Year End

I am almost finished for another year. Within another ten days or so I will be done teaching until next September (on the assumption that I get my contract renewed). It has felt like a long semester for no particular reason, or at least no reason related to school. Of course the fact that our first taste of spring came so early has made it especially difficult to focus on the tasks at hand. Spring fever can be a debilitating condition. And so I am glad that it is almost over. Almost over that is except for the marking. This, for what it is worth, is not nearly as an onerous task as some would have you believe.

Four months off – it sounds like an eternity, an almost unimaginable amount of time off to do whatever I want to do. I suspect my father or some other men of his generation would have been in awe of having that much time off and perhaps even confused by the concept that the time was theirs to do what they wanted with it. Of course it is not entirely free. I have a few medical appointments, a couple of birthday parties to attend, a pile of wool washing, spinning and weaving to do, and of course I have to pack. Because it is travelling time again!!!

For the last four or five weeks my thumb once again has started (metaphorically) to itch – just begging to be out on the highway. Every transport truck that I pass or every car on the highway that passes me has become a potential ride. I sometimes feel like some sort of ravenous vegetarian beast lying in the jungle waiting to pounce upon the unsuspecting drivers. I slow to check out crossroads to see where would be a good place to stand; along lonely stretches of highway I look just beyond the shoulder and wonder if there is a bit of flat ground to sleep that night. I swear this need; this compulsion to travel is a disease. It is a disease that I embrace and welcome. I can’t wait to go.

This year is going to be special. I am going to Yellowknife before going to the west coast. For years I have thought about going north. It is the only direction I have not travelled in Canada. I know that I am getting a bit older. I know that I won’t be able to travel this way forever. Every year I feel the wear and tear on my body just a little bit more. The long hills I have to walk up seem to get a bit higher, and when I sleep outside the ground seems a bit harder. So for a few days I want to spend time in a place where the sun stays visible all of the time, I want to know what it feels like to be out at midnight and still see the sun. But also want to see some new highways; to talk to people who live a different life than those of us who live in the south; I want to see a different kind of land. I am excited about the possibilities.


But then I suspect if I was going anywhere – I would still be excited. I am almost on the road again.

The budget(s) and the environment

There are times when I just get tired of being angry/upset at politicians who seem to delight at being either incompetent or so narrow minded that they can’t see the damage they are doing. And while it might appear to the casual reader that I unfairly “pick” upon the Conservatives in office in Ottawa ( it is not unfair if they are the ones making all of the mistakes), the Liberals in Queen’s Park are not doing much better. Specifically both of the recent budgets that have been delivered by the respective finance ministers have dealt a potential blow to Canada’s already inadequate environmental protection law. I just can't stop myself from wanting to scream at someone.

I have to assume that neither Dwight Duncan from Ontario nor Jim Flaherty from Ottawa had a conversation last week with each other before they tabled their budgets. However it would appear that they, in spite of the fact that are from different political parties and would argue that they are light years apart, had exactly the same message. Quite simply, according to both Finance Ministers, the environmental review process is too slow, unwieldy, cumbersome and expensive. It needs to be streamline, shortened and made both simpler and faster. Both parties swear that the proposed changes will not have any effect upon the environment. They all promise that that they will ensure that our environment will continue to be protected (italic are mine).

What is remarkable is that both governments announced the changes by including the announcement in the budget! This is a rather clever strategy both because they will be less noticed and more importantly that there will be virtually no discussion or input from the public as to what the changes are, who is going to design the new system, or the potential impact upon the environment.

To be fair, the Conservatives were far less sneaky about wanting these changes. But then they have a majority and apparently that means that they can do what they want. In fact that have been very blatant about what they want – it is clear that they would prefer to have no environmental reviews at all. It would appear that they believe what is good for the oil companies’ (and other resource extractors) is good for Canada. To ensure that this happens they are about to make it very difficult for not-for-profit environmental agencies to advocate politically for their causes – but the obscenity of that is fodder for another blog.

I can appreciate that environmental reviews are expensive and time consuming for companies. I can understand that they have millions of dollars tied up while they go through the various processes. If I were a major resource developer I would want to have easy and quick access to the raw materials in the ground. I would also, I suspect, do all that I could to influence the government to make my life easier. That is all understandable. I don’t agree with that perspective that says we humans have dominion over the earth and therefore we can rape it at will. But I understand it.

I can even understand people who are in office wanting to stay in office. I know of  the importance of finding a balance between people’s values. But for the life of me, I can’t understand anyone being prepared to allow things to happen, knowing the danger to the people and to the land. (Does anyone really believe that the newest proposed pipeline won’t at some point develop a problem and spill raw crude on the ground?) It is a fundamental betrayal of the people who elected them and the land that supports them.

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.