playing tourists by the hill

Alyssa, a young Shiva

I will sometime do a real update with more pics, but here is one I'm fond of that I shot last night.
Photo by Cynthia Münster, The Daily Graphic

Long Plain Pow Wow

Photos by Cynthia Münster, Central Plains Herald-Leader

Derail

Has been jumping trains for the past five years, he stopped by Crescent Lake with his ride -he is hitching until he gathers the money for the train riding supplies (food and water)-for a break for Keira and then they took off to Winnipeg.
Photos by Cynthia Münster, The Daily Graphic

Folk Festival

Migrant workers

I haven't posted in a month. A few things happened in this time and I've had to deal with those. It's not been fun, rather made my schedule even heavier but I think that is over and now it's 'just' work.
I also feel a bit inhibited to know so many people may be checking the blog, I've been reiterating so many self-centered concerns it's ridiculous!
Something amazing happened last week though. I found something I can be passionate about.
I will spare the details because those go into the paper but there have been some serious troubles with a group Mexican migrant workers and their unionization. This started last year but there have been new developments lately. I seem to be the only one speaking to them in Spanish. Granted, my paper is minuscule, but I feel somebody has to speak with them in their own language and help figure this out.
Heraldio told me 'I speak some English but it's mostly what I learn at the farm, so I can name vegetables or farm equipment.'
He has to represent them all in front of the media, whenever they call. I'm really surprised that as far as I know nobody has hired a translator. Some of the things he told me about happened to long ago and would no longer be relevant for a newspaper, but they are still quite scary.

I'm often surprised to learn how much prejudice and discrimination still takes place in Canada.
Having lived in other places, I appreciate political correctness and multiculturalism as very Canadian notions, but my perspective is still the one of a white woman with an accent; as long as I don't open my mouth I could even pass for a WASP! What I mean is, it's easy to forget about discrimination when you are not the target of it. It's even easy to understand why it takes place sometimes.

Finally, this migrant workers ordeal puzzles me in it's nature, how people and labour are imported and exported to create 'made in Canada' products, while we still have unemployment and how this happens all over the world..just makes me wonder which countries are so low down the ladder that they don't hire foreign workers for the labour. The only country I can think of can hardly be described as low down the economical ladder.

High on a cropduster