Facebook now number 4 ahead of Google.com in Canada
http://www.facebook.com
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Sometime ago I noted that Facebook was now the #5 most used website in Canada in terms of Alexa's reach. Incredibly, Facebook has now moved up to #4 ahead of Google.com but still behind Google.ca.
No one would seriously ignore Google in terms of internet presence. These days no one in Canada should ignore Facebook either. If you are implementing any kind of visibility or internet strategy you must now take Facebook into account in your plan.
I have been having some good fun with Facebook Activism. It appears to be an excellent platform for building commonality around issues and lobbying government.
Some of the groups I have started are:
If you aren't on Facebook you should at least know what it is.
PS: Don't forget to find me on Facebook
No one would seriously ignore Google in terms of internet presence. These days no one in Canada should ignore Facebook either. If you are implementing any kind of visibility or internet strategy you must now take Facebook into account in your plan.
I have been having some good fun with Facebook Activism. It appears to be an excellent platform for building commonality around issues and lobbying government.
Some of the groups I have started are:
- Oppose the 29% Pay Increase for MLAs
: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2322485417 - Against Nuclear Energy: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2315031616
- Miners' Memorial - Cumberland: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2303218290
- NDP - Julian West for Saanich Gulf Islands: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2343496213
- Oil Free Coast!: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379666338
- Support Canadian Electoral Reform - Make Every Vote Count!: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2247059467
If you aren't on Facebook you should at least know what it is.
PS: Don't forget to find me on Facebook
Labels: alternatives, leftist content creation, online campaign, shilling
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Asleep in the doorway.. outside the emergency shelter..
Thursday, February 22, 2007
It wasn't guilt or astonishment I felt, as I biked home after the bar, past the Emergency Shelter.
Shame? Angst? Fear? These don't quite describe the feeling either. Just a flicker in my gut as I saw the half dozen folks within a block, in sleeping bags outside and under doorways. It isn't a lack of compassion just a numbness from seeing it every day in downtown Victoria. Two of these people were camped in separate doorways of the shelter itself.
It wasn't until after I stopped at the Canadian branded Wendy's, ate a rainbow glazed donut and after I cycled past the hockey rink at CFB Esquimalt and saw all the activity (keep reading) that my pilot light of feeling grew to an all out flame I recognized.
The feeling by then was unmistakable. It was anger. I was downright mad. I took it easy then, road slowly up the railway tracks (for those of you not from the island, don't worry, even in my semi-sober state it would be hard to get hit by a train that only runs because the Canadian constitution says it must and even then it only comes by once in each direction per day during the busy season). I'd never been up this section of the tracks. I really haven't spent that much time in my parent's home in View Royal, where I moved back to, two days after quitting my Aussie job and leaving that country for what I thought would be a short period of unemployment and eating the parental cooking. Maybe that's what people think when they move on to the street in the first place. "I won't be here long." I am very lucky I have my parents to stay with.
You see, I live in a city where the regular shelter is so full we built an Emergency Shelter 10 years ago down the block. This shelter has been so full since before it even opened, that when I worked on databases around the place, 8 years ago, one of the most important projects was on how to individually identify the homeless in a way that determined who was staying in the emergency shelter beyond the maximum 3 nights per month.
My friend who is doing a social work practicum at a day drop-in centre writes that there have been six deaths amongst the street community since he started in early-January. That's about a death a week.
I started Jack Layton's book Homelessness last weekend. I read half of it in a single night, but then I didn't pick it up again. I just haven't finished it and it is this inaction that makes me the most angry. It isn't that I haven't tried to help. I lived on the lawn of the legislature in a camp of the homeless, dubbed Camp Campbell, for nearly a month in February 2002. But, like the camp's name sake and his latest budget yesterday, I am too much talk and not enough action:
In front of me on the screen are postings for jobs working at the Cool Aid shelter. I'm not working and I haven't been for a couple of months. Its been a peaceful and healthy time in my life. I've had time for much reflection and stoking of the burning fire in my belly (and the creation of this blog). I don't know why I haven't applied yet, I've known about these postings for almost as long as I've been unemployed. It isn't like I'm collecting some kind of benefits -- just temporarily retired on credit.
That anger though, it kept growing. The burning in my belly is unbearable as I write this. The knowledge that it takes more money to house people in substandard emergency shelters than a real home. That the federal government is giving you the chance to rate your top five budget priorities:
a) Debt
b) Spending
c) Personal Tax
d) Corporate Tax
e) Other
Ok, so that wasn't the order I chose, but did it matter? I realized when I filled it out it probably didn't. What I meant by spending was more. When Flaherty reads the statistical summary of my submission he isn't going to be motivated to raise taxes and spend more. When I put Corporate tax anywhere in the list he is going to take that as a vote to cut them, despite my comments.
While the military is buying laser guided killing devices for $40 million and 80 new tanks the social deficit in this country is growing crazily. As I cycled by CFB Esquimalt up the tracks, bumpy bump, the military port was running full steam ahead. It was past three am and there were lights, dry-docked ships, workers and a helicopter. This is where our federal taxes our going and I'm pissed about it.
We need more than just emergency shelters, we need the kind of thinking that realizes that money spent killing people in Afghanistan doesn't make it safer for the people dieing on the streets of Victoria.
Shame? Angst? Fear? These don't quite describe the feeling either. Just a flicker in my gut as I saw the half dozen folks within a block, in sleeping bags outside and under doorways. It isn't a lack of compassion just a numbness from seeing it every day in downtown Victoria. Two of these people were camped in separate doorways of the shelter itself.
It wasn't until after I stopped at the Canadian branded Wendy's, ate a rainbow glazed donut and after I cycled past the hockey rink at CFB Esquimalt and saw all the activity (keep reading) that my pilot light of feeling grew to an all out flame I recognized.
The feeling by then was unmistakable. It was anger. I was downright mad. I took it easy then, road slowly up the railway tracks (for those of you not from the island, don't worry, even in my semi-sober state it would be hard to get hit by a train that only runs because the Canadian constitution says it must and even then it only comes by once in each direction per day during the busy season). I'd never been up this section of the tracks. I really haven't spent that much time in my parent's home in View Royal, where I moved back to, two days after quitting my Aussie job and leaving that country for what I thought would be a short period of unemployment and eating the parental cooking. Maybe that's what people think when they move on to the street in the first place. "I won't be here long." I am very lucky I have my parents to stay with.
You see, I live in a city where the regular shelter is so full we built an Emergency Shelter 10 years ago down the block. This shelter has been so full since before it even opened, that when I worked on databases around the place, 8 years ago, one of the most important projects was on how to individually identify the homeless in a way that determined who was staying in the emergency shelter beyond the maximum 3 nights per month.
My friend who is doing a social work practicum at a day drop-in centre writes that there have been six deaths amongst the street community since he started in early-January. That's about a death a week.
I started Jack Layton's book Homelessness last weekend. I read half of it in a single night, but then I didn't pick it up again. I just haven't finished it and it is this inaction that makes me the most angry. It isn't that I haven't tried to help. I lived on the lawn of the legislature in a camp of the homeless, dubbed Camp Campbell, for nearly a month in February 2002. But, like the camp's name sake and his latest budget yesterday, I am too much talk and not enough action:
"Rather than making a long-term investment in housing for the homeless, this government’s solution is to create more shelter beds – temporary beds that do not provide the homeless with a place to call their own."
In front of me on the screen are postings for jobs working at the Cool Aid shelter. I'm not working and I haven't been for a couple of months. Its been a peaceful and healthy time in my life. I've had time for much reflection and stoking of the burning fire in my belly (and the creation of this blog). I don't know why I haven't applied yet, I've known about these postings for almost as long as I've been unemployed. It isn't like I'm collecting some kind of benefits -- just temporarily retired on credit.
That anger though, it kept growing. The burning in my belly is unbearable as I write this. The knowledge that it takes more money to house people in substandard emergency shelters than a real home. That the federal government is giving you the chance to rate your top five budget priorities:
a) Debt
b) Spending
c) Personal Tax
d) Corporate Tax
e) Other
Ok, so that wasn't the order I chose, but did it matter? I realized when I filled it out it probably didn't. What I meant by spending was more. When Flaherty reads the statistical summary of my submission he isn't going to be motivated to raise taxes and spend more. When I put Corporate tax anywhere in the list he is going to take that as a vote to cut them, despite my comments.
While the military is buying laser guided killing devices for $40 million and 80 new tanks the social deficit in this country is growing crazily. As I cycled by CFB Esquimalt up the tracks, bumpy bump, the military port was running full steam ahead. It was past three am and there were lights, dry-docked ships, workers and a helicopter. This is where our federal taxes our going and I'm pissed about it.
We need more than just emergency shelters, we need the kind of thinking that realizes that money spent killing people in Afghanistan doesn't make it safer for the people dieing on the streets of Victoria.
Labels: alternatives, bc ndp, bcmedia, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, personal story, shilling
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