Once more I've absented myself from this little blog o' mine for a number of months, and here I am again trying to figure out why this keeps happening. I have a theory. Politics as played out in the majority of jurisdictions is seemingly less relevant than ever before. In other words, I find it hard to care about current events if the main forum for debating them is politics.
The system is broken, maybe irrevocably so, and any personal commentary an individual like myself might offer up has started to feel less important, less interesting and altogether less worth sharing. On so many levels we live with the illusion of government; politicians and their operatives exist to project an image of strong leadership and good stewardship, but often are completely incapable of either. I'm tired of our political culture. This way voter apathy lies...
So what to do? For now take a break, shelve this blog once again, and consider the alternatives that exist outside of political government. Search out thinkers who don't subscribe to blind partisan politics, but focus on the entire community of human society and the actual challenges we face, not merely the most politically expedient and advantageous ones. Politics has never been a place for idealists, and only rarely has it made room for thinkers. Unfortunately we're in dire need of both right now.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
my pick for story of the day...
I'm not totally sure, but I think this is what democracy looks like. It's a short article and worth reading all the way through. I really do love Vermont...
Monday, March 03, 2008
talk about empty rhetoric...
The following is an entry I found on the Department of Canadian Heritage's website, a small article all about that most Canadian of ideals, "Peace, Order and Good Government," excerpted from the educational resource guide "Canadians and Their Government."
In light of today's top story, and the on-going dysfunction that has rendered our current Parliament utterly irrelevant to the business of governing Canada, I thought it was a good time to test the official rhetoric. I offer one particularly excellent excerpt from "Canadians and Their Government" :
The high sentiment in the above quotation is even more laughable in light of our Federal Finance Minister's current vendetta against the Province of Ontario, and specifically its Liberal Premier. "Conflict resolution" does not appear to be a Conservative strong point.
I'd hazard that "Pot Shots, Tax Cuts and Libel Suits," is a more appropriate official slogan for the present Conservative government.
And when politicians resort to lawyers you just know things will not end well...
In light of today's top story, and the on-going dysfunction that has rendered our current Parliament utterly irrelevant to the business of governing Canada, I thought it was a good time to test the official rhetoric. I offer one particularly excellent excerpt from "Canadians and Their Government" :
Indeed, the phrase “peace, order and good government” has become meaningful to Canadians and defines Canadian values in a way that is comparable to “liberté, égalité, fraternité” in France or “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the United States. It is a phrase that truly articulates the journey toward peaceful accommodation throughout Canada's evolution as a nation. This process, in itself, is reason enough to feel proud of Canada's accomplishments since before Confederation.
Today, Canada is a world leader in peacekeeping and conflict resolution and is a model for democracy.
The high sentiment in the above quotation is even more laughable in light of our Federal Finance Minister's current vendetta against the Province of Ontario, and specifically its Liberal Premier. "Conflict resolution" does not appear to be a Conservative strong point.
I'd hazard that "Pot Shots, Tax Cuts and Libel Suits," is a more appropriate official slogan for the present Conservative government.
And when politicians resort to lawyers you just know things will not end well...
Friday, February 29, 2008
this does not bode well...
BAD: That the Federal Conservative government is proposing a form of arbitrary censorship of the film and television industry.
WORSE: That evangelical crusader Charles McVety is claiming he's behind the whole thing.
A choice quote from the Globe and Mail article published in today's paper:
Below is a further excerpt from the Globe article, this time a direct quote from Conservative MP for Palliser (Saskatchewan) David Batters, who is an associate member of the Canadian Heritage Committee :
Is it a bad time to remind the conservative pundits the reason why we typically label Canada a democracy and not an oligarchy? Oh right, it's because all people, even artists, are entitled to express their beliefs and share their stories without fear of censorship or state persecution, as opposed to living under the constant surveillance of a small committee of moral and cultural arbiters, which appears to be the preferred option of Mr. McVety and the Conservative Party policy makers.
Just imagine what a majority would be like...
WORSE: That evangelical crusader Charles McVety is claiming he's behind the whole thing.
A choice quote from the Globe and Mail article published in today's paper:
The italics are mine. And seriously, what's with the chronic conservative fixation on things that "promote homosexuality"? I'm pretty sure homosexuals aren't actively recruiting, so the idea that gay stories somehow endanger society, or risk eroding the fragile morality of the average young Canadian is pretty far-fetched."Mr. McVety said films promoting homosexuality, graphic sex or violence should not receive tax dollars, and backbench Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers support his campaign."
Below is a further excerpt from the Globe article, this time a direct quote from Conservative MP for Palliser (Saskatchewan) David Batters, who is an associate member of the Canadian Heritage Committee :
"In my mind, sir, and in the minds of many of my colleagues and many, many Canadians," said Mr. Batters during a Jan. 31 meeting of the Canadian Heritage committee, "the purpose of Telefilm is to help facilitate the making of films for mainstream Canadian society - films that Canadians can sit down and watch with their families in living rooms across this great country."Oh really? Is Telefilm Canada now the funding arm of Blockbuster Video?
Is it a bad time to remind the conservative pundits the reason why we typically label Canada a democracy and not an oligarchy? Oh right, it's because all people, even artists, are entitled to express their beliefs and share their stories without fear of censorship or state persecution, as opposed to living under the constant surveillance of a small committee of moral and cultural arbiters, which appears to be the preferred option of Mr. McVety and the Conservative Party policy makers.
Just imagine what a majority would be like...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
with a whimper, not a bang...
Federal budget day...yawn. Apparently we're supposed to expect some surprises. How about properly funding our ailing social services and urban infrastructure this time around? What's that you say? Tax cuts? Right....
Saturday, February 23, 2008
looking for clarity, imagination and some truth...
Canada has been involved in Afghanistan since October 2001. Almost seven years and two governments later and what exactly we're doing there, let alone what we've done, is not really clear. And further to this, why we're there, which is certainly related to what we're doing and have done, is not terribly obvious to the average citizen either. So you'll forgive me if I find the question of how much longer we plan to stay both a little premature and without purpose until we can get a handle on the present tense state of affairs. The future becomes a convenient distraction in this context.
But let's backtrack to the past for a moment. Last Remembrance Day I was in Ottawa and made it out to the War Memorial for the large national commemorative ceremony, accompanied by two friends, one who'd recently moved to Ottawa for graduate school, the other a visitor from Northern India. The out-of-town guest was in thrall to the whole spectacle, having never experienced such a ceremony in her part of India, she enthusiastically criss-crossed the periphery of the War Memorial to snap as many pictures as possible. My other friend is a committed advocate for peace, doing her PhD in an area directly related to peace-making. She and I were in what I can best describe as existential shock when the voice at the podium began to intone: "We love our troops, repeat after me, 'we love our troops'." And of course the large crowd did repeat after him. And everybody broke into loud applause. And that was the shocking part - it didn't take much to make a case for war.
As a nation we have essentially lost our right as citizens to criticize Canada's role in Afghanistan because to do so would be to launch a personal attack on the men and women in uniform. This is ridiculous logic, of course, because a person is capable of supporting our troops without supporting THIS mission. And no matter how many intelligent people point this out, the "repeat after me" mentality gets louder and more single-minded, making a clear understanding of our present role in Afghanistan extremely difficult, if not impossible.
There are some very good reasons for Canada to be in Afghanistan right now. Our traditional role as post-conflict peacekeeper, and our unique identity as a rich and non-European neutral power without any history of international conquest, makes us a strong agent for diplomatic compromise in a country that been the plaything of Empires for most of modern history. But we need clarity on our activities, the public should be informed of the actual objectives of the mission, our current capacity to realize them, and an honest representation of both our victories AND our losses.
We also need imagination. A vision of the future that is limited to legalistic bickering over an exact withdrawal date is a disservice to all the work we are currently undertaking, as well as a failure to support the independent nation we hope to leave behind. Our vision should be one broad enough to encompass hope for Afghanistan, and yet realistic enough to admit that a timeline for withdrawal may not yet be possible. Commitment to a vision, and not to an election cycle, is what Afghanistan needs from all NATO countries, and Canada especially since we maintain close relations with both the United States and Britain, the other key agents in this complex reality.
And we need truth. Without honest reporting, and up front political accounting, we will never be in a position to make a positive difference because we will be working from imperfect information which will inevitably lead to poor decisions.
And so I offer up a series of what I consider to be insightful pieces, all published in The Walrus magazine over the past year, which have greatly increased my understanding of the current state of the mission in Afghanistan, and some of the particular challenges we still face:
3D Vision by Taylor Owen and Patrick Travers (published July/August 2007 issue)
Road of Fire by Hugh Graham (published December 2007 issue)
Review of "Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan" by Ken Alexander (December 2007 issue)
But let's backtrack to the past for a moment. Last Remembrance Day I was in Ottawa and made it out to the War Memorial for the large national commemorative ceremony, accompanied by two friends, one who'd recently moved to Ottawa for graduate school, the other a visitor from Northern India. The out-of-town guest was in thrall to the whole spectacle, having never experienced such a ceremony in her part of India, she enthusiastically criss-crossed the periphery of the War Memorial to snap as many pictures as possible. My other friend is a committed advocate for peace, doing her PhD in an area directly related to peace-making. She and I were in what I can best describe as existential shock when the voice at the podium began to intone: "We love our troops, repeat after me, 'we love our troops'." And of course the large crowd did repeat after him. And everybody broke into loud applause. And that was the shocking part - it didn't take much to make a case for war.
As a nation we have essentially lost our right as citizens to criticize Canada's role in Afghanistan because to do so would be to launch a personal attack on the men and women in uniform. This is ridiculous logic, of course, because a person is capable of supporting our troops without supporting THIS mission. And no matter how many intelligent people point this out, the "repeat after me" mentality gets louder and more single-minded, making a clear understanding of our present role in Afghanistan extremely difficult, if not impossible.
There are some very good reasons for Canada to be in Afghanistan right now. Our traditional role as post-conflict peacekeeper, and our unique identity as a rich and non-European neutral power without any history of international conquest, makes us a strong agent for diplomatic compromise in a country that been the plaything of Empires for most of modern history. But we need clarity on our activities, the public should be informed of the actual objectives of the mission, our current capacity to realize them, and an honest representation of both our victories AND our losses.
We also need imagination. A vision of the future that is limited to legalistic bickering over an exact withdrawal date is a disservice to all the work we are currently undertaking, as well as a failure to support the independent nation we hope to leave behind. Our vision should be one broad enough to encompass hope for Afghanistan, and yet realistic enough to admit that a timeline for withdrawal may not yet be possible. Commitment to a vision, and not to an election cycle, is what Afghanistan needs from all NATO countries, and Canada especially since we maintain close relations with both the United States and Britain, the other key agents in this complex reality.
And we need truth. Without honest reporting, and up front political accounting, we will never be in a position to make a positive difference because we will be working from imperfect information which will inevitably lead to poor decisions.
And so I offer up a series of what I consider to be insightful pieces, all published in The Walrus magazine over the past year, which have greatly increased my understanding of the current state of the mission in Afghanistan, and some of the particular challenges we still face:
3D Vision by Taylor Owen and Patrick Travers (published July/August 2007 issue)
Road of Fire by Hugh Graham (published December 2007 issue)
Review of "Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan" by Ken Alexander (December 2007 issue)
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
okay, so we're back...
Yikes, it's been over two seasons since my last post! Well, I'm back...I think.
I mean it's the start of a year-long election season in the US, and in Canada we're always on stand-by for one of those voting things. Also it's the middle of winter and I'm suffering from cabin fever, so going back to this bloggerly space seems like a good way to pass some time and save some sanity.
A special thank you to my three loyal readers who never lost the faith and haven't yet deleted me from their favorites. This relaunch is dedicated to you. And so we begin again...
I mean it's the start of a year-long election season in the US, and in Canada we're always on stand-by for one of those voting things. Also it's the middle of winter and I'm suffering from cabin fever, so going back to this bloggerly space seems like a good way to pass some time and save some sanity.
A special thank you to my three loyal readers who never lost the faith and haven't yet deleted me from their favorites. This relaunch is dedicated to you. And so we begin again...
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