trying to adjust my own habits and rhythms. They say it takes 90 days. We'll see.

Crazy. How does a 774 mil shortfall turn into a 300 mil surplus? Can we now stop the war on the child? Please? http://ping.fm/c9mVU

On the loss of Internet freedom. http://ping.fm/VhReK

The fight might lose us the freedom.

I just finished reading a really interesting article about George Hotz, the hacker who broke into the iPhone and Sony Playstation.  Brilliant kid.  I have a soft spot for people who can break into things, fix things, make things.  My husband is an engineer. But, when Sony sued Hotz in retaliation, the incident became a trigger for a hacker war.  Anonymous, the code hacking group, came to Hotz's defense.

So, reiterating my interest in folks who can break into things, fix things, and make things, I have been following Anonymous online for ages, intially because they supported Wikileaks and Julian Assange, and, then subsequently, because they were interesting in and of themselves as a force in world politics - or, at least, corporate politics - and started supporting the Occupy movement.  I watched almost in real time as they shut down this or that website and broke into this or that server and, then, boasted about it all on twitter.  From my point of view, it seems that there is very little a government or a corporation can do to stop a dedicated hacker or group of hackers from breaking in.  At least right now.

I keep wondering at the silliness of my interest in these groups.  I am a mildly responsible adult, wife, mother of one, a theatre artist, and, from time to time, political activist of the smallest sort.  I will show up for protests and walk around calmly.  If pushed, I will carry a sign.  I will sign petitions.  But don't ask me to be an operative in some crazy scheme to blow up garbage cans in Dundas Square.  I do not believe that violence solves anything.  Violence is unjustifiable.  However, I do believe that non-violent civil disobedience is part of the democratic process.

I have to admit I was very much into Anonymous at first.  And still, to some extent, am now.  I am intrigued, for example, what will happen tomorrow.  Anonymous have called for a worldwide general strike on May Day.  Will there be a large response?  Will folks simply not go to work?  No idea.  Now, as a mommy, I am not allowed a day off but I will be watching with interest to see what happens tomorrow.

So what could be bothering me about Anonymous?  Again, I have to admit that I, sometimes, wish I could lend a hand.  I feel (perhaps perversely) good when a large corporations are proven so vulnerable in such a public face as a website.  But, of course, I cannot be of any assistance.  I don't even know what half their posts mean.  So, I watch.

And I am relieved that I cannot help.  When Anonymouse or Lulzsec, a splinter hacker group, broke into Sony's servers and compromised the personal information of thousands of folks, I was dismayed.  To me, this is the difference between toilet papering a house and breaking in to steal the silverware while the family sleeps upstairs.  Yuk.  I don't like it.  I know no one got hurt.  But if some unscrupulous member gets a hold of this information, a lot of folks could be robbed.  And that is, in my opinion, a violent act.  It crosses the line.  Take on the corporations all you want but leave folks like me alone.

And, I am worried.  Anonymous call themselves legion but the real legion are folklets like me.  Folks who get scared.  Why is this an issue?

The government will start to capitalize on our fear.  What if the real legion stops supporting the fight against initiatives to control and lock down the Internet?  What if the real legion stops because they perceive the current Internet environment to be unsafe?  If the Occupy movement had turned violent, for example, I am sure a lot of folks would stop quietly supporting it from their couches and their kitchen tables.  And so, too, those folks will stop quietly supporting Anonymous and other hacker groups.

I hope I am wrong but I am starting to think that Anonymous might be the excuse the government is looking for to lock down the Internet even as Anonymous fights to keep it free.  And, sadly, that lockdown will hurt us all.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Love, love, love Indian cooking. Gotta smell my house, dudes. :) New dish I am trying today: http://ping.fm/LCHlb

Spin crazy.... http://ping.fm/mlQ9x

Okay, next chapter of the Marcie Noel story is up. Enjoy! http://ping.fm/DyPvH

Feels a bit like a short person jumping up and down waving a little flag in a huge crowd. Social Networking 101. http://ping.fm/ysLbw

The Big Gender Monday Morning

Boy, this was The Big Gender Monday Morning.  From tomboys to educating boys about sex in a porn saturated world, to no sexual bias in personal pronouns, it was a very interesting read as I got caught up this morning. And, to add a little salt, I also read about a rape victim being publicly humiliated, read with satisfaction that Mitt Romney is despised by single women, and watched this funny video about a couple negotiating honestly and plainly about sex.  What to talk about...hmmmmm.  Well, the funny video, of course. 

A couple are on a date and the night is coming to a close and the two of them honestly discuss what they want from each other and how they see the relationship going. She says she's not really that attracted to him but he's a nice enough guy.  He says he thinks she very attractive but not very smart. She says she needs air conditioning in his apartment and a nice present or trip over the course of a short relationship.  He says he's not only got air conditioning but a nice apartment and would be happy to buy her an expensive present in return for certain sexual favours. It's funny. It's funny because it's so often true.   Whether we like it or not, this is how many relationships play out.

But I am struck, as I am so often, with one question:  Where in this equation lives female desire?  I see the male desire.  We are to assume the man asked the woman out in the first place and though it is not he who initiates the honest part of the discussion, it is he who must invite her up to his apartment first.  Pretty old fashioned, huh?  Aren't women supposed to be emancipated?  To ask a guy out?  To initiate sexual contact?

Well, the problem with the video is that it's funny.  Not that it shouldn't be, but here's the thing:  This video shows a couple talking honestly and it's funny.  The only time honesty is funny is when the truth is  uncomfortable.  The video posits that if we negotiated many short-lived romances honestly, the conversations might sound more like a sex trade negotiations than sweet nothings.  It's funny because it's true.

So, it really makes me wonder.  Is that what it's really like out there?  Is this generation of men growing up believing that if they are always going to have to pay for sex if they want a beautiful (albeit stupid) woman?  Is the generation of women coming forward still subduing its own desire for the sake of a nice necklace?

Well, obviously, or I wouldn't be laughing at the video.

Until female desire is accepted as a norm, and women are allowed to own that instead of just a pretty necklace, there will be no hope of gender equality.  If, always, the underlying assumption in a short (or long) term relationship is the woman wants stuff and the man wants sex, then not much is really going to change. 


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Dirty hands or no?

What would you do?  If faced with the prospect of staying on unemployment benefits or doing something, any kind of job? 

Canada is facing a problem in that its own workers are staying on unemployment insurance while close to 200,000 foreign workers are brought in to do jobs that Canadians won't do.  Granted these jobs are tough and your hands get dirty.  And a significant percentage of the population would consider the work below them. 

And here we are, at the crux of it:  I really don't know what's right for other people but I know what I would do for myself.  I would take the job.  I know this because a few times in my life I have taken the job or been willing to do the dirty work rather than sit at home being idle.  So, I am left wondering.  Why do these folks feel they are better than I?  Also, I have to state that at my age and health, there are less and less hard labour jobs I could do -- I have done a bit of damage to my knees and back over my lifetime -- and I am not suggesting folks should do things that will hurt them.  I am assuming that I am talking about folks who are able bodied, young, and healthy.

However, I am loath, as I assume most Canadians are, to tell people how to live their lives.  I can only say that I feel a quiet resentment when I read this story.  And I am left with a ton of questions.

• In harsh economic times, should people be forced to take work they don't want?
• Should people be forced to take work they don't want ever?
• I don't advocate cutting people off from unemployment benefits, but if they refuse to work, is this really fair to the rest of society?
• Would a reduction in benefits make sense?

I can hear about three-quarters of my friends crying:  'Shame, Jacqui! Shame!  How could you be so darn mean as to suggest that folks be forced to work?  Taking a lesser job limits their time and efforts to obtain a job for which they are trained and suited.  Do we really think that it's fair that just because the economy has tanked these people should suffer what could end up being a permanent class and income demotion?'

Okay, okay.  I hear you.  But in provinces in which there are chronicly high levels of unemployment, I wonder why folks don't move to where they can find a job more to their liking.  Yes, it's hard but isn't it better than staying idle?  We only have one life.  We want to make the best of it, no?  So, I guess when it comes right down to it, my real question is why don't folks want to work?

Okay.  Come and get me.  :)


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Raising 'em up -- in jail.

Unless I hadn't read it myself, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have believed that any police, anywhere would take a six year old child out of school in handcuffs and let her sit in jail because of a tantrum.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/17/georgia-kindergarten-handcuffed.html?cmp=rss

My gut reaction to sending a child to jail is negative.  The response is heavy handed and inappropriate.  We have gone a long way toward criminalizing youth in society.  Are we going to criminalize childhood, too?  If so, we will actually need all those jails the conservatives plan to build.  I posted the article on facebook.

Well to my surprise, the responses were not as negative as I would have thought.  Only one person hated the thought. Others, thoughtful and caring folk, had witnessed children behave this way.  Seen other students and teachers hurt by tantrum behaviour.  They felt that this measure made sense to them and, definitely, the generally folks felt the parents had failed the child.  Made me think....

1. The child has behavioural problems.
2. The parents have not or cannot address these problems.
3. The child is in mainstream public school.   
4. There is no teacher's assistant or caregiver applied to the child.
5. The teachers were simply unable to calm the child.
6. The teachers probably cannot touch or restrain the child for fear of reprisal or suit.
7. The only public servants we have who are empowered enough to physically restrain anyone are the police.

Okay, looking at these seven points, I am pretty sure an out-of-control child who is slinging furniture and otherwise behaving dangerously would almost always end up in jail.  Okay.  But if my basic premise is that children are not criminals but, in fact, our smallest souls -- the ones we should be taking care of, does it make sense that we will soon need a nursery section in our local jails?   No.

Right.  And there are a ton of questions.

Should teachers have the right to physically restrain a child?  Would they want to, if they did?  Could they have sought help?  A social worker or other professional might have been consulted.  Teachers can be key in children's development.  Many troubled kids cite a teacher along the way who mentored and guided them on a clearer path.  But, do teachers really have the time or energy with schools being turned into factories with severely reduced bottom-lined resources, demanding curriculums, and standardized testing?

The child would have, certainly, been an ongoing problem.  Why was the child in a mainstream class and not in special ed?  Where were the resources to support that teacher in class?  Where was a TA or Caregiver for the child?  These measures would come down to resources which, we all know, no longer exist in many school systems.  There are no provisions for TA or special ed classes because the board in question simply cannot afford them.

And, then, we get back to the parents.  One assumes they've noticed their child is a handful.  These behaviours don't all of a sudden express at school.  Why did they not diagnose, get help?  Why have they not done the work to adjust her behaviour?  Perhaps they, too, do not have the resources either in ability or the time or money to seek help.

It's pretty clear that the child is living in a system that cannot accommodate her or help her. Though I don't think that she should be allowed to run roughshod over every other person in school, there were many steps along the way in which the child, maybe, could have been helped to adjust her behaviour - well before she was dumped in a cell.

At the end of the day, I am pretty sure that the child carted off in handcuffs is actually just another victim, the smallest and saddest one.

Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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I worry. I surely do.

I worry.  I surely do.  But that's just me.  I worry about everything.  My husband calls me The Worry Girl.  Now, I need to sleep nights so I try to behave accordingly (i.e. reduce my worry factor) -- which is why my sweet daughter is experiencing a relatively structured approach to education as opposed to an unschooling approach.

Just to clarify, we homeschool our now twelve year old and have done from the word 'go'.  For those of you who aren't intimate with homeschooling jargon, unschooling is a non-process approach to teaching a child.  One just lives one's life as normal and the child learns, naturally, the skills he or she needs to live well.  No books, no classrooms, no testing - unless the child asks for them.  Consider it the opposite to the current approach being used in group schooling, today.

And, for the article that inspired me to write this post, today, take a look at:  http://www.alternet.org/education/154849/Chomsky%3A_How_the_Young_Are_Indoctrinated_to_Obey/?page=1.  You gotta love Noam Chomsky.  This guy is my hero.

Chomsky is suggesting, here, that the current changes in education as predicted by many (we have long known that getting our children a university degree would be very expensive, compared to what the boomers enjoyed) are driven more by the desire to control the population than to allow the population to fulfill its fullest potential because its fullest potential is a dangerous thing.  So the prices are going up and the curriculum getting more restricted and the institutions more bottom-line driven.  Fewer and fewer folk will be able to afford a university degree...and those people will be rich.  The rest will be cowed and controlled, weeded out by frustration and apathy or lack of funds.

And, as the power of unions is systematically garrotted and political voices for the common man drift ever toward the centre (to get access to more political donation money), we know that honest labour will no longer be valued as it has been.  It will be harder and harder to live well on a factory job, for example, if no one will pay a reasonable wage -- and if some guy in Nebraska is willing to work for eight bucks an hour, one loses the job entirely.  Really makes me wonder who the rich think will buy anything at all, not to mention all the computers and trinkets and such.  Henry Ford would have asked the same question.

So, getting a university education may be critical in the coming decades if one wants to make a good living.  Even now, I understand folks are struggling to win jobs over others -- even after the proven competency of working in the industry for over thirty years -- because they didn't get a degree way back when.  Yikes.  But with the system becoming prohibitively expensive, how the heck are the average and poor kids going to aspire to even our slipping standard of living?

Now, I am not saying that a child has to go to university to live a fulfilling life.  Our current lifestyle seems to be producing folks who can't cut their own grass, clean their own house, cook their own meals, or change a light bulb.  So, anyone with a bit moxy and an entrepreneurial spirit who is willing to service these basic needs will probably be successful.  Again, another trend predicted decades ago.

Current group schooling approaches produce many things but moxy surely isn't one of them.   This is one of the reasons I homeschool.  However, if my sweet daughter ever hopes to go to university, she is going to have to be able ot prove that she can get grades.  I am currently researching the best methods to get homeschoolers into university - most involve taking online courses and tests.  Bleck.

Huh.  So how do you school a child so that she is an independent thinker AND capable of conforming in order to ensure that no doors are shut against her choice of lifestyle?  Well, everyday, we do a bit of book learning.  Everyday, we get a bit more under our belt.  I can only hope (as I am sure all parents are hoping in these uncertain times) that I am doing enough.

But I try not to worry.  :)


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Some potatoes and a root cellar.

I used to joke with my husband a lot about how Canada has a summer that's about two weeks long.  He's from Australia, a country in which the summer never ends.  The warm Canadian months, though, come and go.  From the first blush of green to the erupting forsythia, to waves of flowers, back to the flat green of summer, and then the chill.  The inevitable chill.  It all seems to pass so quickly.

Just like the flower of civilization.  In my lifetime, I have witnessed the flower burst forth in blazing colour and, then, slowly die on the vine.  We went from marching for civil rights, to wallowing in them, and, then, wondering why those civil rights are disappearing.  We went from investing heavily in education and science to, now, veiling ourselves in superstition.  We built amazing institutions and, then, ignored them, only to 'question their viablility'.

No, now it's about ferris wheels and casinos - more and more spots to play, to squander our hard won free time, and squander our hard-earned money.  And it's more and more hard-earned.  We have emerged from talk of a four-day work week only a few decades ago to most people working at least part of the weekend and being tied to work 24/7 with Blackberry's -- so much electronic leash, it's a wonder we're not, like Marley, weighed down and moaning.

But!  Wait!  Marley chose his chains.  We didn't choose this!  We love our life!

It was a beautiful flower, though.  So amazing to be a part of it.  And, I am not done yet.  I will fight against the coming winter.  Fight against the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, fight against the homogenization of - well - everything.   Fight against the loss of civil rights.  Fight against the control and demonization of the young.  Fight against the criminalization of the poor.  Steward as well as I can the environment, those institutions, that education.

But, sadly, I think that too much of my personal resource is starting to go to knitting metaphorical sweaters against the coming cold.  And preparing my young one to be able to jump, to change gear quickly and as necessary.  Survival in winter.  That takes a bit of moxy, a bit of creative thinking. Good thing it's not that cold, yet.  I don't think I could function without the Internet, for example.  (Ah, the Internet.  I think I am doing absolutely everything else in order to save that one darn, beautiful, incredibly dangerous thing and leave the world a better place for our daughter, of course).

I wonder.  Can we stop the season changing?  I don't think so.  Times of high civilization are so fleeting.  They come and go -- and I am wondering if, in the past, it was the same lack of attention that lost us what we won.  Because, most of the time in history, the bulk of the population fights against yawning oppression.  And, even as we enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) our privilege in the western world, even the most uncaring among us must be aware of how lucky we are.  The rest of the world is not so lucky.

And I also I keep wondering if the fighting is better?  I truly don't wish for tougher times, of course, but I wonder.  It makes us leaner, a bit meaner, but more creative and clever.  And right now, we are bloated, slow, docile.  Not at our best.

In a perfect world, I would give my child a flower - an armful of flowers picked gaily in the sunlight - but, instead, I am working toward giving her some potatoes and a root cellar.  Best have something in for the winter.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $160.  Both prices hold until April 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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I don't wanna. Increasing the retirement age.

As some of you know, I play bridge competitively at bridge clubs; so, I know a lot of retired people.  Strange because I don't think I am ever going to retire.  The community out there might stop coming to see my shows and leave me with no choice, I suppose, but other than that I don't think I'm ever going to stop.  I really love what I do even though I make very little money doing it.

Some people I know are looking forward to an early retirement because they have plans to involve themselves in some other kind of career, even in a volunteer or semi-professional way.  One friend calls it 'getting paid to breath'.  He can't wait.

But, in talking to most of my friends who are about seven or eight years older than me, all they want to do is retire so they can stop working.  They hate their jobs.  Been doing them now for about thirty some odd years and hate them.  They are computer programmers, bank middle managers, insurance agents.  Nice folks.  Hard working folks.  But absolutely, abysmally bored in their professional lives.  And they're not really going to change their skills much in their late fifties unless they take the initiative to start their own businesses.  This is a risky venture and most of these people, like most people, took the careful, safer road.  It's not really in their nature to strike out on their own.  And come on, they have mortgages, and kids going to uni, growing medical challenges, and credit card debt....

So, I am worried for how these folks might feel finding out that they now have to wait until age 67 to get their pensions.  So, I wondered, is retirement good for you?  Is an earlier retirement better?

Anecdotally, the folks I know who are retired (and, like I say, I know quite a few) seem to be having a great time.  They play bridge, golf, tennis, take long walks or jog.  They really get out there and seem healthy and vibrant.  Most of them tell me they don't know how they used to have the time to work.  But, interestingly, my anecdotal evidence is deeply skewed to folks who are engaged in the world.  I don't have much anectodal on folks who don't thrive in retirement.  So it's no help.

So what do the studies tell us?  An Australian study, many years ago, suggested that people only live for about thirteen years following retirement, regardless of what age they retire.  A recent, possibly more comprehensive study suggests that men (not women) suffer from retirement but it's not the retirement, necessarily, that's the problem.  It's the involuntary cessation of work that kills.  Women tend to continued the caregiving role as they age, a role that men of that generation have eschewed.  So, regardless of what age of retirement or whether they were forced or not, women have a reason to get out of bed and men don't.  If the man in question doesn't plan for retirement, then he may find himself with little meaningful work to do -- a gaping hole that gardening and jogging just doesn't fill.  On the basis of this study, some governments are considering raising their retirement rates.

However, getting back to my friends:  Most of them WANT to retire.  They WANT OUT. And, in fact, one suggested that this generation should GET OUT.  Get out of the way, he meant.  That they should retire as early as they can to open up the way for the next generation to come forward.  However, the economic view is that we want to keep labour force participation as high as possible to keep the economy going.  As always, though, it won't be the middle managers who suffer (most of them will have work pensions built up over decades), it will be folks in heavy labour jobs -- jobs that have little, if any, pension; jobs that punish the body.  For those folks, another two years may be too much.

So, who knows whether this new measure is good for Canada?  But one thing I do wonder is this:  If involuntary cessation of work is bad, is involuntary forced labour good?


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012: The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/. Like what you read? Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in the blog....

At Least We Would Know

It's been an odd six or eight months, watching those crazy kids to the south start to propose, debate, and pass laws that limit women's lives by limiting their reproductive choices.  It's been surreal watching the GOP candidates skittering on the edge of insanity over this topic.

Margaret Sanger stated that a woman's primary responsibility was to herself, not the state - this after watching her mother endure 18 pregnancies in 22 years.  Thing is, she said this almost a hundred years ago and US attitudes toward women are backward, still.  Sometimes I am just so thankful that I live in Canada except, well.... 

Here we go:  Mitt Romney says he supports birth control but doesn't seem to know how it works because he believes that human life begins at conception.  Newt Gingrich also says human life begins at conception which would outlaw many forms of birth control.  And not only does Rick Santorum want to limit access to birth control, he also thinks it's a "license to bring things into the sexual realm that are counter to the way things are supposed to be."  I wonder what me means by that.

Despite the figures that state that women overwhelmingly approve of birth control (97% of women have used it at one time or other), these candidates are against it. Women are, also, healthier for having birth control and so are babies.  Stripped of the exhaustion, health risks, and responsibility of non-stop pregnancy, women can become more effective and productive members of society.  All this is so well documented, I am not even going to bother citing it.  And it follows that if women and children are healthier and happier, men are healthier and happier.  Birth control makes life better for all of us.

So.  So what?  What?  What could these GOP hopefuls possibly be thinking?  That the dominant force in politics in the looney-tune right?  It's absolutely nuts, disappointingly backward, and downright evil.

And the best thing that could ever have happened to the moderate left. 

These GOP hopefuls are counting on women doing as they are told.  They are counting on women voting down party lines and accepting their attitudes.  They are counting on women being cowed by male centred intimidation and male dominated religious views.  They are counting on wives doing what they're told.

But I wonder how many women will slip into that voter's booth, slide the curtain across while winking at their pseudo-dominant husbands, and go ahead and vote for birth control, for human rights, and for a better world for all.  How many of them will vote for Obama?

I wonder.  Only time will tell.  But, in the interim, the more these GOP hopefuls jump around declaring the evil in birth control, the better.  Better than them hiding their real views and then trying to inflict them on the world like our prime minister did.  At least, women in the States know what they are voting for.

Fighting over what's left.

I tend not to publicly proclaim my voting choice prior to election.  Most folks who read this blog would be able to guess that I'll be somewhat left of centre.  However, despite the fact that I voted Liberal for most of my adult life, I'm not voting Liberal today.

The Liberals came into town about ten days ago with their stars and their hotshots campaigning in the streets and going door to door.  Even Liberal royalty graced us.  Well, why, for goodness sake?  Under the late Jack Layton, Toronto-Danforth has flourished.  And the general opinion of the populace seems to reflect awareness of this.  The Liberals have about 19% of the vote, currently.  Craig Scott, taking over for the late Jack Layton is expected to win with about 61% of the vote.

I think the Liberals should know how to choose their battles.  At a time when the conservative stronghold on the country seems insurmountable and the very defiition of what it means to be Canadian is changing as a result, the Liberals need to show some of that old savvy that made them a political powerhouse in the past.  I would have definitely have fronted a candidate in this race but no one needed the push.

Push instead in ridings in which the outcome is uncertain or in which you're not fighting a good man who passed away.  Fight in ridings in which Mr. Harper might perceive a stronghold for the Conservatives.  Push instead where the current government might notice a change.  In taking a stand in Toronto-Danforth, we must seem, to Mr. Harper, like so many children fighting over what's left.  Pun intended.

I urge you, instead, to indentify those ridings in which you have a real chance to sway voters, ridings that will hurt the Conservatives if they lose them.  Instead of urging me to vote strategically, do your own strategizing first. 

Unless You're Stephen Harper

I have something to confess.  I honestly had a bit of grudging respect for the way that the Tories have been handling themselves in the last few years. I had come to the conclusion that this Tory government is effective and being guided by deep seated convictions and ideals, that they are inspired by core values.  Even the proroguing.  The government's actions were well within the governments rights and bounds.  For me, a clear understanding of parliamentary process implies a deep respect for the way this country works and that respect might inspire a wish to do what's best for Canada.

But let me also be clear:  I do not agree with many Tory policies, nor am I willing to allow them to change Canada so absolutely that we are all little hyper-capitalists in flash cars. However, I honestly thought that they believed in what they were doing.

Then along came robocall.

Any Canadian who believes in the great gift of democracy must have, as I did, felt a bit sick at the news that somebody (I am not saying who) went ahead and so blatantly tried to interfere with an election.  All of us should be wanting answers.  If we let this slide, what could happen in the next election?  Any kind of misinformation cannot be allowed.

But not  the current government.  Yes, yes.  I'm splitting hairs.  Elections Canada is a government agency and they are, in fact, investigating.  But what is sad here, is that Mr. Stephen Harper couldn't give a shit.  I had this guy totally misread.  I honestly thought that he cared about this country and, clearly, he only cares that his party comes out on top.  Instead of being the one to wants to know what happened, he calls the robocall accusations a smear campaign.

Robocall is not about rhetoric or party politics.  It's about democracy and making sure that everyone has free, unhindered, uncocerced access to their right to vote.

Unless you're Stephen Harper.