I am leaving for China and Thailand soon - I'll be gone for two weeks. I am going to attempt to blog parts of the trip. How successful I am depends on the quality of internet access - in the meantime, take time to check out my links. There's a lot of good stuff going on locally, and I'm trying to tie it together. If you know of someone/something I've overlooked, please leave a comment so I can add it.
Happy Holidays!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
All hail, the living
It's been an up-and-down week. This dark time of year can be difficult - you probably already know that. On Wednesday I played for the choir and congregation at the celebration of the life of a young woman who recently passed on from cancer. It was a beautiful expression of gratitude, especially considering how easily the tsunami of grief can overcome us.
So I've been giving thanks for the small things - children and their zest for life, chocolate, and quiet, restful time at home. And I've been thinking about how these small things create our lives, make them meaningful, and sustain us when jobs, status and money are strikingly irrelevant.
Then I came across this beautiful slideshow of medieval art. The Met Museum in New York City has recently renovated the gallery containing works of art from the years 1050-1300. Rarely do we rarely study or discuss these "Dark Ages," but the works are so beautiful, using painting, sculpture and every day objects to communicate Biblical stories.
I am deeply moved by things and people that express the mysterious joy of being alive. Such as Elliott Carter's premiering a brand new work at age 100. As the article says, "when Mozart was his age, he had been dead for 65 years." Regardless of how long I live, I hope I'm able to cultivate the qualities that make me most human - curiosity, passion, laughter and compassion for other living beings. To quote the Bard:
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties,
in form and moving how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel,
in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.
~Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii
So I've been giving thanks for the small things - children and their zest for life, chocolate, and quiet, restful time at home. And I've been thinking about how these small things create our lives, make them meaningful, and sustain us when jobs, status and money are strikingly irrelevant.
Then I came across this beautiful slideshow of medieval art. The Met Museum in New York City has recently renovated the gallery containing works of art from the years 1050-1300. Rarely do we rarely study or discuss these "Dark Ages," but the works are so beautiful, using painting, sculpture and every day objects to communicate Biblical stories.
I am deeply moved by things and people that express the mysterious joy of being alive. Such as Elliott Carter's premiering a brand new work at age 100. As the article says, "when Mozart was his age, he had been dead for 65 years." Regardless of how long I live, I hope I'm able to cultivate the qualities that make me most human - curiosity, passion, laughter and compassion for other living beings. To quote the Bard:
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties,
in form and moving how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel,
in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.
~Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
The Devil in the Details
Warning: I am about to attempt a nuanced discussion. If you're not the kind of person who likes that, skip directly to the link at the end, and reflect.
Economic stimulus is being hailed as a kind of 'magic bullet' that will save us from the unknown horrors of recession. To be frank, I'm not convinced that a recession in our society would be such a 'bad' event. We are already living well beyond our means and having less might force us to re-evaluate our priorities and live smarter. But that's a digression.
Everyone in the media is talking about infrastructure spending; today the NB government announced its plans. Mostly it consists of building roads with money we don't have. In other words, we are going to pave stuff with money my generation will have to find later. Take a look at this chart from James K Galbraith, grandson of the eminent John Kenneth Galbraith:
It's hard to read, but the chart shows the return for each dollar spent on 'economic stimulus.' The government is the most powerful actor in the economy - they have money and they make the rules, not to mention the power of the central banks they control. So, now they have a choice. They can spend it on food stamps - which would nearly double their $1 investment, or they could issue a corporate tax cut, which would actually take money out of the economy.
You can see that infrastructure spending (such as building roads) is one of the better values, but actually it would be more efficient to extend unemployment benefits. It is highly likely that corporate big-wigs know that this money is about to be shelled out and are lining up to collect their chunk of our tax dollars. The list of projects announced by the NB government will almost certainly be controlled by large corporations - such as those guys at Brun-way, who can't seem to keep the roads around here passable in the winter. The only say regular people will have is whether to apply for and accept a job at a given pay rate. They will have no control over how it is spent.
My question is: wouldn't that money be better spent on addressing poverty issues, such as food, or investing in education? Knowledge is infrastructure, and hiring more teachers, specialists and investing in early childhood education would pay important dividends such as a healthier, better educated citizenry.
It seems bizarre to me - this economic crisis seems to come with the recognition that the government should intervene to help people, but only help people get a job, not help them get a leg up on the things that matter most - education, empowerment and quality of life. The fact that 1 in 6 Canadian children still lives in poverty has been totally lost in the shuffle here, but that's a fact that will be reckoned with as a generation ill-equipped to lead takes the helm. So we've got roads, so what?
And finally, the project list only deals with major cities, in a province that is still almost 50% rural. And in a province where rural industries have taken a pounding in the last few years. What we need is to build rural infrastructure - like a windpower and agricultural co-generation powergrid. Like they've done in Germany, with smashing success. The solution is not to truck all the resources - people and trees and minerals - out of the traditionally rural parts, and send people to work in call centres. We need to find ways to make rural life viable again. And that's going to take creativity and brainpower and dedication.
So, as promised, here's the link for people who skipped the details. Quality of life matters, and in selling out resources and people, we're really selling off our heritage, oftentimes to the lowest bidder. I think we can do better, and we should be trying harder.
Economic stimulus is being hailed as a kind of 'magic bullet' that will save us from the unknown horrors of recession. To be frank, I'm not convinced that a recession in our society would be such a 'bad' event. We are already living well beyond our means and having less might force us to re-evaluate our priorities and live smarter. But that's a digression.
Everyone in the media is talking about infrastructure spending; today the NB government announced its plans. Mostly it consists of building roads with money we don't have. In other words, we are going to pave stuff with money my generation will have to find later. Take a look at this chart from James K Galbraith, grandson of the eminent John Kenneth Galbraith:
It's hard to read, but the chart shows the return for each dollar spent on 'economic stimulus.' The government is the most powerful actor in the economy - they have money and they make the rules, not to mention the power of the central banks they control. So, now they have a choice. They can spend it on food stamps - which would nearly double their $1 investment, or they could issue a corporate tax cut, which would actually take money out of the economy.
You can see that infrastructure spending (such as building roads) is one of the better values, but actually it would be more efficient to extend unemployment benefits. It is highly likely that corporate big-wigs know that this money is about to be shelled out and are lining up to collect their chunk of our tax dollars. The list of projects announced by the NB government will almost certainly be controlled by large corporations - such as those guys at Brun-way, who can't seem to keep the roads around here passable in the winter. The only say regular people will have is whether to apply for and accept a job at a given pay rate. They will have no control over how it is spent.
My question is: wouldn't that money be better spent on addressing poverty issues, such as food, or investing in education? Knowledge is infrastructure, and hiring more teachers, specialists and investing in early childhood education would pay important dividends such as a healthier, better educated citizenry.
It seems bizarre to me - this economic crisis seems to come with the recognition that the government should intervene to help people, but only help people get a job, not help them get a leg up on the things that matter most - education, empowerment and quality of life. The fact that 1 in 6 Canadian children still lives in poverty has been totally lost in the shuffle here, but that's a fact that will be reckoned with as a generation ill-equipped to lead takes the helm. So we've got roads, so what?
And finally, the project list only deals with major cities, in a province that is still almost 50% rural. And in a province where rural industries have taken a pounding in the last few years. What we need is to build rural infrastructure - like a windpower and agricultural co-generation powergrid. Like they've done in Germany, with smashing success. The solution is not to truck all the resources - people and trees and minerals - out of the traditionally rural parts, and send people to work in call centres. We need to find ways to make rural life viable again. And that's going to take creativity and brainpower and dedication.
So, as promised, here's the link for people who skipped the details. Quality of life matters, and in selling out resources and people, we're really selling off our heritage, oftentimes to the lowest bidder. I think we can do better, and we should be trying harder.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Schools: why not creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson gives a great and funny lecture about how we are only educating people in the head, and "slightly to one side." Thanks to Tracy for telling me about ted.com, home of interesting ideas. I tried posting the video to no avail, so here's the link.
Similarly, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the need for "meaningful work," and the fact that we are not maximizing the talent potential in our society.
Similarly, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the need for "meaningful work," and the fact that we are not maximizing the talent potential in our society.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Once again, the fool speaks the truth
Not that anybody really believes Rick Mercer is a fool. But the funnyman sees the whole picture, that's right b'y.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Peace, Order and . . . Good Government ?
What a firestorm!
In case you were too wrapped up in ho-ho-ho this weekend, you should be aware that Canada appears to be headed for its first coalition government in 91 years. The Liberals and NDP are attempting to form a government with the support of the Bloc. The Conservatives have been asleep at the wheel since the election (or drunk with imagined power, depending on your perspective).
So, my two cents on the whole situation: It has occurred to me many times watching the Harper government that they are very interested in power but way less interested in governing. Their version of government seems to be to eliminate programs and then blame opposition on "partisanship" - witness the arts cuts and the elimination of subsidies to political parties based on vote share.
They have refused to meet with the press, used RCMP officers to keep people away from the PM at political events and ignored their own new "fixed election" law, ostensibly introduced to ensure stability to the governing process. Lots of reports tell of political-type firings where the Harperites are eliminating civil servants not because of incompetence, but because of ideology. Shades of Newt Gingrich, I think.
For some mysterious reason, Stephen Harper can't seem to deal with anything positive. He can say "no" and advertise moral outrage about a lot of things, but when it comes to building a country and cooperating with other people for the good of the country, he's at a total loss. The reality is that Canada is a huge, unwieldy, regionally and linguistically divided country, and running it requires getting along with most of the people, most of the time.
The question is how long Canadians want to put up with a government that cares more about eliminating political opposition than strengthening the country. Harper's tactics border on the delusional and it's time to get back to reality.
In case you were too wrapped up in ho-ho-ho this weekend, you should be aware that Canada appears to be headed for its first coalition government in 91 years. The Liberals and NDP are attempting to form a government with the support of the Bloc. The Conservatives have been asleep at the wheel since the election (or drunk with imagined power, depending on your perspective).
So, my two cents on the whole situation: It has occurred to me many times watching the Harper government that they are very interested in power but way less interested in governing. Their version of government seems to be to eliminate programs and then blame opposition on "partisanship" - witness the arts cuts and the elimination of subsidies to political parties based on vote share.
They have refused to meet with the press, used RCMP officers to keep people away from the PM at political events and ignored their own new "fixed election" law, ostensibly introduced to ensure stability to the governing process. Lots of reports tell of political-type firings where the Harperites are eliminating civil servants not because of incompetence, but because of ideology. Shades of Newt Gingrich, I think.
For some mysterious reason, Stephen Harper can't seem to deal with anything positive. He can say "no" and advertise moral outrage about a lot of things, but when it comes to building a country and cooperating with other people for the good of the country, he's at a total loss. The reality is that Canada is a huge, unwieldy, regionally and linguistically divided country, and running it requires getting along with most of the people, most of the time.
The question is how long Canadians want to put up with a government that cares more about eliminating political opposition than strengthening the country. Harper's tactics border on the delusional and it's time to get back to reality.
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