Don't fall asleep in the cold. You're unlikely to awaken.
We are continuing to have cold temperature alerts all across Canada and power outages. Community Centres are open and even the malls are crowded - at least the parts with power. For those of you who know the Dufferin Mall, well I was there yesterday, and as I left a woman was entering. She stopped to ask if it was open. And I said, that half of it was. The grocery store was closed but parts were open. (Yes, I left without groceries.) Her home had no heat so she was heading in to use it as a warming centre.
The City has responded to these freezing temperatures with what they call "reception centres." Of course they don't't expect citizen to sleep in a shelter. Not that they would find a bed in one. But there feels to be a great deal of hypocrisy here in this sudden concern for people effected by the cold. I wonder how many of the homeless will be making it to the reception centres and how long these centres will be kept open once the power returns? Will they remain open during the remainder of the winter?
I have also been thinking about all of the empty houses and buildings and trying to turn things around in my phenomenological way as i think about our use of material "things" in the world. How we shape and are shaped by things. How we are shaped by homes, and how homes are shaped by us. How abandoned homes could be shaped by those abandoned by and abandoning society. With a bit of help of course-tools and such. There is a lot of housing that is substandard that needs rehabilitation and families of all sorts to fill them.
And count me out of the Obama celebrations. Just found out the guy is moving the homeless out for his inauguration. Ya, that's right. And they will not be allowed to take their carts and bags with them. Buses will move them beyond the security perimeter. They deny that those who want to stay will be removed. And the others? Will they be welcome? No it seems they will be placed in large shelters to watch the celebrations on television. Oh joy! Change is there.
