Friday, November 4, 2011

The Tory Grimace

This is just a quick reference to an observation made over a number of years. The Tory Grimace is common to Conservatives. I'm sure you'll find it elsewhere, but nowhere is it found as often as on conservative faces. You see this expression when they imagine themselves making the "tough" decisions.  What they forget, of course, is that the tough decisions are not always the right ones.  You will often see this when they stubbornly stick to irrational choices in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are wrong.


Monday, September 19, 2011

Gathering at the Castle Walls

In the past four millennia of recorded history, humankind has been embroiled in revolutionary conflict for social and political change.  Wikipedia lists hundreds of rebellions and revolutions over that period.  Most were violent, some peaceful; some successful, others not.  Even when unsuccessful, they brought about change in some form or another.  The recent uprisings in the Middle East (Arab spring), Bangkok, Krygyzstan, Myanmar, Greece, and others, are beginning to point to a growing new phenomenon:  Global Revolution.  
The fall of the Berlin Wall and most of the events of the Autumn of Nations in Europe, 1989, were sudden and peaceful.
The September 17 peaceful effort in NY to occupy Wall Street is in protest of the poor economic conditions brought about by bad financial practices globally by banks and other institutions.  Those bankers and financiers have emerged unscathed by the economic catastrophe they created.  They continue to be rewarded with obscene salaries and bonuses while receiving "bailout funds" from government coffers.  All the while, families lose their homes, jobs evaporate and governments provide no answers.  Those affected by the reckless behaviour of the financial sector now see it for what it is and they are not happy.  This protest effort is being mirrored around the world in solidarity.   Most notable is the silence of the main stream media outlets but, despite their best efforts, the news is out.  Already the protesters are feared enough to be absent from the airwaves.  Ghandi once said “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win" 

A speaker addresses the crowd in Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011
Through the Internet, social networking and streaming media, the people of the world are engaged in conversation.  Millions of participants are experiencing an awakening.  They are more cognizant of the plight of those in more oppressive regimes.  They are aware of the suffering and shattered lives of those most affected by the failures in the global marketplace.  There is much to be said about the control of the world's economy by a remarkably small number of individuals. They see whole populations succumbing to the ravages of storms, floods and drought brought on by effects of global warming and climate change while the ruling class struggles to maintain the status quo.  

Storming of the Bastille (1789)
In the introduction of his visionary book, "The Third Wave (1980)," Alvin Toffler remarked:

"In a time when terrorists play death-games with hostages, as currencies careen amid rumors of third World War, as embassies flame and storm troopers lace up their boots in many lands, we stare in horror at the headlines.....Banks tremble. Inflation rages out of control. And the governments of the world are reduced to paralysis or imbecility.....
A powerful tide is surging across much of the world today, creating a new, often bizarre, environment in which to work, play, marry, raise children, or retire.  In this bewildering context, businessmen swim against highly erratic economic currents; politicians see their ratings bob wildly up and down; universities, hospitals, and other institutions battle desperately against inflation.  Value systems splinter and crash, while the lifeboats of family, church, and state are hurled madly about....
...many of today's changes are not independent of one another.  Nor are they random....These and many other seemingly unrelated events or trends are niter-connected.  The are, in fact, parts of a much larger phenomenon:  The death of industrialism and the rise of a new civilization."

Heady stuff.  But it, perhaps, indicates some of what is to come.  Whether the protest in New York is successful or not, it is only the beginning.  The stirrings are everywhere.  Young people will not accept the bleak future planned for them.  They will not go quietly.  They are gathering at the castle walls. Expect them.

Faceoff at 55 Wall Street



Thursday, April 21, 2011

Conservatives Have Longest Serving Minority Government?

On April 19, Conservative Candidate for Kitchener-Waterloo, Peter Braid, in his answer to a question about contempt of Parliament used the phrase, "As the longest serving minority government in Canadian history..."
http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/233776

His boss, Stephen Harper has said much the same thing on many recent occasions.

The Thompson Citizen Editorial said this on January 26, 2011:

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just passed a very significant milestone – and one few would have predicted he would ever make when he first became Prime Minister on Feb. 6, 2006. Harper has now led the longest-serving minority government in Canadian history, surpassing the record of Liberal prime minister Lester Pearson, who led a minority government during the 26th Parliament from April 22, 1963 to April 19, 1968."
http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/article/20110126/THOMPSON0302/301269987/-1/thompson/mr-harper-146-s-milestone-in-minority-government

Conservative bloggers and main stream media have parroted this over and over again at every opportunity. And it sounds like a very noble and commendable achievement. Only it's not true. The last Parliament (40th) lasted 872 days. The 39th Parliament lasted 937 days before Mr. Harper went on his famous trip to Rideau Hall.

The fact is that the longest duration of Parliament with a minority government was the 14th Parliament from Dec. 1921 - Sept. 1925. It lasted a total of 1329 days. Now THAT'S an accomplishment by the longest sitting Prime Minister in Canadian History. Mr. Harper, you're no Mackenzie King.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Unnamed Little Song

In the past few weeks I have been wrapped up in school and politics. It's certainly an emotional run this time. Sometimes when we get caught up in the excitement and debate, we forget other important things. As I was riding the bus from the college, I was reminded of this on one of the posters, a series call "Poetry On The Way":

This unnamed song was collected by the Danish Arctic explorer, Knud Rasmussen, and printed in 1932 in his work "Intellectual Culture of the Copper Eskimos: The Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921-1924" It also appears under the title "Little Song" in John Robert Columbo's 1989 collection, "Songs of the Great Land" (Oberon Press)

And I think over again
My small adventures
When with a shore wind I drifted out
In my kayak
And thought I was in danger

My fears,
Those small ones
That I thought so big
For all the vital things
I had to get and to reach

And yet, there is only
One great thing,
The only thing:
To live to see in huts and on journeys
The great day that dawns
And the little light that fills the world.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Fourth Estate in Peril

Edmund Burk, who is generally regarded as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism, served in the House of Commons of Great Britain for many years.  In his book, On Heroes and Hero Worship, Thomas Carlyle describes the parliamentary debate in 1787 on opening up of press reporting on the House of Commons. He states :

Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.
British historian Thomas Macauley, in an essay in 1828, said:

The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.
The three other estates referred to in this context were the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and Commons. 

In the Canadian constitution, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 2 states:
Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

In the United States of America’s constitution, of the twelve amendments contained in what is known as the United States Bill of Rights, the first guarantees the personal freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.
It is clear, then, that the press and other media of communications have been for centuries, regarded as essential to the workings of democratic governance.  They educate, inform, and report events as they occur.  They challenge our government and its opposition to be forthcoming on issues of the day.  They offer questions on behalf of all of us so we can glean whatever truth may come in their reply.

While some portions of the media can be accused of “Yellow Journalism”, it can hardly be said of any in the parliamentary press gallery.  Some reporters will write stories with their own perspective; some from the right, others from the left and still others from the centre of political thought.  We may come to despise some journalists that report from the side opposite from our own.  And we will praise the integrity, honesty and insight of those that report from our own side.  But what they are, most importantly, is a part of the national conversation – essential to the people’s management of democratic process.  But for the few that sully their reputations, the media are honourable, intelligent and well educated.  We need to listen to them and hear all sides of the argument.
All of which leads to the burning question, What damage to democracy occurs when a Prime Minister and his government choose to limit questions by the press?  During the current election of Canada’s parliament, we have seen Stephen Harper limit questions by the national press to four per day.  Even supplemental questions or follow-ups are ignored.  Only questions that have been pre-approved will be answered.  The press have been placed more than 40 feet away behind a barricade like the “madding crowd.”   Interviews are seldom and are scripted and controlled by the Prime Minister’s handlers.  But this has been going on for years without the vast majority even hearing about it.  It seems the only time we hear from our government is through their propaganda machine that generates personal attacks on opponents or self-aggrandizing ads for programs no longer in effect.

I find the attack ads most egregious.  They are produced in the style of American muckraking – one that reduces our respect for individuals and further distances us from the political process.  Equally important is the fact that our duly elected members of Parliament become distracted and less effective in the work that has been set out for them by the Canadian people.
My sense in all this is that the Conservative Party of Canada prefers to work in secret, in backrooms and dark places.  They seek to control the Fourth Estate and limit their effectiveness. I see this as a violation of rights and freedoms bound in the traditions and legislation of countries around the world.  Indeed, there may be nothing at all nefarious in the work of Stephen Harper and his party but we can only judge their actions by what we know.  If the media and the Canadian people are continually left out of the loop by their government and their knowledge of the workings of the Prime Minister and his cabinet, we can only come to our own conclusions. 

While the abuse of journalists is not the only issue in this election, it must be one of the more important ones.  When we, as Canadians, cast our ballots on May 2, we must consider this as a high priority – an issue that will decide for all of us how future governments practise their craft.



Another point of view: http://www.caj.ca/?p=692