The canteen at night

Across the street the neighbours operated a small canteen. It was more of a place to hang out and pass the time (or ‘gaff’ as the Guyanese say.) At night I would cross the street for some company and to escape the chaos of my own living situation. I learned how to play dominos and a number of other games I’ve already forgotten. Guyanese like to gamble.

cards

Gaffing

Children wine

Wining is a kind of sexually suggestive dance that’s popular in most Caribbean countries. Something similar to grinding, but perhaps with more dexterity. These kids are about five years old. When they danced it was as though they were mounting one another. Off camera, the adults laughed hysterically at the display. I just kept snapping.

I’ve been back from Guyana for a month. When I look at the work, I feel nothing but disappointment. In 2010 I made substantial investments into my own projects. I took risks. To date, nothing has come to fruition. Instead I am stuck in a basement I loathe, passing time, waiting for a spark. I’m woefully aware that I’ve past the point of wondering what I might be when I grow up; This is my life, as an adult.

Why am I so disappointed?

Annsgrove, Guyana, at dusk.

This is where I spent the better part of a month. Ann’s Grove (like most of the coast, including Georgetown,) is actually bellow sea level. In fact, the only thing that separates this tiny suburb from the sea is a wall of rubble and some wild mangroves. Otherwise, the place would no doubt flood out. (I’m told it often does.)

When I first arrived, I wondered; Why are people building their houses on stilts. The answer, is of course, obvious.

Built on stilts

Not everyone builds their house on stilts. More modern homes require a strong foundation of sand. Land is built up using dirt that’s trucked in before a foundation can be built. The houses look something like this:

Clonbrook Post Office, Guyana

Sometimes they have two stories, sometimes they don’t.

The entire community rests on a series of man made trenches. This might be for irrigation. It might be to stop the flooding (probably the later.) To be honest, I never asked. People fish in the trenches. Some people swim, but not so many. Most Guyanese can not swim.

Mosque overlooking a trench.

Kids play with christmas toys outside Georgetown, Guyana

Ok, the holidays are over. I missed them. I spent them in Guyana. I would have liked to have posted pictures, updates, whatever, while I was there. Couldn’t do it. The tiny village I was staying in simply didn’t have the connectivity. And my computer didn’t have the proper driver. And really, surrounded by gold teeth and domino games and swamp water and all the other little details that make up this strange place, I was decidedly distracted.

But I’m home now. And I’m trying to process just exactly what went down. Expect said processing here.

Last night I went to see Richard Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, speak about the “State of the World.” It wasn’t a particularly mind blowing talk, though he did emphasize the political impossibility of climate legislation in American right now. Instead, he suggested, we will be forced to adapt through processes like geo engineering. Mitigation, in his mind, simply wasn’t a political option. Maybe he’s right.

Here’s a summary of what transpired on Tuesday evening, provided by Andy Blair, a legislative assistant in Ottawa:

What happened?
In an unprecedented move, the Conservatives called for a surprise vote on Bill C-311 in the Senate while many Liberal Senators were missing. While that isn’t a first, the fact that the bill was called for a vote before any debate or consideration could be held is unprecedented. Conservative Senators were ordered not to speak to the bill during the 193 days it was in the Senate, and even the Conservative Speaker of the Senate was told to vote against the bill (when the Speaker’s role is to vote to continue debate in the case of a tie).

Needless to say, it’s incredibly undemocratic of an appointed Senate to kill a bill passed by a majority of elected MPs, representing two-thirds of Canadians, without even giving it due consideration or debate. It’s also colossally hypocritical of Harper to use the unelected Liberal Senate to kill bills passed by our democratically-elected House, when he has spent most of his political career railing against this very tactic.

What does this mean?
Canada now heads to the UN climate change negotiations in Cancun without a single law on the books or bill in Parliament tackling greenhouse gas pollution. Worse, all the work thousands of Canadians across the country have done to advance this climate legislation and the climate cause federally is put on hold. Rest assured, however, that it will only be a delay of a couple of years: we passed this climate bill through the House twice already, and will pass climate legislation through the House again after the next election if necessary. The education campaigns people have held are a solid foundation to build on, and we will win eventually. We must.

What can we do?
Tell everyone you know about what happened here, and why it’s important. Make some noise. Write in your blogs, in your newsletters, or contact the media. Politicians only change their behaviour if there is a cost to doing things the same. So far, they are hoping this assault on our future will go unnoticed. Let’s prove them wrong.

Former rocket launchers, Churchill, Manitoba.

It’s been raining for days. Raining too hard to traverse marshy bogland in search of biting flies (pity.) In the distance I can see tin-can structures, pointed skyward. This is all that remains of the Canadian military’s lengthy operations in the region.

I want to go and explore them, but I’m told it’s too dangerous. I can’t be sure if this is because the buildings are old and weathered, or because there are polar bears lurking just beyond the next willow.

Churchill, Manitoba

I spent Canada day on a small plane, flying North. I’ll be here in Churchill for the next week filming a story on biting flies, which is a good, because this town seems to have lots of them.

Initial impressions; Big Sky, smells of summer. The sun never sets, the bugs never sleep, and the men are rugged (which is just how I like them.) I could get used to this place.

Every July, for a little over a decade, I packed all my belongings into a green trunk and headed north to the wild’s of Algonquin. My father grew up in the park (literally, but that’s another story,) and felt it was important we learn the basics of wilderness survival, as well as an appreciation for nature.

I was never a popular kid at camp, but I did make friends – best friends. People I still speak with weekly, although we now live miles apart. I excelled at fire building, tree identification, first aid and other random activities most would deem useless in the “real world.”  I spent long days in the bush, covered with bug bites, face black with soot.  I learned to light a fire with only a log that had been soaked in a bucket of water for 24 hours, and a single match.

I think back to last summer, where I wandered alone down the coast of a deserted island in the Mingan Archipelago, torrential rains coming down, completely lost.  While I waited for the coast guard to come and rescue me, and my body slipped further into clinical shock from the cold, I was aware at the back of my mind exactly what was happening, and what I needed to do to stop it.  I knew I would be ok.

At 26, I’ve had a lot of careers.  Treeplanter, Organic Farmer, Media Trainer and now Filmmaker.  Oddly, in every case, my ability to brave the outdoors, diagnose clinical shock, and “survive” while lost have come in handy.

I guess what I mean to say is, sometimes it’s the silly passions, the odd behaviors that other people don’t quite understand, that shape who we become as adults.  I need to relax and keep being silly.

Awareness is certainly a good thing, but at this point I think we’re all aware. Maybe it’s time to move past awareness and on to action? Just a thought…

In other news, I’m heading to Haiti/DR on Monday, to work on a project about sugar. More details to follow. Planning the trip has been a tremendous amount of work, and if I said I wasn’t finding the whole process overwhelming, I would be lying. Still, I’m excited to be in the field again, working on projects that matter. Even if it isn’t the easy thing to do.

Last Train Home director Lixin Fan

Awhile back I wrote a short post about a little documentary called Last Train Home. While the film is still on a successful festival run (winning the top prize at IDFA and screening to critical acclaim at Sundance) it will also open in select cities this weekend (including Toronto.)

GO SEE THIS FILM.
Serious.

Last Train Home is an epic survey of the world’s largest human migration, which happens annually during the Chinese new year, when hundreds of thousands of migrant workers scramble to board trains back to their rural villages. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the Zhangs’ hopes for the future are undone by their very absence.

The film is visually stunning, emotionally engaging, and has a rhythm that just breathes. It’s a masterpiece that took director Lixin Fan a challenging three years to complete.   Arguably time well spent.

Opening weekends for small independent films matter. They make or break the ability for the film to continue to screen. Independent films matter. This film matters. It shines a light on the impacts of consumerism, and forces you to look at the big picture.

SO, support independent cinema, support independent thought and support my dear friend Lixin.  GO SEE THE FILM.