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Upcoming events

RETRO DESIGN & ANTIQUES FAIR(event)(3 days)
Are You Fit for Love?(event)(6 days)
The National Ballet of Cuba is coming to Vancouver(event)(7 days)
8th Annual Vancouver Diversity Health Fair(event)(23 days)
Crimson Cabaret (event)(30 days)
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster - One Year Later(event)(31 days)

Andrea Reimer’s Rising Star

by Rebecca Ephraim

photo by Jaime Kowal

To meet Andrea Reimer is like basking in sunlight. Her engaging personality, keen sense of humour, and easy intelligence give rise to a woman who is a leader. How she arrived at this point—born into a life scraped raw with adversity—is a fascinating study in resilience, inner strength, and grace. We landed Pulitzer-nominated writer Linda Solomon, owner and publisher of TheVancouverObserver.com , to share Andrea’s story from down-and-out street kid to a leading environmentalist, and now, candidate for Vancouver city council. Linda’s great gift for storytelling shines here (see page 20) as well as on her website, which I invite you to visit regularly for humorous, poignant, and timely takes on life in Vancouver.

The Sacred Cows of Summer

I love fireworks. Ever since I was a kid, gathering to watch these spectacular lightshows has been a ritual of summer. And here in Vancouver, hundreds of thousands made the pilgrimage to English Bay this season to revel in the fireworks events known as Celebration of Light.

While I was watching and oohing-and-aahing, it struck me what a dirty pastime it is, with all the super-duper explosives propelled by gunpowder and coloured by an array of toxic chemicals that waft into the air and fall into the water. I could go on—there is solid research on the Web regarding this—but hurling darts at such a beloved pastime could be grounds to string me up from a lamppost on Denman. Welcome to the sacred cows of summer. Who wants to be reminded of the environmental undoing from some of the most popular events of the season? Not only fireworks: parades and festivals also bring heaps of trash and traffic snarls laced with idling engines.

We love celebrations and cherish community. And I’m hard pressed to wag a finger at anything that brings us together to honour diversity and our connection to each other. Yet in these days of rumination on our societies and our planet, there are large, looming questions that remain unanswered. What are your thoughts? Write us at letters@shared-vision.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Bond Girl Blow-up

Yikes. We’re sorry that many readers missed our “wink” at sexist clichés on our August cover . We thought we were being cute and clever in parodying action figure James Bond (ladies and gentleman, give Richard Campbell a hand!).

SharedVISION: Dialogue for Change is a woman-owned and women-run company. We think it’s a step forward when we can begin to play and have fun with some of the old stereotypes (he’s holding a bicycle pump, for goodness’ sake!).

As women living in this world, we fully acknowledge there is much more to do regarding sexism and the role of women in society. In regard to our August cover, we were earnestly aiming for an amusing send-up, and I offer those readers who were offended our sincerest apologies. Check out Readers' Letters' .

Your Dream Job?

How cool would that be if you could stay true to your values and pay your bills with an eco-career? We think so too, and with this issue, we’re introducing sustainability expert and business consultant extraordinaire Coro Strandberg to give us job tips and job leads for matching good people with good business.

It’s all good. It’s all a SharedVISION.

In gratitude,