If I thought I knew you

…then I’d try

Illinois Speed Press, 1970

Foreigner

From an article in Ontario Farmer, February 19, 2013, p. 23:

Foreign land deals hurting poor Third World farmers

Foreign investment in farmland is having some devastating effects in Third World countries, says an article by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The article uses the example of Indian companies leasing 600,000 hectares (1.5 m acres) of prime farmland in Ethiopia. The move has led to violence, environmental destruction and the imprisonment of journalists and political objectors, a new report suggests.

The article says research by the U.S.-based Oakland Institute suggests many thousands of Ethiopians are in the process of being relocated or have fled to neighbouring countries after their traditional land has been handed to foreign investors without their consent. The situation is likely to deteriorate further as companies start to gear up their operations and the government pursues plans to lease as much as 15 per cent of the land in some regions, the report says.

At the same time, Oxfam says investors are deliberately targeting the weakest-governed countries to buy cheap land. The 23 least-developed countries in the world account for more than half of the recorded deals completed between 2000 and 2011, the agency says.

Deals involving approximately 200m ha of land are believed to have been negotiated, mostly to the advantage of speculators and often to the detriment of communities, in the last few years

In any country, the sale to non-nationals of rights in finite resources, be they rights of title or long-term lease rights, would appear to be ill-advised. Yet in Saskatchewan…

Though, as noted:

“The law in Saskatchewan is clear that investment in farmland in this province (buying more than 10 acres) is restricted to citizens of Canada and permanent residents,” provincial agriculture minister Lyle Stewart told AFP.

Similarly farm corporations must be 100 percent Canadian-owned.

Still, if you don’t buy, but lease…

Let’s Go Downtown

So yes, once it was a downtown residence for many, with its own private yard:

Bicycle to board

Near

Pianist Jimmy Rowles on saxophonist Lester Young and Billie Holiday, as recounted by Julia Blackburn, in With Billie (2005):

[In 1942], Jimmy thought she was probably more happy than she had ever been, or would ever be again, because things were going so well, and on top of that, she was working with Lester Young. Jimmy knew that when Lester played for her “She felt as if she was in her mother’s arms: she was always happy when Lester was playing for her because of what he did for her, because he was there with her. The two of them were perfectly matched. They belonged together.”

…[she] was never all over him, like always sitting together. She went her way, he went his. But she’d say “Well, Pres! I can smell him! I know he’s here and so it’s good!”

Imbalance

Have written letters for others.

Have written speeches for others.

Have written articles for others.

In most cases, under the originator’s direction and with the originator’s input, review and ultimate approval.

Performing such functions when someone has confidence in a particular writing style. The ideas remain his or hers. Never a question as to who sets the scene.

Whenever words are through another, there is a risk that the other considers that he or she has the power, while the originator is little more than a mouthpiece. Megaphone for the background puppet master.

Would meet the odd assistant on Parliament Hill who conducted himself or herself as if the assistant were the de facto Member of Parliament. Don’t know if the actual Member of Parliament appreciated how power had transferred, or was perceived to have transferred.

And if the background mastery doesn’t get you moving fast enough:

Pool of Isolation

From a profile of Lester Young, by Julia Blackburn, in With Billie (2005):

He stands there in a pool of isolation, clutching the saxophone, one leg placed in front of the other to give him better balance, and his heavy-lidded eyes almost closed. If the music goes well, he might suddenly break into a private tiptoeing dance–he was a wonderful dancer, with such a quality of looseness in his movements that he seemed to float just above the surface of the floor. But if things are not going well, then he might turn his back on the audience, to hide his tears.

Twin or

All and on

Back to Persepolis

In relation to how the imposed “modest” attire for women becomes a symbol of larger oppressions. Persepolis: