Neighbour vs. Nature

Neighbour is a strange breed. I am living the life of a single homeowner with a yard of green grass up front and a small vegetable patch out back. I have neighbours who are retired who spend their time watching their neighbours and the neighbourhood. There is something nice and reassuring in that. One of them even scared off a possible burglar when I was out of town, I was told. The problem is that I can only do the yard works when I have the time. My yard is therefore less manicured than theirs and my ‘farming’ schedule is not always on time. They all kindly remind me of my duties and inform me of better ways of doing things. I thank them for it sincerely. And then they continue on, talking about this and that. And soon we are experiencing the most unpleasant way that man gossip. I am not above gossip, but men in general are not good at it. Gossip is storytelling. No matter how good a storyteller you are, you cannot tell a story when pretending not to be telling a story. It is mixed with, inexpressive eagerness, shame, embarrassment and confused excitement. A good study case for psychology, for sure, but it is not very interesting. What is worst is that it goes on and on. Since they think I should spend more time on my yard, why can they not just say hello, exchange some pleasantries and then leave me alone? Now it is getting dark when they bid me farewell and I have hardly started. The dandelions are smiling evilly at me, no doubt calculating how far their offsprings will have to travel to get to those pristine uncolonized pastures down the road. Meanwhile I give them my blessing (what else can I do?) and go back inside. Spring is the time for things to grow and multiply, who am I to fight nature.

Too Green, Too Late

Health Canada has issued a warning on lobster tomalley. An adult should not eat more than the tomalley of two lobsters a day and a child one. Most people I know, particularly white Canadians, do not usually eat the tomalley. And for those who eat tomalley, they practically have to fight for every bit of it. I do not know what it is like in Nova Scotia, but out here, a lobster per person is an extraordinary luxury. I can only dream of a situation where I can have more than two lobsters at one meal. To be honest, I am not sure if I want to eat more than two lobsters at one time. Considering the price of the thing, if you are going to eat more than two lobsters, maybe you should risk a little bit your life on it. This warning is a couple hundred years too late. Once upon a time, a couple hundred years ago, lobsters were so abundant in the East Coast that it was specified in some labour contract that employers could not feed their workers lobsters more than four days a week. Too bad there were no warnings back then, I might have saved a couple of strikes, perhaps. It is, unfortunately a couple hundreds of years too late.

Wild Wild Yeast

At the Eat! Vancouver event today, I ran into a most interesting winemaker. The guy has been making wine for sale for decades, one of the oldest around here, but few have heard of his wines. He makes just about everything, Pinot Noir, Marechal Fock, Rougeon, Verdelet, Interlaken, cherry, plum, pear, etc. The wines are not great but good. What is remarkable is the way he makes his wine—by natural fermentation. Because of the wild yeast, the wines are anything but typical. They all have this yeastiness to them even though they are not made sur lie. The Pinot Noir tasted like a dry vintage port, not at all what I expected. If I were to rate these wines, I would not give them a very high mark; but I would buy them, drink them and serve them to trusted friends. They are the kind of things that reminds me even in this epoch of mechanical reproduction difference is still possible, and monotony does not have to be the norm. So, I must tip my hat to the Ritlop family and the St. Laszlo Estate Winery and Vinyards. Even though they do not sell your wines at the big stores and fancy restaurants, I will always remember your wines, along with those of Venturi Schultz, as things that make the world interesting.

Used Books

I went used book shopping today. Unlike new book shopping, you cannot have a shopping list when used book shop because you never know what will be on the shelves. It is an exploration, an encounter with chance, and a test of patience. Used book shopping is also not like old book shopping. Old book shopping is for collectors, a meeting of hubris and wealth. Used books are not collectables, not historically significant, and not expansive. It is an encounter, or, rather, a hope to encounter. You walk through shelves and shelves of yellowed, crumbling and rotting pages to find the one that is in good condition, well bound, clean and interesting. You reach for on, pull it from its spine, and there it is, in your hands. It may not feel right; it may be disappointing; it maybe damaged. But then, there is the one that feels right, exactly the one you did not know you are looking for. As you flip through the pages, the book is soft and warm. It is made so by its previous owner, by its past. It has a story, a mystery. Someone once bought it, gave it to a love one, perhaps, read it, likely, care for it for year, surely, and then, for whatever reason, sold it. You do not know the who, the when, the how, and the why, but it is there, you can feel it in your hands. You fall in love with it, bring it home and put it next to other books on your own shelves. You look at the shelves and can tell where and when you bought each book, how you have care for them and bring them with you wherever you moved, and you recall every time you open each page. And putting this ‘new’ one you just picked up into the rank of your other books is like inserting a mysterious narrative into your own story with the hope of opening yours up more, enriching it, transforming it.

Fourth Estate

A large group of reporters walked out of a Stephen Harper news conference in protest of the PMO’s insistence on choosing who got to ask questions. Pre-selecting questioners is very dangerous because it can become a favour that the PMO can use to buy the opinion of the press. Take the situation in the U.S. for example, press access is granted only to those who work as enthusiastic mouth pieces of the government, chief amongst them Fox News. If this becomes the case in Canada, we will only be reading government propaganda on our newspaper. And that is not a situation most Canadians want to find themselves in. It, however, may not have to be a bad thing entirely. For too long many of our journalists have gotten a bit lazy and the news have become mainly what people said rather than what happened. Quotes are more important than events. Now that access to quotes has been controlled, journalists are forced to choose between propaganda and real journalistic work. I hope most of our journalists choose the latter and start working hard on finding out and learning about issue and stories that they are reporting and not just telling us, so-and-so said this and so-and-so said that. If the PMO insists on their course of action, it may just be the shock that takes the news media back to their position as the Fourth Estate, the counter-balance of the established power. Let’s hope it does not go the other way.

Sh.....

Stephen Harper is going to run out of items soon, let’s hope. The “I-am-not-telling-you-because-you-ain’t-going-to-like-it” item is the Kyoto Protocol. It has been ‘leaked’ that the Harper government is going to reject the Kyoto Protocol and join a new group made up of the world’s largest polluters. So, this is leadership: leaving the leadership post in perhaps the most important movement for the world future to be a follower of the status quo. Why is the government taking this unpopular move? To spite the Liberal government and its legacy? To serve the oil sand industry? Or, to be the dog for the U.S. government? None of these are for the betterment of Canada or the world. Spite is petty. Oil sand is but one industry, very localized industry. And no Canadian government should work for any other country. There are a lot of hot air coming out of Alberta saying how much a failure Kyoto is. Well, if there is a province that hates the Kyoto Accord, Alberta with it oil sand industry is it. The Harper government is not the Albertan government but the government of the whole of Canada. As such, it should take policies that is supported by at least most of the provinces of this country. Maybe that is why he is afraid of tell us anything at all. If we do not know, we cannot stop him. The mess that is the Liberal Party and the impotence of the NDP are starting to look very attractive; and the prospect of another election not so annoying.

Ideologue

As if he is trying to make me happy, Fareed Zakaria writes an article for Newsweek’s May 29 issue that I agree completely. He does not call Chaney an ideologue but the Chaney described in the article is exactly that of an ideologue—he tries to impose an ideology on others with total disregard of their wishes and well-beings. It is not only on democracy that the present U.S. administration is behaving this way. Their blind faith in tax cut as the economic cure-all, for example, is just another example. There is no reasoning, no argument, no explanation on anything they do. Election will solve all the problem in Iraq, they say. It is stated and stated again, but there is no explanation as to why that is the case. When it comes to tax breaks, Reaganomics as least had a ‘trickle down theory,’ however laughable that is (who wants to be at the receiving end waiting and waiting for a trickle, unless that is your fetish?). This administration states the cause and effect as a matter beyond dispute, a matter of religious truth. The consequence is as Zakaria writes that the U.S. is losing all credibility and good wills around the world.

Who is Naziing Whom?

I do not want to seem to be obsessing about the PM. It would certainly be a most unpleasant experience. The problem is Mr. Harper is toping himself everyday in ridiculousness to make it hard not to talk about him. Today Mr. Harper claims and condemned the Iranian government for requiring Jews and Christian to wear distinguishing colours like the Star of David the Nazi required Jews to wear. If this were true, everyone on this planet should join in the condemnation. Unfortunately this ‘law’ is completely unknown to Jews and Christians living in Iran. As it turned out, the ‘news’ of this ‘law’ comes from the National Post with information provided by “Iranian expatriates living in Canada.” There is just no such thing in Iran. It is not news that the Post makes elementary, or even intentional, mistakes in its reports, but for the PM to make such mistake is ridiculous. Someone close to the PM should tell him to get his intelligence from better sources than the Post. Even if wee have a international spying agency that he wants, what good it is if this is the way he applies information. What is worse, when asked if he is sure about the Iranian law he just condemned, Harper would not “vouch” for it. So, our Prime Minister condemns a foreign country for being the next Nazi when he is not sure if that is the case? Oh, I forgot, he wants to be Bush-like, and that is indeed a very Bush-like thing to do. Maybe he will bring out the Bush-like giggle next.

Long Live the...

It must be wonderful to be Stephen Harper. Just as soon as he claimed that even if parliament had voted against his plan for Afghanistan he would still have done exactly as he wanted, he said he would not be bound by the result of the upcoming vote on the Kyoto Accord. Is this not the wet dream of any power-obsessed politician? Parliament and democracy are just formality without power or influence on the wishes of the great leader! There is an upside to this, I guess. Since he is in effect claiming absolute power, maybe we should make it formal and crown him king. That way we can simplify government by eliminating the office of the Lieutenant General, which Mr. Harper hates anyway. And we can be finally free for the House of Windsor. Pierre Trudeau repatriated our constitution, Harper can one up this hated figure by repatriating our sovereign. Let’s all rejoice, the golden age of the Canadian Empire will soon be upon us. None of us will have anything to worry about anymore in Harperland.

Kings and Tyrants

It is time for Canadians to serious think about whether this present government is acceptable or even tolerable anymore. We elected this government with a minority mandate to have a more open and clean government. Such is the Tories promise but what we have is quite the opposite. This government is closed, dictatorial and underhanded. If the problem with Chretien and Martin was that they acted like they were kings, Harper acts like a ancient Greek tyrant. Kings least try to appear just and open to consultation. Tyrants make no such pretense and use any means necessary to exercise their wills. The ‘debate’ of Canadian involvement in Afghanistan is just the most recent example. If we, as citizens of this country, and our representatives in Parliament are not given ample time and information about issues as important as sending troupes into danger, what kind of democracy do we have? What kind of Prime Minister do we have? If the parties in Ottawa are unwilling to voice their objections and fight this dictator, we must bring it to them. If indeed part of the reasoning for the secrecy and underhandedness of this recent ‘debate’ is to cozy up to the Bush administration as the Toronto Star suggested, then our soldiers’ blood may be sold down the river to serve a master not of our own. And that, no Canadian should let slide.

Do No Ham

The article “Overeaters, smokers and drinkers: the doctor won't see you now” in Maclean’s last month brings out some interesting issues, not whether some doctors are refusing to see patients with what are conceived to be unhealthy life choices, but to what we as citizens of this country are entitled. It is repeatedly stated, by interviewee as well as the authors, that the sense of entitlement of patients is what infuriate doctors. What they did not ask is whether we are entitled. If we are entitled, then the sense of entitlement is correct. If we are not entitled, there is good reason for the infuriation. The reason behind our medical system is the belief that all citizens are entitled to equal level of medical care. That is to say no matter you are fat or thin, rich or poor, you should receive the same care as the next person. It is not for the doctors, whatever level of frustration they feel, to turn patients away. We cannot put prerequisites on treatments because if that is the case then few traffic accident victims will be saved, for example, since most accidents are caused by drunk driving, negligent, speeding and ignoring traffic regulations. If we cannot treat smokers, whose sickness is the result of personal choice, then why is an attentive driver any different? Sure, the problem of obesity, smoking and drinking are serious and frustrating matters, but it should not be up to the doctors to make the decision of the availability of treatments. Even banning tobacco and rationing food and alcohol make better sense that that.

Mine, All Mind!

Since I have criticized Fareed Zakaria in his blog many times, some may think I dislike the man. This is far from the truth. I find Zakaria one of the few intelligent and thoughtful voices in the U.S. news media. What I find objectionable sometimes is the underlining desire of his thinking: how others can do things to our benefit. Take his article “The Real Story of Pricey Oil” for example. His analysis makes very good sense and his points are crucial to the discussion but rarely made. The problem I found is when he blames the major oil producing countries for not investing in the exploration and expansion of production. It is certainly true that the countries mentioned are not interested in exploration and expansion but that is done to their interests. If an under-supplied oil market keeps the price high and these countries influential, why should they want to change it? They do not work for the desire and the betterment of the U.S. but themselves. As Zakaria continues to point out in his article, the majority of the problem lies in the U.S. appetite for oil. The present ‘oil-crisis’ is by large the U.S.’s doing. Canada should take some blames too, but, in the scale of things, less that the U.S. I heard someone recently said on U.S. television that Canadian oil sand would supply the U.S. market for a hundred years. The one who said it made it sound like the oil sands belongs to the U.S. Maybe this is the problem: deep down, the U.S. thinks that they own all the world’s oil. Without shaking their heads clear of this thought, war will continue to be the only means of negotiation in the oil market. And that is more dangerous than the world running out of oil.

Wrong Decoder Ring

On the website www.jesusdecoded.com by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop George H. Niederauer opened his defense of his faith against “The Da Vinci Code” by telling a story where a Catholic school girl considered giving up her faith because “[The Da Vinci Code] is all real!” The consequence, I imagine, is that if this is commonly believed by all Catholic girls, there will be no more nuns in the future. The Archbiship continued on to show to all that the basic premise of the novel is factually wrong. The Archbiship took on a rather funny task—to prove that a work of fiction is indeed fictional. This is like proving the parables Jesus told in the Gospels are not literal. The problem, for the Church, is not whether the book is factual but that why are people, women in particular, so willing to accept it as history? What in it makes it so believable to the school girl mentioned in the Archbishop's article? There must be a kernel of truth somewhere, something that echoes reality. Since the Archbiship mentioned a Catholic girl, there must be something in the novel that makes it seems real to the girl. May I suggest to the Archbishop that it is not the dubious nature of the story that is attractive and seems real but the relationship between the Church and its female followers that rings true. It does not matter, for a work of fiction, to be historically correct. All it needs to do is to be empirically plausible. The novel is plausible because the Church has always been repressive towards women since the time of Paul and then Constantine. Rather then saying that young female minds are being misled by a pop novel, the Church should look at it as a venting of frustrations. To say that the novel is fiction would not change anything. To open the Church's hierarchy and decisions to women would.

CANNI?

The rejection of the .xxx domain suffix has been blamed mostly on the U.S. government's interference on the supposedly independent ICANN. One only people who know whether this is true are the members of the ICANN board and perhaps their therapist. Regardless, since the suffix is opposed explicitly by the U.S. government, the suspicion is automatic. If nothing else, this automatic suspicion, right or not, should make ICANN an international rather than U.S. body. Unfortunately, it is this suspicion, or rather the cause of this suspicion, that makes the U.S. unwilling to part with ICANN. Only a few months ago, the U.S. rejected calls to internationalize ICANN by saying that the government does not interfere with its operations and decisions. No sooner can they take a breath after the utterance, they wrote to opposite a motion in front of ICANN. No matter what anyone may say, it is interference and powerful interference, as the U.S. Commerce Department holds the purse string of ICANN. I co not want to call this two-face, but I cannot come up with anything else. While I do not agree that appearance is everything, in this case, it is a hell of a lot. If people cannot believe in the independence of ICANN, can they feel secure on the Internet? The U.S. like to take about the free and open exchange of information and ideas, relaxing their grip on ICANN will go a long way of ensuring it.

Mis-education

I had taught in high school and universities and I had spent over thirty years as a student all the way up the education ladder, but only recently, when I have left the education field or a few years, do I realize that the education systems in which I had participated do not teach young people three of the most fundamental things in life—food, sex and money management. The systems I am speaking of include kindergarten to graduate school in half a dozen countries. Schools, particularly from kindergarten to high school, are supposed to teach young people necessarily skills and knowledge for their grown up lives. Education in food and sex are left to the parents, who know increasingly little about the appropriate consumption and preparation of food and remains largely unwilling to deal deep into the discussion of sex. The consequence of this is extremely unhealthy eating in this age of plenty and stubborn continuation of unsafe and unhealthy sexual practices. We complaints about fast food and obesity, sexually transmitted deceases and teenage pregnancies, but we do not want these things taught in school? Money management is much the same. When the parents are running long credit lines to pay for unnecessary things, how can they teach their children good money management skills? No wonder kids are learning all these skills from MTV and tabloids (pardon the repetition).

Takes One to Know One

Maybe I was wrong a few days ago when I wrote that the opposition parties were not doing their jobs vis-à-vis the government. I was not aware then that the government can move things along all by itself. Maurice Vellacott, the chairman of the Commons aboriginal committee, falsely claimed that Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin said justices should take on ‘god-like’ power. All McLachlin said was that justices should “uphold unwritten constitutional norms, even in the face of clearly enacted laws or hostile public opinion." That is precisely what the justices are entrusted with: to uphold the constitution in its entirety. If the justices make decisions according to fashion, why would we need them? Why do we need law and government indeed? Just run a couple of polls and we are done. Vellacott is an idiot and an old-fashion reformer, so no one should be surprise. What is more unforgivable is Stephen Harper’s reaction. He flatly rejected the call for Vellacott’s dismissal and justified it by saying that “Liberals have made far more serious comments in the past about judges than those made by his MP.” What kind of reasoning is this? I thought he wanted to remove the Liberal from power because they were corrupt and unaccountable. I thought he wanted a clean and accountable government. Now, he let Vellacott goes on because Vellacott is no worse than the corrupt and unaccountable Liberals? If that is the way he thinks, then why did we have the last election? At least we know the Liberals are corrupt and unaccountable and would not have been cheated again. I know now why Harper spoke with such conviction when he denounced the Liberal government—it takes one to know one.

Fictions and Lies

We live in an age of government lies, deceits and informal concealment. It is not that it is not so in the past but it has become expertly managed and done as a matter-of-course. The actions, or non-actions, of the U.S. government are well documented in the last few years; and the Canadian government's actions have just started to fall under scrutiny. Take the flag-lowering story for example; it is done without apology, hiden behind the grieve and need for privacy of the families of the fallen soldiers. The whole things is predetermined to pluck at the heart string and misdirect the general public to see things in their opposite. It is a very melodramatic move, very tabloid. When news becomes inundated with such lies and spins, where can we look for some sense of truth? Ironically, one of the places for this is the fictional world. People who have been watching French independent films in the last decade or so were not surprised by the race riot there a few months ago. And the audience of the Constant Gardener are not surprise to read the Washington Post's report on Pfizer's illegal drug test in Nigeria. Has the time that desperately needs the storyteller's conscience returned? Or has it never left?

We Stand On Guard For... Eatting Utensils?

A school in Quebec punished a Filipino student for eating with a fork and a spoon. The reason the principle of the school allegedly gave to the mother of the child is “this is not the way Canadians eat; you have to adapt to Quebec society." I must have missed something, there is a way Canadians eat?” They must have forgotten to add that one in the citizenship test. They may have a specific way that they eat in Quebec, I don’t know. I have seen all kinds of ways of eating there, with fingers, unwashed, deep into large bowls of poutine. Now, poutine, that is one gloriously tasty food that is against all culinary, nutritional conventions and etiquettes. Yet, if there is a signature dish of Quebec, poutine would be it. Out here in Lotusland, we use all utensils in all combinations to eat all cuisines. Come to think of it, maybe we all have become so un-Canadian that we have completely lost our way. Maybe we need an anti-Canadian investigation to go through our everyday activities, the way we walk, the way we sleep, the way we wash ourselves, and the way we type, just to name a few examples. Who know, maybe the way we put on our socks has already undermined the fundamental values of our country to the core! Vigilance must be constant!

Anti-Evolution

It is spring and it is time to start planting my garden. When I was digging up weeds to prepare the ground for planting a few days ago, I could not help but doubt if we human beings are a superior species. I was removing bags and bags of fast growing, healthy and extremely easy to grow plants only to replace them with slow growing, finicky, and delicate to grow plants. Am I missing something? Other plant-eating animal would happily eat all that we call weeds. That is why they do not have to farm and just wander around. When they are hungry, they look down and voila dinner. We, the supposedly far smarter higher being, have to labour against everything that is natural to barely feed ourselves. That does not sound very smart to me. Making things worst is that all the plants we like to grow and eat once grew easily like weeds. We put all our smarts into making them ridiculously difficult to grow, compare to weeds. We end up babying every little sprout from seedlings to fruit, feed them, house them, water them, cure them of diseases, keep bugs off them, and some even sing to them. Sure, the result is some very tasty vegetables, but if we had not developed such taste our lives would be so much easier. Evolution may not have been such a great thing after all.

Slow First Period

The Conservative Government has just presented their first budget in Parliament. The budget and the reaction have been predictably but still disappointingly ho-hum. This budget cut GST by 1% and raised lower income tax rate by 0.5%, cut corporate tax rates, cut spending on natives and the environment, and the election promise of a child credit is included. This is a Conservative budget, so the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the natives and the environment get screwed. It is pretty much as expected. With the Liberal party in disarray, the Bloc losing ground at home, and no one listening to the NDP, it is hard to muster up any substantial objection. One interesting trend seems to continue from the last of the Paul Martin days: the two regional parties against the two nation wide parties. The Bloc is supporting the Conservatives may seem odd, as Reform was created in part in reaction to the Quebec situation, but if we look closely they may have more in common than it seems. They both have roots in separatist tendencies; they both have problem gaining support outside of their traditional bases; they both think of themselves as outsiders, and perhaps most importantly, they both dislike Ontario. With these two parties agreeing, the hope of having a fully functional opposition rests on the outcome of the excessively lengthy election of the Liberal leader. I hope they pick someone with some fire and colour to take the government to task. That is the only way the parliamentary system works. It wouldn’t hurt if the NDP find some media smarts and Jack Layton stops being nice. Let’s hope this is not a preview of things to come but a slow start for all parties.

Dollar for Dollar

Many in the media and financial institutions are predicting that the Canadian dollar will be on par with the U.S. dollar by the year’s end. This will put a heavy burden on export-oriented industries and will impact on employment in this country. While this is usually phrased as “the raise of the Canadian dollar,” it is not entire correct. The Canadian dollar has been and will be holding steady against the Euro and the Yen, indeed almost any currencies not tied to the U.S. dollar. This is not a rise of the Canadian dollar but a fall of the U.S. dollar. Consequently, there is very little that we can do to change the situation. The reason the movement of one single currency can have such impact on our economy is because we have traditionally relied on the U.S. for too much of our trades. As Canadian products, particularly those here out west, have become more sorted after, we should definitely diversify our customer base. Our governments should lead more strongly on this. If we can reduce the U.S. trade to 50% from 70-80% of total trade, the rise and fall of the U.S. economy will have much less of an impact on us and makes our economy much healthier.

Flag

Rondi Anderson writes in Sunday’s Toronto Star that lowering the flag after each Canadian soldier dies in action is not feasible because it would mean that the flag will be-prominently at half-mast for “next two decades, or more.” This is about as screwed up an argument as they come. This only makes sense if setting the flag half-mast costs a million dollar at a time and takes two battalions to work it. Someone should remind Mr. Anderson that we lower the flag not because it is easy to do but we acknowledge the sacrifice of the deceased made for his or her country. It is the least we can do. The Romans kept the doors to the temple of Mars open as long as the legions are in the fields. The conservatives like to say that they support and remember our soldiers, but now not lower the flag is the way they remember the soldiers. So what if the flag is never at full mast again? It is our government that sends the soldiers into war in our name. We should be like the Romans and have our own reminder of our soldier at war. The families’ mourning is private, but the nation’s is not. The lower of the flag is custom and the decision to go against it is political. Anderson gets it completely wrong. The flag is lowered not out of pity but of respect and remembrance. And along with respect and remembrance we keeps in mind the value of the lives of our soldiers and continue to evaluate the decision of keeping them in the fields. Maybe that is what worries the people who are afraid of the half-mast and the bodies coming home. And that, is not only insulting but deceiving to our soldiers and us all.