Souris Mon Frère, Souris Ma Sœur

  Qui somme nous, d’où venons-nous?

Des questions reliées à notre existence sont parfois importante

Et pourtant, sont parfois ce qui nous retient,

Nous sépare et nous couvre les yeux.

Un tel voile, nous laisse aveugle à de tell merveille que ce monde nous offre.

Le croirais-tu si je t’aurai dit que tu es ma sœur,

Que toi mon frère qui souffre au japon ressens la haine de celui an Libye.

Toi qui écris une lettre d’espoir en bas d’un baobab,

Dans unvillage à l’extérieur du Dakar est recentie

Par celle rejeté d’une voiture dans une ruelle à Detroit.

Il existe encore cet instinct humain qui nous connecte.

Nous pleurons tous, nous rions tous, et oui un jour nous mourions tous.

Cependant la beauté de cette vie nous entour.

Alors prochaine fois que nos yeux croisent souri mon frère.

Un suicide de moins, une addicte de drogue de moins, une âme secourue de plus

remplie d’espoire, de confiance et de foi.

Sourris mon frere, Sourris ma soeur.

 

par Laurenie L.

Bottled water

I`ve been to many West Indian households in Montreal to notice certain reoccuring similarities; fake flowers adorning hallways, some wall in the home is painted pastel tangerine or pink, plastic covering on the best imitation couch money can buy..you know the deal.  But another common occurence that I tend to see (or have just recently noticed) more and more is the presence of bottled water.

The 24 packs.  Stacked in the one hidden corner of the kitchen or in the storage room above the washer and dryer machine. I have given out one too many $1.99 rain cheque for 12 packs of bottle water in my dark days as a PJC cashier to not realize how this buying bottle water phenomenon has gripped our society, including the immigrant population of Montreal.

Many of us have been raised to boil our water to rid it of any bacteria. This offered us some solace, but we then quickly realized that boiling does not get rid of the heavy metals tha plague are water.  Whether the fear of contaminated water in Canada is reasonable or not, or whether `you cyan`t trust deh tap watah cuz it nah like backhome…it seems that more and more of us are resorting to the more consumerist, lethargic option of just buying our water in platic bottles in plastic packages.  Tap water nah for me buoy not-tat-all!! *kisses teeth*

Now trust…i at times can be as cynical as the next brother being watched by Babylon..but as we are being watched…we also need to keep watch.  I read this article in Le Devoir about where some of our precious bottled water comes from.  Hint: it ain`t no untouched glacier from up north
nor pristine rainforest in some tropical island.  

But it is from an island: Montreal.

How ya mean? Chat bout? Gone senile or wha?*double kisses teeth*

well here’s the link:

Turns out Aquafina water (brought to you by PepsiCo) had set up shop in Saint Laurent and is  using regular tapwater to fil up there water bottles and sell to us.  Price for them: 10 cents per 100 Litres.  Price for us: varies (from 2bucks for a quarter of a liter  in a vending machine to 6 bucks in the club). Don’t need Rick Ross to tell me that some one is hustling! ROSAY!! And if PepsiCo is doing it…ya DONE KNOW that bottled water companies are probably doing the same thing around the world.

So they are taking water that we get for free and selling it back to us.  Furthermore, we got bottled water companies who are going to countries like Indonesia, setting up shop, pretty much colonizing the few areas that have clean water left so they can sell it at ridiculous prices to the world.  All while the indigenous farmer or left with next to sustain their crops…or their families.

So just some thoughts…didn’t even get to touch on the whole issue of extracting oil for plastic usage for the bottled water but you can definitely take 5 minutes from FB to check out this short doc call the Story of Bottled Water.

We are in a city that has access to clean water. Boil it if you must.  Brita it if you can.  And for real, nothing is wrong with buying a water bottle if you need to get hydrated and have no access to water.  I’m gonna see how it is…and make the changes, first by getting a good reusable water bottle.  Small steps.