Gabriela Network goes for the gold!

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photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by lunamania


Thanks to Grace and Joy, parol lantern making has become a new holiday tradition. These two sisters are the artistic, bamboo kit assembling, scrap cloth, decoupage and stay up all night force behind the Gabriela Network’s entry into the 2009 Parol Lantern Festival. The last several years, the filipino senior center with their chain link, floral cut recycled aluminum can parols have impressed, but this year Gabnet is going for gold. Step aside, seniors!

Parol making with this crew means learning about Filipino women’s movements and leaders. It’s also time to catch up with old friends and get my creative on with a refreshing glass of Grace’s kalimansi mimosa…great way to support solidarity efforts!

This year the parade theme, Light the Way and Be Counted, aims to raise awareness of the Census. So Gabnet lanterns will feature images from under-counted groups: immigrants, migrant workers, undocumented residents, complex households, homeless individuals, people of color and LGBT people.

I’m not a crafty holiday elf–or any sort of small craft creature unless it involves making model cars from Tamiya kits. But I can use google. So I spent the evening searching for images of these under-counted communities to paste on the parols.

Gabnet parols 2007

Click the image for pictures from the 2007 production process and presentation. The Big Gay Star was the piece de resistance!

Parol lantern festival and parade: who,what, when, where
PAROL LANTERN FESTIVAL and PARADE
Saturday, December 12, 2009, 3PM to 8PM

3PM to 6PM: Parol Festival games and demonstrations in Jessie Square
6PM to 8PM: Parol Lantern Parade and Performances (Yerba Buena Lane to Jessie Square)

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A’s win!

≡ Category: Politicking, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Leave a Comment

Saw the A’s trounce Cleveland yesterday.

A

The game was made even better by the American Indian Movement schooling Cleveland on the wackness of having an Indian mascot. They had a two-sided, single-spaced flyer that patiently walked the reader through the finer points of why this is Not So Nice. That’s very kind of AIM. My version of the flyer would be much shorter. It would read: Mascots are team pets. People are not pets. Conversation over.

AIM

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California budget…tough times ahead

≡ Category: Politicking, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Leave a Comment

Looks like Lunamania is on a brief streak of posts about inequities. I promise something lighter soon. In the meantime, California finally has a budget and it looks grim for poor families. The budget sent to the Governor already drastically reduced cash-aid, health insurance and access to in-home supportive services for sick and disabled residents, but before signing, the Governor wielded his blue pencil and cut some more from health and human services.

The following are bits from the Western Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP) and the California Budget Project (CBP). Both will most likely have updates on the final version soon. Click on quotes to get to the full link.

This is the first time that CalWorks grants for children are being cut. As the WCLP says:

Grants will be reduced by 25% from a maximum of $566 a month for two children down to $420 a month if the parent can not comply with federal work requirements.

Only good news is that these changes will not go into effect until 2011.

Here’s more on CalWorks from the California Budget Project. the full report also outline cuts to In-Home Supportive Services, Healthy Families, Medi-Cal and SSI/SSP.

California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Program
The budget agreement makes several significant policy changes to the CalWORKs Program that are
scheduled to take effect in 2011. Specifically, the budget agreement:
• Limits adults to 48 cumulative months of cash assistance in any 60-month period. Adults may
return to aid one year after reaching the initial 48-month limit. This change does not appear to
affect the children’s portion of the grant during the period in which the adult loses aid.
• Requires counties to conduct a “self-sufficiency review” every six months with CalWORKs adults
who do not participate in welfare-to-work activities for sufficient hours. Adults who fail to attend
this meeting without good cause would have their cash assistance payment cut by 50 percent.
• Cuts, by up to 50 percent, grants for children in households in which:
–An adult has been sanctioned, with the size of the cut dependent on how long the adult does
not comply with CalWORKs rules.
• Reduces, by 10 percent, rates for substance abuse treatment services for individuals who are
Cal for savings of $8.8 million in 2009-10.
• Increases, by 10 percent, the application and annual fees paid by community care centers, for
revenues of $2.1 million to offset General Fund spending.
• Requires certain families for whom the state collects at least $500 in child support to pay a $25
October 1, 2010. Only families that have never received CalWORKs cash assistance would be
fee, which is mandated by the federal government and is currently being paid by the state.

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