Open letter to Mr. Harper

 Dear Mr. Prime Minister

I think I can appreciate how satisfying and perhaps even energizing it is to visit other countries to discuss trade, the economy and the general state of world affairs. I am sure that the conversations that happen once the cameras are turned off can be challenging and stimulating.

It must be particularly gratifying to have the opportunity to speak other countries on how to create and run an effective democracy. I have listened to part of a number of your international comments and I have been impressed with your commitment and perhaps even your passion in regards to various specific ethnic, cultural or national groups’ right to self-determination. One can only hope that the various countries that are not as democratically evolved as you suggest Canada is, will quickly reach the ideals that you so eloquently describe.

Of course I too wish that those ideals could be met, not only in other countries but in Canada as well. I wonder, for example when your government will finally listen to those First Nations communities who continue to be lied to, obstructed in due process by your government, not listened to and ignored in spite of treaties, agreements and any reasonable definition of human rights.  I wonder as well why you and your government have created a new bill purportedly to improve our electoral process when not only does that bill ignores the opinion of the past and present chief election officer but misquotes and takes out of context the very report you commissioned. But perhaps my expectations are just too high, stimulated no doubt by your rhetoric about what other countries should do.

I suppose the truth of the matter is that it is always so much easier to tell other people what to do as opposed to doing it ourselves.

Yours sincerely etc etc.

Do you think this is too sarcastic?

On being ethnocentric

A few weeks ago I was attending a lecture (I do a seminar attached to the lecture so I get to sit in the audience and observe). The topic of the day was gender inequality. I find it incredible that in Canada it is an issue that needs to be discussed.  We as a nation and as individuals should be well past not only the debate but in fact have systems in place that ensure equality for all is the status quo. Unfortunately we are nowhere close to that goal.

The class started to talk about other countries. It is so much easier to find fault with others rather than ourselves. Specifically it was mentioned that in Bombay (Mumbai), India, of 8000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7900 were of female fetuses. And of course everyone was horrified. The class then moved to talking about China and the apparently well-known fact Chinese would prefer to have male children rather than female children.

I am becoming more cautious of believing something just because “everyone knows” that it is true. A few years ago I was picked up by a Mom, Dad and their two kids (one boy, one girl) who had just immigrated from China. It was not a long ride but I did ask them about having two children stating that I believed in China this was not allowed. They had a hard time understanding my question in part because there was a language issue (their English as poor as it was, was far better than my non-existent Mandarin). But the question made no sense to them. They indicated that in the city the number of children could be an issue but they were from a rural area and no one was concerned there that they had two kids or that one was a girl. This family may have been an exception. The number of children may have even been the reason why they immigrated but their comments did cause me to think about absolute statements

As I sat there in class I started to realize how ethnocentric we were all being. We were  saying that our culture’s values were superior to other cultures’ values. That is because we in Canada at least on paper, state that both sexes are of equal value, any culture (race?) that has a different set of practices must be wrong. Even if there are logical (to them) reasons why those culture values and practices are in place, we in the west, state that they are wrong to believe those things.

To be clear – I am a strong advocate for women around the world to be empowered to be in control of their own lives. Cultures or countries or faiths that deny women the right to education and opportunities need to change those policies. That is, in my mind, not negotiable. It needs to happen sooner than later. 

In a country of 1.3 billion people it is not surprising (in fact one could argue that it is responsible) that China limits the number of children born. While it may be repellant to many of us that boys are valued more than girls, both India and China have had over 3000 years of history that supports those values. Before we condemn other cultures and their values we need to remember that Europeans (and their descendants) have a long history of making moral judgments on other cultures only to realize 200 years later that they were wrong. We also need to remember that 80 odd years ago in Canada women who were of a visible minority or were from a First Nation were not allowed to vote. It was not until 1944 that women in Quebec were allowed to vote in provincial elections. We are far from perfect and it has taken us a long time to get even to here. And we live in one of the richest countries in the world with a variety of financial and personal choices.

So while I don’t agree with the attitude that women have less value than men, I do think that rather than condemning them as being some sort of barbarians that we attempt to understand how and why they make decisions. Maybe then we can figure out some way of growing up together so that everyone’s potential is maximized. And maybe before we spend too much energy finding fault with the rest of the world we could make sure that we are as perfect as we expect others to be.

No News?

Every morning while eating breakfast, I turn on my tablet and read the CBC news. Some mornings the top 10 new stories of the day are not that interesting. For example there was a bit of a dry spell when the Olympics were happening  (it is worth noting that the top ten stories seldom includes news from the Paralympic), but usually there are three or four items that are both interesting and informative.

While it may be somewhat unfair to make too many assumptions from the news items that are presented, I think if nothing else, which topics are chosen accurately reflect the editors perception of either what is important to readers or the length of their all too short attention span. A week ago the top story was what was happening in the Ukraine. Today there was nothing. Nothing. Which of course, leads me to wonder what is going on both in that country and in the minds of the editors.

There is no doubt that the situation in the Ukraine is very complicated. I suspect that for even people who live there it is confusing. Russia, like all imperialist powers, cannot seem to give up that sense of moral superiority that allows them to make absurd statement with absolute conviction ("we are just protecting our nationals who live there") while the whole world knows that it is just about protecting their access to  warm ports etc. for their navy. But is there a majority of people in some parts of the country who want closer ties to Russia? Do they have the right to separate from the rest of Ukraine? Ask a separatist from Quebec, or a Scottish Nationalist or a Basque.

It appears to have been a "peaceful" invasion. That is there has been no one killed. But none-the-less it has been an invasion. And of course other than some figurative sabre rattling, no one has done anything about it. And unless Russia does something incredibly stupid like shooting hundreds of civilians where there are western news cameras, I would bet dollars to donuts that no one will. After all we have not done anything substantial to assist the Syrians. Neil Macdonald, CBC's Senior Washington Correspondent wrote a great article a few days ago pointing out the hypocrisy of other world powers (most of who have also been imperialist in the past and at least one remains so) of complaining about Russia's activities.

I am not saying the "West" should do anything. I honestly don't understand all of the issues enough to be sure.  Before we can make decisions we need good reporting from unbiased sources (the CBC reporting has felt somewhat biased in terms of leaning towards the west). We need to have access to that information all of the time, not just when editors think we want it or can "handle it".

It is insulting for the editors that I either have the attention span or the intelligence of a gnat. We the public deserve better than that.

On the Road Again 2014 Prologue

On Friday as I was driving around with my daughter, she asked if I wanted to go to the camping store  to look for stuff for my summer trip. My answer was no. Which in hindsight was an absurd answer. Who can ever have too much equipment? So why did I say no?

It is March 2, 2014 and with one exception I have not thought about traveling for months. That doesn't mean that I don't want to do it - it just means that the urge to wander has not started to stir inside me yet. It must be the weather. Usually by this time in the year I have dreamed (either day or night time dreams) about the upcoming trip a bunch of times; I would have started to recall certain spots of the road where I have stood eight or nine times in the past years and remembered the rides. Every time I would see a big truck on the road  I would wonder if there would be room for me. I would have started to think about my dream rides and to wonder if this year I would get a long ride in a really nice travel home or if I will get to go through the Rockies in a convertible. But none of that has happened this year - not yet.  It is hard to think about traveling when either it is well below zero or it is snowing.

So can we have some nice weather  - please.................

No more complaints (at least for a while)

I am tired. I am tired of being angry, of constantly complaining and of feeling that I am somehow obliged to continue in my role of an "angry young man". There is just so much to be frustrated about; so much that that needs to be talked about such as:

The Olympics - I could not help but notice that when it appeared as if Canada was in a bit of a slump in terms of medal production, commentators started to wonder what was wrong with Canada's Olympic team/program. Personally I think I won a silver medal (which would mean that I was, at that particular moment, pretty damn good at what I did) and someone said that perhaps I was washed up or getting ready to retire - I would take that medal and shove it up an orifice of that commentator where it would be immensely uncomfortable.

Did you realize that if we divided equally the amount Russians spent getting ready for the Olympics everyone in the world would be a multi millionaire?

Fair Elections Act - The absurdity of the changes and the blatancy of the self-serving hypocrisy of the present federal government is just depressing. One has to wonder if the plan is to continuously create new  forms of law, regulations or manipulations (some of which would shame the robber barons of the 19th century) just so that we will forget the ones that they created last month.

Ukraine - I note that while the West (including Canada) have quite strenuously demanded that the government of the Ukraine stop treating its citizens so badly and that they should do what the protesters are demanding have in fact offered nothing (except to suggest sanctions which will only impoverish that country even more and make Russia's offer more attractive). Russia has offered real financial aid. If we want people to do what we want them to do - perhaps bribery is sometimes required. Our federal government is clearly not opposed to financially rewarding its political friends in the business community - perhaps they should try that technique in the world political arena.

On a related note - if during the G-20 demonstrations (where Canadian police used harsh and aggressive tactics including arresting people without grounds) the protesters had refused to move and instead fought back with the same tenacity that those in the Ukraine (or Egypt or Syria) have shown -would the Canadian government have listened? They certainly seem to saying that governments must listen to those who are determined to protest. I am just asking.....

So I am going to stop being critical for a while - as you can note from the above, I have already started - and just talk about other things that are less depressing.

Wish me good luck on that.