You might want to read this book

I seldom recommend books for others to read. There are just too many of them out there for me to ever say “this is the best book ever”, or “you have to read this book!” Books are almost always a matter of personal taste both in terms of style and content. There are a few authors that I would occasionally recommend to a friend but generally speaking I avoid any suggestion that my personal taste in anything is sufficiently well enough developed that someone else should listen to me. But today I am making an exception to this rule …..

I have just finished reading Dr. Suzanne Nutt’s book entitled Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid. It is a stunning and compelling discussion on the failure of aid from the developed world to the developing world. Dr. Nutt has a M.Sc in Public Health as well as being a doctor of medicine. As an advocate for children’s’ right she has, for the past 15 years, been to all of those places that are on the 10:00 news so often because of what seems like an endless cycle of natural disasters and war. Dr. Nutt’s concern and outrage at the ineffectiveness of many of the most visible aid agencies is supported by both well researched facts and personal stories. In her far too short book she talks about the women that she has met, and of how some of them have been killed for speaking out and of the extraordinary courage of those women who have survived and continue to fight. Dr. Nutt’s message is powerful and depressingly clear. Both individuals and as a government Canadians are not only not doing enough, but what we are doing may be ineffective.

While I knew some of the information and in fact talk about it in one of my classes, there was much that I did not know or understand. I think what was most depressing was the fact that many of the aid agencies are not listening to, or engaging as equal colleagues the people who live in the affected areas. It would appear as if we are still performing charitable acts; that is we are doing something that we think will help someone because it makes us feel righteous, kind and noble. That has to be the wrong reason to help someone. And sometimes I think, that when you do things for the wrong reasons – no matter how right the act seems – it is fated to go wrong.

Read the book. Perhaps a few people will change how they give support and to whom. Perhaps some of us will work harder at trying to convince our government to think about why they give money to countries and how. Perhaps they, rather than decreasing the amount that we give (in terms of the GDP), they will work on giving something close to what such countries as Demark, Sweden and Norway give. Perhaps by helping others, we will rediscover what the word aid means.

Blackie and weather predictions

Yesterday I wore sandals for the first time. To be more accurate -for the first time this year I wore sandals outside.  I, as anyone who knows me knows, I wear sandals in school all year ‘round. But I do not think that I have ever worn sandals so early in the year outside.

To be honest it was a bit nippy on my naked toes at 7:30 in the morning. Not unbearable – but not that comfortable either. My usual rule is- if my hands don’t need gloves then my feet don’t need socks; my hands were in my pockets because they were a bit cold. But I wore the sandals because I knew at 4:00 when I was done for the day that it would be spring like, if not early summer like, and my feet would resent having socks and shoes on.

But this is too early for such nice weather. Last week driving around somewhere in southern Ontario I saw a flock – yes that is right a flock of robins!  And just a few days ago when it rained I could smell the fresh smell that only spring rain has. That smell and of course the smell of melting/dissolving dog poop are sure signs of spring. Again I say it is too early.

If I could be convinced that the Gods of Weather were not playing a trick on us (and therefore we are going to get one hell of a storm at some point in the next few weeks) or if I was sure that there was enough moisture in the ground for the farmers to be successful and for the forest not to burn – I would be delighted. But I am quite sure that all three of those things can and will happen. It is not natural to have a winter that is so without the snow and so without the cold. It feels as if something is wrong in the world.

Of course something is wrong in the world – climate change is a reality. What one could expect and predict with some consistency is no longer true. For over 40 years I have been able to predict/guess with some accuracy when spring was going to arrive. I was taught this skill by a counselor at camp when I was 10 or 11. Blackie was a Mohawk from the First Nation community of Kanesatake near Montreal. Blackie somehow recognized that even at that age I would be walking a slightly different path than most of my peers, and he showed me it was okay to be different.  Predicting when spring would arrive was a secret that he shared with me – and for the most part I have kept that secret.  But this year for the first time – I didn’t hear and see what I needed to see and hear to predict when spring would be here. I am sad about that. We should all be sad. Not because some ancient way of knowing the world may no longer be useful, but because the world is changing and there seem to be so few people who care why, and even fewer people who prepared to invest the time and the energy to understand how this new world will work.

rant - politics

It is difficult to not be upset over the apparent messing about with people’s right (and obligation) to vote. If half of what is alleged to have occurred did in fact happen, we should all be outraged. It is unfortunate that there does not appear to be an even stronger reaction on the part of the public. Maybe it is because we don’t know who to blame. Personally I don’t have enough information to clearly lay the blame at the feet of the Conservatives. I suspect however, that all of us who are deeply concerned by their attitude around so many things – really want them to be guilty of this too.  

However, perhaps even more disturbing than the possibility that there was yet another interjection of US style manipulation of the voting public, is the outrages responses of the Conservative spokesman. Dean Del Mestro happens to be the MP for the Peterborough. I am embarrassed by his approach which quite simply appears to be – if asked a question- attack the questioner. Last night on the news I heard him say that the Liberals should be forced to release their phone records but not the Conservatives. The reason – he knew the Conservatives were innocent and therefore their records were not needed, but as he knew the Liberals had in fact perpetuated this upon the Canadian people (I paraphrase here), they should release their records. I am sure there are a number of criminals in Canada who would like to use this offense. I am innocent – you should believe me because I say so.

It would seem to me that they are protesting far too much. If all parties have nothing to hide – then for heaven’s sake all of you should lay your cards on the table, let the police do their job and get on with the job you get paid for – governing the country. Failure to voluntarily produce the necessary records should be seen as admission of guilt, for both sides of the House. This silliness of people taking shots at each other across the aisle is not productive.

Surely there can be no doubt that calling people and telling them their poll has been moved is wrong. Can we just get on with it, find out who made the calls and then prosecute those who did? I don’t mean to just prosecute the person who signed the check, but as well the people who said it was okay to do so. And that must mean some senior management people. In the corporate world that conservatives are so keen on referring to as the ideal governance model, the managers are held responsible for what their teams do. That should be true in government as well.

 However in spite of my fantasy of having a parliament that is effective and useful, I suspect that this will drag on for months.  We, as a people, need to be careful that we do not tire of this, that we do not reduce the pressure on Parliament to find the truth.  If want the youth of this country to become politically engaged, they need to know that their vote means something. This is not the way to do that. On the other hand – perhaps the anger over this issue will motivate them to vote in larger numbers.

On a side note…. I can only hope that where there is smoke there is fire. If nothing happened, or if something untoward only happened Guelph, then much of the Liberal’s (and to a much lesser extend the NDP’s) reputation and energy will be shattered for some time. I sure hope they know what they are talking about.

cars and insurance!!

What to rant about first?

My car. It was not a great car. While it was incredibly economical to drive and the interior was perhaps the largest of any small car if have ever been it – it was rather uncomfortable to drive for any distance. The seat made my bum go numb. But as I don’t drive very far very often, the uncomfortableness was not a n overwhelming problem. It was not a great car but it was mine. I had no intention of looking at a newer car any time soon.

Last week on the way to work, a young student lost control of her vehicle, crossed over into my lane and smashed into me. Both of my airbags (and hers) went off. Neither car was going very fast and so no one was injured. Fire truck, ambulance, two police cars and the campus security all arrived fairly quickly. Even the sander came within ten minutes of the accident. While clearly the young student is responsible for the accident as her car hit mine in my lane, there was nothing that she could have done. The road was very icy; they tried to turn but the car just continued in a straight line. The college should have sanded the road before students and staff started to arrive. They didn’t and now I don’t have a car.

However my frustration is not with the college (although I do have dreams of suing them), it is with the insurance and car companies. Air bags are now required on all vehicles. They probably save lives. In my case all they did was give me a bruised rib cage that still, a week later, is sore. However I am willing to accept that if we both had been going faster, the air bags could have prevented serious injuries. But if we have to have air bags, why does it mean that when they explode we throw away the car? It appears to be an almost universal truth that if an airbag goes off, the car is written off by the insurance company. They are just too expensive to fix. How absurd!!! 

Those of us who are conscious of the environment and the need to stop raping the planet do everything we can to reduce the size of our footprints upon Mother Earth. We worry about recycling juice cans, wine bottles and tiny bits of plastic; we buy small cars that use as little gas as possible, we carry around our brightly coloured reusable shopping bags so that we don’t need to use plastic ones and we write on both sides of our paper and use toilet paper that comes from recycled products so we don’t kill any more trees than we have to. But when an accident occurs, in spite of our concerns all of that good work goes to waste in a split second when there is a car accident.

My car was damaged. But it was not so damaged that the tow truck driver couldn’t start it up and drive it to more convenient (and safer) location fifty yards down the road to hook it up to the tow truck. Yes it needed significant work done to repair the bumper, hood and both front fenders. but mechanically it was fine – it was repairable. It just, according to the insurance company, would cost too much to repair.

I somehow suspect that the insurance company does not have to calculate the cost to the environment of writing off a car. I know that people will argue that all parts of the car are recycled…… but you will forgive me if I remain somewhat cynical about that.

Car safety is important – but can’t we design and air bag that is cheaper to replace?

I am sleeping for awhile

I have been taking some time off from the blog and I am going to take a bit more time off..... I will get back around March 1st. Weaving and school work are consuming me.

But I can feel the open road calling me. It won't be long before I start to pack my bags.........