Once Full of Hopeful Possibilities...

"I am more and more pessimistic. I used to be much more hopeful. I grew up in the 60's and 70's, full of hopeful possibilities, involved in the civil rights and feminist movements. I used to belief that, in my lifetime, we'd think about the world in a different way, but now I don't think so. Especially with the consolidation of US imperialism in such a profound way."

She wonders whether the current obsession with make-overs on television and in magazines, be it to the body, face or home, doesn't betray our deep dissatisfaction with the world, and the realization that we can't fix it.

"So," she says, "we fix our face instead. Or we fix our house."

Gerald Hannon on Poet, Novelist Dionne Brand