Women In Need
The Women in Need is a Calgary based organization that uses funds raised to assist women in low income situations.
Website: www.womeninneed.net/
Locations:
Fisher Park
134 71 Ave SE
Phone: 403.255.7514
Killarney
2907 Richmond Rd SW
Phone: 403.242.4969
Bowness
6432 Bowness Road NW
Phone: 403.288.4825
Dover
3525 26 Ave SE
Phone: 403.235.6448
Prices: Very Good. Each store has it's own sales and pricing structure, for example in Killarney they frequently have sales in which they mark down unsold clothing to half price or 50 cents per colored tag item. Selection varies from store to store so check back frequently to find new items.
Chance of finding a bargain: Excellent.
Chance of finding a treasure: Good
Merchandise: Clothing, miscellaneous household appliances with some jewellry and books. Selection and prices vary from store to store. Furniture is available at the Dover Location only.
Overall: Probably the best charity shop in Calgary.
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- Category: Thrift Shops
Green Calgary
The phrase "Green Calgary" is as much an oxymoron as the "Honest Politician", the "Respected Lawyer" or "Military Intelligence".
The city has been built entirely on the premise that space and taxes are unbounded, resources are both disposable and infinite, and any suggested revisions to this assumption are dismissed as so much reactionary tripe.
These thoughts are typical of both the Provincial and Civic governments. And while change can be initially uncomfortable, there is an increasing realization that not to change may be fatal.
With that in mind I've assembled some links and resources at right that may help you start to live in a greener, more sustainable Calgary.
Find them in the menu at right under "Green Calgary".
Please bear in mind that this website is a "Work in Progress" and if a resource or link is not yet there, it's possible I haven't gotten around to it. I've started with a list of thrift shops - recycle, reuse, etc. being an important part of any Green strategy. And with the economic downturn, the savings in price is nothing to be sneezed at either....
If you know of any links or resources that I should review or add to this, please
Things you can do to start change:
- Write to your local MLA/Councilman and ask them what changes are in progress that will help Calgary become a greener, more sustainable community. Here are some sample questions to get you started:
- Why has it taken so long for Calgary to impliment a mandatory recycling program?
- How much garbage is created by the average Calgarian? Per Day? Per Year? In Kilograms? By Volume? Does this include commercial waste?
- How much garbage is diverted from landfills through the city's recycling program?
- What percentage of this waste is toxic?
- What initiatives have you brought to council to attempt to change this?
- What do you propose can be done to limit or even eradicate commercial and industrial waste from businesses within Calgary?
- Does the city have any processes in place to assess the "Greenness" or environmental impact of businesses? If so, what measures does it use? Where is this information available? If not, why not?
- What incentives do you offer businesses that impliment green strategies to cut down on waste?
- If property taxes were not averaged out amongst the population, what would the breakdown of taxes per neighborhood in Calgary look like?
- With this in mind, what incentives are you offering to boost population density in key areas?
- Why are many/most neighborhoods in Calgary so pedestrian unfriendly?
- The City offers many deterrents, parking not least amongst them, to visiting the downtown core. Does it have any plans to offer incentives in terms of regularized, economic and convenient public transport?
- What is your personal vision for the City of Calgary in the year 2012? 2020? What concrete strategies have you for implementing this?
- Is there a long term model of sustainable growth for the City of Calgary? If so, can you please share it with me/us?
- Write your MLA/Councilman back and ask them to clarify and quantify key points. Such As:
- Why have the taxes from my neighborhood been raised to subsidize neighborhood X?
- When do you forsee the changes you have outlined taking place?
- What dollar amount/percent of the civic budget is allocated towards this?
Remember to cite concrete examples. If $25 Million dollars for a pedestrian bridge over the Bow River seems like money poorly spent, don't hesitate to point it out. If $11 Million dollars for a downtown parkade seems expensive then ask yourself - What other projects could be built for the same money? Is a parkade encouraging a greener Calgary? With the current economic downturn well in progress, how do you justify this spending? How much of this money does the council have on hand, and how much of it is being leveraged (The principal cost of the bridge vs the real cost, with interest?) How many offers/bids did the city tender before settling on this one? Is it necessary, and if so, are there any ways to do it cheaper (*Note: Cheaper does not imply poorer. It may involve hiring a local architect or firm, or other such "creative" solutions. But arguably, with the funding in arts in such short supply, we should be sourcing local companies. Patronage is still the best form of arts funding,). Note neighborhoods that offer poor pedestrian access ways. Be detailed in your criticism, and expect - as is your right - that the reply you recieve is detailed in how it outlines the the city's approach to dealing with the problem. Expect dates, budgets, etc. It's your money at work, and you have every right to expect accountability.
- Recycle. Reuse. Stall on buying anything at all. When you have to buy, try and buy it used first. Take things out of the package and leave the packing in the store. Make the retailers realize the problem by forcing them to clean it up. When you shop, shop local. Support smaller businesses that you approve of by spending your money there. Vote with your dollars. Protest any chain store or franchise that attempts to move into your neighborhood. Boycott their business. Protest Wal-Marts and other large retailers that rely on foreign slave labour to produce goods that move to our landfills within 6 months to a year of being manufactured.
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- Category: Links
Opinion VS Reason
Sometimes I miss our conversations. This one, it's a tough one, but it has to be done.
“One Plus one” I begin “equals two”.
“In your opinion” she counters.
“No, no, always. One plus one equals two”
“How do you know?”
“Let me give you an example.”
I pull a couple of pennies from my pocket, I came prepared.
“But what if you add another penny?” She asks
“then you’re changing the question, or premise….”
“Or used walnuts instead..”
“It wouldn’t matter….”
“You never liked one!” she sobs….”You think your numbers are so perfect….”
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- Category: Conversations
Freud & Jung
At the moment I'm reading Carl Jung 's "Memories, Dreams and Reflections". And I'm loving it. It suits the cast of my mind perfectly, it was written for me.
And it stirs the thought of how out of fashion Freud and Jung have become.
Personally, I've always been a fan. "But the times, they are a changin" and you don't get blog anywhere now-a-days without a CGI of a firing neuron or an MRI scan. It would help to know a little NLP.
I'm not dismissing these advances, they are great advances, but as much as they sift and measure there seems to be equally much that they miss.
Freud. Very unfashionable, with his Ego, SuperEgo, Id, Eros and Thanatos. SO much mumbo jumbo....Many new psychologists know of him only by reputation, he is studied anecdotally in university, superficially, there are different theories, Stanley Milgram, BF Skinner and Bandler and Grinder amonst them, that are far more "current" and "hip".
That's not to deride or undervalue them. But Freud and Jung were amonst the first to move into this area. And they were mapping the human mind, the landscape of the unconcious, the soul. And they did great work. Great work.
My boy, at 4, maybe 5 years old, we're out camping in Jasper and I'd been teasing him. He has a fit, a rare (for him) tantrum - "I'm going to poke your eyes out with this stick, then kill you and marry my Mom.!" That's a quote. I watched him while I sipped my coffee, unable to express the impression his outburst registered. It was a classic Freud moment. Up until then I'd been a little leery, I had my own theories as well. That changed everything.
They studied the layering and ordering of personality, the concious and unconcious motivations. They were, in a sense, adventurers mapping an unknown, undiscoverd world. And, with the tools they had, pen and paper, conversation, patients, they did a remarkable job. An incredible job. Think of drawing a map of the world, without Google Maps or an Atlas to aid you, you have to discover it all yourself first. A very big job.
They were working on the big picture. I read studies now, they are tiny pictures, parts of a mosaic. Elements of personality and intelligence mapped by divisions of psychologists, psychiatrists and neurosurgeons in different universities. There is no "Whole Theory of Human Personality", just as there is no "Unified Theory" in physics. But these guys, Freud and Jung, they were undertaking the tremendous task of mapping the entire human personality. In Carl Jung's case, the "Soul".
If you doubt Freud's substance or impact try reading Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment". It sits on my folklore and fairy tales shelf in the office. No, you can't borrow it, buy your own. It's a masterpiece. It doesn't tell you anything you didn't know already, that you didn't intuit or understand or somehow in a deep way comprehend. But it uses Freud's theories to reveal plain truths in plain language, which in itself is a sort of genius. Think of Newton and the Apple. He was not the first to discover gravity, but he certainly was the first to notice it.
SO it's back now to reading Carl Jung. He suits me, somehow, his stories, experiences are not mine, but the world's. And while I don't recognize the events, the places or time, I recognize the humanity and emotion in his writing. The commonality of our experience. It's a great read.
Quotes: Carl Jung
"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."
"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
"Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent."
"The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it."
Quotes: Sigmund Freud
"America is a mistake, a giant mistake." and "America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success." and "Yes, America is gigantic, but a gigantic mistake."
"Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me."
"I have found little that is "good" about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think."
"If you can't do it, give up!"
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
"The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water."
"Time spent with cats is never wasted."
"What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult."
"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books."
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing."
"The first requisite of civilization is that of justice."
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- Category: Ideas & Questions
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