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Book reviews this month:
Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse
of Rank by Robert W. Fuller
The Careless Society: Community and its Counterfeits
by John McKnight
Fuelling Body, Mind and Spirit - A Balanced Approach
to Healthy Eating by Miriam Hoffer
How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food –
A Greenpeace Shoppers Guide
Somebodies and Nobodies:
Overcoming the Abuse of Rank by Robert W. Fuller
Reviewed by Joseph Roberts
This is a book that will start a movement. Without vision the people
will perish and we, the people, have been perishing for a long time
and not knowing, nor being able to identify, why. The essence of this
book is a well-considered perception that lies at the root of sexism,
ageism and racism.
Robert W. Fuller has identified the abuse of rank and named it "rankism".
At first I thought, "Oh no, not another "cause", not
another "ism" to fight against." Having managed to
get my head around what Fuller discovered I have turned 180 degrees
to welcome his refreshing analysis. Robert has unearthed a root cause
for both what ails society and how we can heal this abuse.
The book is worth it just for the 15 pages of incredible "Related
Readings" and web sites listed by categories such as Fiction,
Ranks and Status, Identity Politics, Liberty, Equality and Justice,
Education, Human Rights. If you want to create a better world then
read this groundbreaking book.
As Olympic gold medallist Tommie Smith writes of Fuller’s book:
"The message is simple; the message is vital: protect the dignity
of others as you do your own. To be somebody, the nobody within you
has only to take a stand."
New Society Publishers, 2003, $23.77
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The Careless Society:
Community and its Counterfeits by John McKnight
Reviewed by Ralph Maud
John McKnight’s book The Careless Society: Community and
its Counterfeits was very disturbing to me. I was brought up to
revere the Beveridge Report which inaugurated the welfare state
in post-war Britain, but McKnight is saying that government social
services cannot do the job, that bureaucratic welfare for the most
part cannot do more than pretend to help people — it really
helps civil servants draw a nice salary, and turns the needy into
clients defined by their deficiencies. The better way is for government
to subsidize self-help groups and what McKnight calls "community
guides," caring individuals who bring the disadvantaged into
real relationships as citizens. McKnight does not say it in this
book, but B.C. has, through the years, been especially fertile ground
for his ideas, with P.L.A.N and the community guides of Prince George.
Basic Books, 1995, $23.80.
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Fuelling Body, Mind and
Spirit – A Balanced Approach to Healthy Eating by Miriam Hoffer
Reviewed by Robert Alstead
Dietitian Miriam Hoffer prefaces her book by asking why she is
writing yet another nutrition book when there are already so many.
She explains that the book came to her through many enlightening
conversations with her patients at the Health Watch program at Women’s
College Ambulatory Care Centre in Toronto. The ensuing chapters
refreshingly don’t pretend to have all the answers, but does
offer a chatty, common sense approach to women’s nutrition
that combines her own dietary expertise spiced with anecdotes from
her clients. Hoffer’s concept of pyramid eating gets straight
to the problem of timing your meals. It’s not just you eat,
she says, but when you fuel throughout the day that is important
to your health. With characteristic candour she attacks most diets
as "belittling and disrespectful" to women and offers
a more holistic approach to nutrition. It’s an easy read with
sound advice for sensible eating.
Sumach Press, 2003, $14.95
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How to Avoid
Genetically Engineered Food – A Greenpeace Shopper's Guide
Reviewed by Robert Alstead
Greenpeace Canada has launched an updated edition of its pocket-sized
23-page booklet on genetically modified foods after the 20,000 copies
of the original guide were snatched up quickly. The Shoppers Guide
lists 1000 products commonly found in Canada’s grocery stores,
showing food that does and doesn’t carry GE ingredients. Eight
months on, the new Shoppers Guide includes companies that have removed
GE ingredients from their foods, including Heinz Canada who recently
announced that they are no longer using any GE ingredients in their
baby foods.
You can download the publication for free at www.greenpeace.ca/shoppersguide
or call 1.800.320.7183. Greenpeace Canada, 2003, $2 donation.
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