Re-thinking the Hallmark Holiday

I'm not much for Valetines' Day - one year my lovely sister and I decided we were going to have the anti-Valentine's Day. So we drank some beer, ate Doritos and watched Sigourney Weaver shoot aliens in outer space. Fun times.

But on a more serious note, with Valentine's Day coming up I read this essay and starting thinking about women and how they get treated sometimes.  Thankfully, misogyny and sexism have not been part of my everyday experiences.  In fact, the phrase that we heard from our father most often growing up was "Why can't you fellas show a little initiative and help your mother out?"  So, let's get those dishes done, shall we?

I was raised in a family with three girls, which meant that we didn't have any brothers around to fix things, lift heavy stuff or tell us how to behave.  With two egalitarian parents, gender roles were not especially defined and now, as adults, my sisters and I haul amplifiers, load trailers with horses, finish drywall, cook, and take care of whatever else life demands.

But still, there was the time I applied for a mortgage and was told (by a woman, no less) that "that's not the way this normally works.  Usually a man and a woman get married, and the woman has a baby, and then they buy a house."   Not in my world, lady!

So, as Valentine's Day approaches, take a minute and think about the women in your life, what they have accomplished and how they are treated.  Most people are caring and just, but there are still examples where women deserve more respect - and respect is the most powerful way to show your love for someone else, no brand name required.

You said it

"No one can fix all of Haiti, everyone has to fix his own part." A look at how one street in Port-au-Prince is coping.

Work, babies, families, and salaries: changes on the horizon

Here's a great article from the New York Times about the changing trends in birthrates, employment and attitudes towards children in Europe and the U.S.  Apparently most schools in Germany have been dismissing at noon ever since schooling became mandatory 250 years ago.  Now that's beginning to change because women want to be working or have to be employed to make ends meet.

A smart internet commentor?

I find the Globe and Mail's online comment boards particularly depressing.  Rarely do I read anything other than lots of partisan hacks accusing each other of partisan-hackery.  But this guy, who ever he is, is smart.  Here's what mystery commentator-man says about NB Power Sale, the sequel (coming soon to a political theatre near you):

When it comes to Plan B, the devil will definitely be in the details. The political about-face on the ownership of the grid is a major victory for New Brunswickers who were justifiably concerned that the original deal would have compromised provincial sovreignty and deprived future governments of any control over rates in the long term.

Lamrock: No Deal

It apppears the anger is starting to hit home.  Shawn Graham's #2 man has said he won't support the deal in its current form.  Apparently many other ministers and members of caucus feel this way too.  Shawn Graham has a revolt on his hands: without the support of his caucus he's dead in the water (in the political sense).

Resign now, Mr. Graham.  The people of NB and your colleagues have had enough.  It's time to scrap this deal and move on to fixing a valuable Crown Corporation that belongs to the people of New Brunswick.

One final word of skepticism - Graham may pull a last-ditch attempt at 'revamping' the deal to try and save his hide.  Whether we hear "my kingdom for a horse" or not, we need to keep an eye on a government whose only remaining fuel is desperation. NO means NO - not for sale.

A stranger is a friend I haven't met yet

How to live to be one hundred.

One Chimpanzee Does Not Make a Chimpanzee

I heard this line in a couple of days ago and it's rolling around in the back of my brain.

We are a social animal, and we need other people to make us who we are.  Listen to this great podcast about "attachment," which Susan Johnson believes will be the most influential psychological theory of the new century.  It stands opposed to behaviorism (ie. Pavlov's dogs) and Freudian psychoanalysis (ie. Oedipus et al). 

As Johnson says early on, it's basically a theory of love, but the man who came up with it couldn't call it that because he would have been ridiculed.   Teaching public school, we heard a lot of mumblings about "attachment disorders" - students who couldn't trust anyone, were oppositional, and didn't know how to interact with others in a positive way.  The research backing attachment theory shows that babies who don't get proper emotional nurturing don't develop properly, either emotionally or intellectually.

So, now we've reached the point where science is beginning to put names and theories on our intuitions - that mothers and babies need lots of time together, that every human needs other emotional connections, whether 7 years old or 75.  Until we abandon the ridiculous macho notion that we are better off doing everything for ourselves, we will continue to flounder as a group. 

This ties into much of what I think about New Brunswickers - we're very geographically isolated from one another.  And when you go to meetings (if you're lucky enough to be on a committee) it takes forever, because people aren't really there to conduct business.  They're there to enjoy each other's company and to remember they're not alone in this world.

Fundamentalism, by any other name

We were in the Old Home Week parade last August, and what struck me most was the facial expressions of people watching the parade. They didn't show any emotion: no pleasure or displeasure, recognition, fear, amusement, nothing. Very strange, to be on display in public in front of people who seemed totally immune from any kind of reaction. Like you were the television and they were passively 'viewing' but not engaged.

Great article from a Yemeni man in the Globe and Mail - talking about his family's gradual transition from progressive values to Wahabi-style fundamentalism. The paragraph that struck me most:

Collectively they have become television addicts. Satellite TV, featuring hundreds of channels from the Arab world and beyond, has taken over from reading and socializing as the main form of entertainment. Why? Because among the many channels you can watch are the more Islamist ones (Hezbollah's Manar TV, for example) that promote a rigid version of the faith.

I often wonder about the worlds we close out - for example, how we don't gather in public anymore, we go to people's houses.  There's a thriving business in Christian subculture sanitizing Hollywood movies-  removing all swearing, nudity or violence to make them 'safe' for viewing.  I think media - be it TV, the intermet, movies, plays a huge role in shaping our realities.  And it's interesting to see that it's the same phenomenon in Yemen - except it's not American Idol, it's Manar TV.

You think so, young whipper-snapper?

So do I. Way to go Brett!

He oughta know.

So, the former 'top economist in Canada' thinks we've already reached peak oil, and are going back to local sooner rather than later.  As in $7 per gallon gasoline.  Great interview.

Music and poverty - making the connection

In 1975 in Venezuela, a man named Jose Abreu began rehearsing an orchestra in a parking garage. Thirty years later his "Sistema" has changed the lives of tens of thousands of Venezuelans, and produced some of the finest classical musicians on the planet.

This fall, Moncton became the first "Sistema" pilot site in Canada.