The Lilith eZine Summer Edition 2011

Greetings!

If you are wondering why this isn't titled "The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition" its because we don't usually send out these emails any more. Indeed according to our records we haven't sent out a Sunday Edition since September 27th 2009.

If you have joined this mailing list in the last 2 years this will be the first time you are receiving this newsletter.

First off we should explain why the long absence... The reason is simple. We now use the Lilith News blog much more frequently and writing a weekly newsletter as opposed to a daily blog just seems silly when the blog is accessible to millions and the newsletter is only accessible to the several hundred people subscribed to this newsletter. The blog is currently getting 45,000 visitors per month so we must be doing something right. (Nudge nudge, please follow/subscribe to the Lilith News blog and follow the Facebook group too.)

Since 2009 there has been some dramatic changes at the Lilith eZine. We have redesigned our websites and reorganized them into sub-domains. Some of our website is still undergoing revisions (especially the Feminist eZine which is in the final stages of its redesign and later this year the Art History Archive will be redesigned).

There's also been some staff changes. Suzanne MacNevin (the chief editor) is currently writing a book about feminism (which you can learn more about at her blog Feminist Truths) and Charles Moffat (the website designer / co-editor) is now the CEO of the website design and SEO company designSEO.ca. Dare we say yeehaw??? Thus since we are working so much on other tasks we have handed down some of the responsibilities to new people like Ai Lung Nguyen and Monique Bellamont. (If you'd like to help out in any way we're always looking for new writers.)

And now to the juicy bits...

The United States is heading down the road of financial turmoil. We won't say disaster, because we don't think that is the case. For a little over a decade now the USA has been riding on its economic coat tails and expecting to stay on top financially. While this may be true of the executive class, the reality is that poverty in the United States is increasing at a dramatic rate while companies continue to outsource to China, India and other locations where wages are cheaper.

This financial mayhem and the unwillingness of the economic elites in the USA to protect American jobs has resulted in growing resentment (Tea Party anyone?) against the rich. If this continues the USA could find itself facing a disgruntled population, domestic terrorism (similar to what is currently happening in Norway) and a surge in anarchist / communist groups, to say nothing of a surge in crime. (Sad to say it, but Barack Obama is not the most powerful man in the world. The tycoons of Wall Street are running the show now and the US Congress / White House are just along for the ride.)

Meanwhile in Canada hell has frozen over. If you're not from Canada you might think this is normal. In May 2011 Stephen Harper's Conservative Party managed to win a majority government, and the Liberal Party of Canada is now practically an obsolete dinosaur because they're "too centrist" and "too status quo". In their place the NDP has soared to huge popularity and are poised to replace the Liberals as the new left wing party of Canada.

But in the meantime Canada has to deal with having Stephen Harper as its Prime Minister... a man who denies the existence of climate change and global warming, bullies his own political party, suspended parliament twice to avoid non confidence votes and keeps flip flopping on previous statements that he would like scrap the right to abortion, gay marriages, cut immigration and a slew of other civil liberties. To say nothing of the G20 fiasco in Toronto which failed to accomplish anything, resulted in people being arrested for blowing bubbles and it later turned out the anarchists dressed in black were really police in disguise acting as agitators (see the video on this page about Rob Ford's gravy train).

But civil liberties suspended aside, at least we don't live in North Korea.

Our advice for when the world's problems get you down? Relax. Take up yoga (check out Jock Yoga for men), painting or go for a walk. Enjoy life, family, friends and the beauty of the natural world.

All our best!
Suzanne MacNevin and Charles Moffat
Co-Editors of the Lilith eZine

PS. We may try to make a habit of sending out newsletters once every season, just for fun, but we strongly advise just following our Lilith News blog instead.